Music for Grownups: Dionne Warwick
By: Richard Gehr | Source: AARP.org | 2008-06-11
Among the impressive roster of divas singing on June 21 in Atlanta at AARP’s 50th anniversary commemorative concert, “Songs of Soul and Inspiration,” is Dionne Warwick—a category unto herself.
Beginning with her 1962 recording of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Don't Make Me Over," which was inspired by the singer's own cautionary words to her songwriting collaborators, Warwick has charted nearly 60 hits on Billboard magazine's pop-singles chart.
The timing of Warwick's appearance couldn't be better, since her recent album, "Why We Sing," marks a return to her artistic birth in the African-American church. But can she return to something she’s never really left?
As Warwick herself told me recently by phone from Los Angeles, where she was giving a private concert, "Gospel music has been a constant for me, from the very first days of my lifetime to this very moment. Gospel has been and will always be a very vital part of my musical existence."
Born Marie Dionne Warrick in 1940 (she later changed her last name to match a record-label misprint), Dionne was surrounded by the sounds and business of gospel music as a child. Her father, Mancel Warrick, promoted gospel records for the Chess label, while her mother, Lee Drinkard Warrick, managed RCA recording artists the Drinkard Singers, Dionne's aunts and uncles.
One track on "Why We Sing," Warwick's first gospel album since 1968's "The Magic of Believing," is particularly meaningful to the singer. "'Jesus Loves Me' happens to be the very first song that I sang in church," Warwick recalled. "It was my grandfather's church, the St. Luke African Methodist Episcopal Church in Newark, N.J. When I was six years old, he asked me to come up to his pulpit and sing for him in front of the congregation, and that was the song I sang. So it's a very special song, and I had to find a place for it on this CD."
In 1958, Dionne formed the Gospelaires group with her sister, Delia, and their cousins. Dionne's recording career began when the Gospelaires (who, according to Warwick, still sing together occasionally in Newark's New Hope Baptist Church), became popular New York City session singers. The studio work led Dionne to tour with artists such as Sam Cook, Jackie Wilson, Chuck Jackson, the Shirelles, and the Drifters, whose "Mexican Divorce" Warwick was recording when Bacharach and David took notice of her.
Warwick refuses to name any favorites—saying, "I treat them like my children"—among her two dozen hits with Bacharach and David (the two men’s partnership ended acrimoniously in 1972). She's likewise diplomatic about the songwriters she worked with subsequent to the duo. "Every single person I worked with after Bacharach and David gave me solid hits," observed the inspiring if sometimes circumspect diva. "So what am I supposed to say?"
In addition to promoting "Why We Sing," Warwick also looks forward to the September publication of "Say a Little Prayer," an autobiographical children's book. "It's an inspirational book for children ages six to 11," explained the author. "It's basically about my growing up, my neighborhood, and how I was inspired to do what I'm doing today."
Will Warwick concentrate on gospel music at the “Songs of Soul and Inspiration” concert? "The songs I'm singing have the ability to be thought of as gospel, yes," she replied a little cryptically, as befits the former TV spokesperson for the Psychic Friends Network.
In the material world, however, Dionne Warwick has long served as an ambassador for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Commission. And, she added, "I'm still working diligently on the AIDS issue. And any other catastrophic disease they ask me to be a part of."
preview