Hal David - The country years?

[An Enormous BB Fan]

Hiya Vincent!!

Yes, that's right about Sammy. He was a big smoker. Smoking is a big killer. If we lived in a world where we really looked out for one another, cigarette companies would have been put out of business a long time ago. Instead, they make millions and millions of people suffer and die.

That's a lot of cigarettes, Vincent!

[blueonblue]

John Barry says this is the best thing he ever did...beautiful lyrics by the great Hal David !!!


"blue"

[BachtoBacharach]

Dionne had vocal cord surgery in Las Vegas in 1972 to remove a node and was afraid after the surgery she would never sing again but it did not have any impact on her singing voice at all. Therefore she does have a history of vocal cord problems. Smoking has definitely had an impact on her voice. And I think her estimate of a pack a day is a little conservative...in the past she could easily put away two or three packs a day. Gladys Knight, Patti Labelle and Dionne's sons intervened and conviced her to quit smoking and from 2002 through 2007 she was either not smoking or smoking very little during that time frame. I saw the same interview and Dionne sometimes comes across as smug and all knowing and it was fully in evidence on the Joy Behar show. Dionne has a wonderful sense of humor at times and a relaxed warmth that comes across on television performances...when singing but seldom in an interview...the only time I have ever seen Dionne truly relax during interview sessions was with Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin. Again, Dionne is such a private person and has some wonderful, bitchy stories to tell in conversations but she will never spill anything if there are interviewers anywhere close by. She has been as tightly wrapped about her personal life as well. On the other hand, I have never been a big Connie Francis fan but on the Behar show interview with Dionne, Connie was so witty and relaxed...quite a hoot and obviously enjoying herself...Dionne came across as though she was bored...no animation at all except when she defended her smoking! And Connie looked stunning despite her stroke. Dionne looked as though she was gardening in her ball cap, little make-up and jeans and didn't change for the interview. Dionne used to be so concerned about her public appearance...she looks so slouchy now...sad but I was thinking the other day after Lena Horne died that Lena was so classy and elegant until the day she died...I am like Chris Rock who said "WTF happened to Dionne Warwick? She used to be the classiest black woman who ever lived." I think she's tired and wants to retire but she is supporting so many folks, including her families, an entourage worthy of Liz Taylor and several hangers on. She can't retire! I think that tiredness is written all over her.

[steveo_1965]

Hi,
I must defend Dusty's "own produced" version of the 45 Look Of Love...In my opinion, she turned it into a "hit" song, and I felt that Burt's version on the album was pretty weak production wise..
This single 45 on Phillips was much better, and kudos to Reg Guest( a real person)
an his orchestra for producing one of the sexiest records ever made...I like the echo, and the high errie strings.

Steveo

[BachtoBacharach]

You may be right Steveo and probably are, but I prefer Burt's original envisioning although I love both... I was first exposed to the tune through the movie soundtrack before I ever heard Dusty's cover of her original...so for me I guess that's the reason I favor it. I also love Sergio's cover which was a top 10 US hit at #4 and I remember they sang it on the Academy Awards that year while Dusty's version made it to #22 which was disappointing...always wondered why it didn't place higher in the US and didn't chart for her in the UK. Most folks believe it was a top 10 for her but during the 60s and 70s Sergio's version got most of the airplay and recognition and only later in the 80s and 90s did Dusty's version replace their version in Bacharach lore as "the hit version" if you know what I mean. In almost any version, a great song!

[Pablo]

Have you heard Diana Ross 2006 version of 'The loook of love''?

[BachtoBacharach]

Although I love the Supremes music in the 1960s, I have never been able to stomach Diana Ross's voice as a solo-singer...the arrangement here is pretty loyal to the original Burt version and Dusty's 45 but once I hear Dusty sing this tune, no one else does it for me...with the exception of Brasil 66 and only because their arrangement was so different. Diana is a poor substitute for Dusty and nowhere near as talented. Her imitation breathy performance is almost a parody of Dusty's original...like she is trying to channel her or something and falls way short...just sayin'!

[Dionnefan]

Back to Bacharach---

I appreciate the info you posted about Dionne's vocal surgery and the cigarette smoking. I am a huge Dionne fan and her voice is such an amazing instrument. There is so little detailed information out there on Dionne, so I was hoping you could clear up some questions I've always had.

What happened that Dionne's vocals became SO powerful in the early 80's? I've seen some of her performances from the 70's, but in none of those performances did I hear the high notes and held notes like she did consistently through about 88-89. And Dionne still sounded really good on the new songs she did for the Arista greatest hits record, but it seems like her voice quality just really was shot after that. From the Friends Can be Lovers album on, she just never sounded the same.

I would love to hear some personal stories about Dionne. How did she get along with some of the other singers out there.

[BachtoBacharach]

Dionne always got along well with most every singer and entertainer you can think of...she was friends with Aretha, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, etc. She had a feud with Tanya Tucker in the early 80s and refused to sing a duet with Tanya on the Solid Gold and holed up in her dressing room while Tanya taped her segments. A lot of the issue had to do with Tanya's alleged unprofessionalism and also with her nasty breakup with Glen Campbell. Dionne and Glen Campbell have been very close friends since the early 60s and when Glen and Tanya were an item in the late 70s and early 80s and their relationship became toxic, Dionne defended her friend Glen. She is known to be extremely loyal and generous to her friends and family. Other than that, there was a minor rift with Patti LaBelle (always a drama queen both on stage and off) which she wrote about in her book; Dionne was a class act and never said a word about it and remains a friend to her. Aretha Franklin has always spoken very highly of Dionne (they were always neck and neck in popularity in the mid and late 60s yet always admired and respected each other) and there was none of the competitive issues Aretha had with others like Tina Turner and later Beyonce. Dionne and Diana Ross were close friends as well. Dionne's voice was rested well when she had her comeback in 1979...she was touring much less by then and even considering retiring when Clive Davis told her that the music business was not finished with her yet...she hadn't recorded in over two years at that time. As far as her voice, I think it matured and was at its full-bodied peak and with a wonderful balance of high and low range and tone in the early to mid 80s. I think though, her heavy smoking habit finally began to take its toll around the mid 80s; listen to her on Love Power from 1987... a very slight deterioration in her voice is just beginning to be heard. When she was well rested at that time, she could still hit and sustain those high notes but if she were touring heavily, the strain showed. By about 1990 when she recorded Take Good Care of You and Me, her voice was still good but not near the same as it had been 5 years earlier. When Dionne hit around 60 in Dec 2000 it seems that her voice began to decline exponentially.

[Dionnefan]

Thanks Backtobacharach!

Maybe now I can finally learn some more interesting things about Dionne.

I understand that Felicia Moss, Dionne's cousin (daughter of aunt Anne) was one of Dionne's backup singers in the mid 80s through early 90s. Is she the one with the curly hairstyle in some of the Youtube videos? What has Dionne's relationship with her family been like since she became a star? Did she still get along well with them? Were there ever problems with DeeDee? And I have heard rumors that DeeDee had a substance abuse problem for quite a number of years. Did that contribute to her relatively young (and sad) death?