Hal David - The country years?

[blueonblue]

I never get tired of watching this........


"blue"

[Pablo]

Blueonblue, I have watched that rehearsal video 100 times...

Hi Bachtobacharach; I agree 100% with you. Although I've tried (I even bought 'Amazing grace'), I've never been a big fan of Aretha (in fact, I prefer Dionne's version of 'I say a little prayer'); Barbra, yes, she is perfect, but cold as ice, at least for me.

...along with Dionne, to me, Dusty was the greatest. It's strange because I discovered her thanks to the fantastic song the Pet Shop Boys did with her in 1987 (they did half an LP for her after that and brought her back in the charts). Her singing in this song is worth the whole discography of Celine Dion:

[grooverider]

Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager produced and wrote 3 songs for Barbra Streisand's 1988 album,
"Till I Loved You": "You and Me For Always", "One More Time Around" and (my favorite), "Love Light". Mr. Bacharach arranged all three and played piano on two of the songs.

[BachtoBacharach]

Pablo, I love Dusty's Son of a Preacher Man, Brand New Me, and Windmills of Your Mind. The only BIG hit here in the USA was Preacher Man... and I have never understood why Windmills was not a big hit for her or why she never really caught fire in the USA as Dionne did. Her voice was so totally unique. Dusty did a great job with her covers of Bacharach's material (most notably Wishin' and Hopin' even besting Dionne's orginial version by a hair'). She was mismanaged and unfortunately, given her poor self image and her unawareness of her talent, she should have been much bigger in the USA but it seems that she tried a differnt style and approach on every album. That Dusty-Pet Shop Boys single was so awesome...of of the best she ever did. She stands along with Dionne as defining an era...when you hear those ladies sing their hit songs from that time, it immediately takes you back. I am speaking heresy here (LOL), but I believe two of the most overrrated female singers of the 20th century are Aretha Franklin and Barbra Streisand and Dusty and Dionne two of most underrated. IMHO Dionne's vocal abilities during her heyday are on par with a young Sinatra. Miles ahead of Aretha (as great as she is) were Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone among others. I like Aretha, just think she was terribly inconsistent and often the hype was better than the product turned out to be.

[BachtoBacharach]

I had totally forgotten about those Bacharach-Sagar tunes Streisand did...Dionne Warwick sang background on a couple of them I believe. Not among my favorites, alas...don't think Barbara was bad, just the tunes on that album were rather rote and uninteresting and the reviews, if I recall, weren't too good. I was not a huge fan of most of the work Bacharach-Sagar did. It was too 80s homogenized; there are a few exceptions. But, I sure loved the work Bacharach-Costello did together! You want to talk about Burt breaking out of that 80s blandness...he sure did. I think Elvis Costello lit a spark in Burt and he wrote some of his best work since the 60s in Painted from Memory.

[blueonblue]

Another superb collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys...


Dusty and Dionne were the greatest...........no question.

"blue"

[Pablo]

Thank you all.

Blue... that is AMAZING. The Pet Shop Boys perfectly understood Dusty, what a monumental song.

Bachto, yes, Dusty had a lot of problems: personal, repertoire/composers, management/record companies. (I recommend the book "Dusty" by Lucy O'Brien).

...and as for versions, I don't want to be controversial, but I prefer 10 times Dusty's '24 hours from Tulsa' than Gene Pitney.

Is there a Dusty thread in the forum???

[grooverider]

Dionne Warwick did indeed sing background vocals for Barbra Streisand on the album "Till I Loved You" but it was on the Quincy Jones produced, "The Places You Find Love" along with other guest vocalists, Jennifer Holiday, Luther Vandross, James Ingram, among others.
I've always wondered what a duet between Ms. Streisand & Ms. Warwick, produced and arranged by Burt Bacharach and written by Bacharach/David would sound like! I guess that song was the closest it came even if Burt Bacharach didn't participate, although you really can't hear Dionne Warwick because of all the voices on backup vocals.

[ron hertel]

WOW! ... Lot's of things being discussed here under the "Hal David - The country years" topic

Re: Dusty & The Pet Shop Boys .... A Dusty CD entitled "Reputation and Rarities" contains 6 songs produced by the Pet Shop Boys including "Nothing Has Been Proved"

Re: a Dionne & Barbra duet? ........ I just do not think their voices and styles would be compatible and in my opinion great singers like Streisand and Shirley Bassey do not bring anything special to Bacharach compositions.

Re: Dionne's background vocals on Streisand's "Till I Loved You" CD - they are "non-existant" as far as I'm concerned .......... if you want to hear Dionne doing backup vocals - listen to Leslie Uggams album "Try And See It My Way" ........ Dionne carries some of those songs with her unique style!

Re: Aretha .......... Most of my favorites done by the "Queen of Soul" are Bacharach songs: Namely ...... "Ever Changing Times" (with Michael McDonald), "Someone Else's Eyes" and "Falling Out Of Love" ........ "Say A Little Prayer" is OK too!

[BachtoBacharach]

Ron, What a discovery Try to See It My Way Was! I was just blown away, not by Leslie's vocals but by Dionne's background singing which MADE the song. As with Mexican Divorce, her voice was so high up in the mix it was practically a duet. I also agree that a duet between Warwick and Streisand would probably not work well. Barbara is so controlled, too controlled and Dionne just has a way of phrasing, intonation, and the ability to sight read a tune and pull it off after a cusory glance which gives it a totally spontaneous sound and warmth not found in Streisand's recordings. I don't believe the word spontaniety is included in Streisand's vocabulary! Dionne's 10th take on any of those Bacharach tunes she recorded (if there were 10 takes!) was probably as unique as the first one. She was that good. Streisand again is an awesome vocalist but she has always been sort of a Broadway belter, show-tune kind of gal and never really did as well with the pop-rock tunes she sang simply because they do work best when there is a sense of spontaniety even when they are over-rehearsed. Dionne could rehearse a tune 100 times and it never sounded as though the life had been rehearsed out of it. I was stunned to hear how dreary Streisand's latest Christmas album sounded...she must have phoned it in. Of course, smoking and age have practically destroyed Dionne's voice (she denies that smoking has "hurt her voice" and all I can say is COME ON Dionne!) but even at her worst, there is something appealing and unique there in her voice that I just can't describe.

[ron hertel]

BachtoBacharach - we are obviously in agreement on many of the topics discussed in the forum. I recently heard Dionne state that - smoking had no impact on her voice. .... She is clearly in denial.... What she has done in recent years is to artfully re-interpret many of her songs to accommodate the noticeable changes in her voice. This change has had an impact on the choice of songs included in her concert repertoire (have not heard her perform "Promises Promises" in years!). Because she is a musician with such incomparable talent - Dionne still has a commanding stage presence in spite of the changes in her voice. I hope she can retain her health!

[vincent.cole]

Bonjour Ron;

I too am concern about Dionne's health! Since Dionne is still smoking a pack a day, it's not good!

All of us know the insidious effects smoking has on the human body!!!

Take care mon ami.

Vincent

[hockneyboy]

Hal wrote the lyrics for the John Barry song, 'The Good Times Are Coming' from the film 'Monty Walsh', recorded by Mama Cass.

[An Enormous BB Fan]

I could not believe what I was hearing, too! Dionne was on the Joy Behar show. And Joy asked Dionne if she was still smoking and Dionne say "yes". Then Joy asked Dionne if she thought that smoking might have hurt her voice. Dionne said "not at all". I couldn't believe it. Years and years of smoking thickens the vocal chords, to say the least. I couldn't believe the state of denial she was in about it. She also said how much she enjoyed smoking and couldn't live without it (in so many words she said that). Thank goodness I never smoked. But I know how addictive smoking is. I also know that some people would rather die than give up the habit. My guess is that Dionne is one of those people. I've also read that smoking is as addictive as crack cocaine and that it's nearly impossible to give up. So many people give it up and then, after a while, go back to it. I wonder if Dionne quit smoking would she get some of her old range back?

Didn't Sinatra smoke all his life? But his voice wasn't so adversely affected, was it? So maybe there was more to Dionne's vocal problems then just smoking? Could she have given too many concerts over a period of time perhaps?

[vincent.cole]

Bonjour An Enormous BB Fan;

Didn't Sammy Davis die of throat cancer?!

Don’t want that to happen to Dionne!!!

On the Joy Behar show, Dionne indicated that she smokes a pack a day. If you do the math for 1 year, that 7,300!!!

Take care mon ami.

Vincent