Dionne's reputation as a R&B/Soul artist

[Dionnefan]

Dionne seems to be singularly unique in the music world -- she may possibly be the only black woman that was never pigeon-holed as solely an R&B/Soul artist. Even though the gospel roots are always at least somewhat evident in her vocals, Dionne could do "pop" vocals just as well, if not better than the R&B type singing.

When you listen to the so-called divas today talk about their influences, Dionne's name almost never comes up. It is always seems to be Aretha, Patti, Whitney, etc. Sometimes it angers me that Dionne gets so little respect. If you read a lot of the comments on her YouTube videos, invariably comments are posted along the lines of "I didn't know Dionne could sing like that". Why does Dionne not get the respect that the others do? Is it because she wasn't really showy with her recorded vocals (always subservient to the song and the music)? Is it because she was so associated with a "white" composer like Bacharach?

[An Enormous BB Fan]

I agree with your post. And I also have noticed over the years that, as you point out, Dionne is never mentioned as an influence by todays "divas". And I think the reason is, as you also state, that she sang Bacharach/David songs and was more associated as a pop singer than as an R&B/soul singer. The fact that Dionne could sing rings around anyone was totally missed.

Of course, the truth of the matter is that Dionne did influence these younger "divas". That had to have heard her and been influenced by her. It was impossible not to hear Dionne on the radio in those days.

[BachtoBacharach]

Patti Labelle is not in the same league as Diana Ross, Franklin and Warwick. Never has been. Labelle never achieved the level of fame that Wawick, Ross or Franklin did; for that matter, Labelle never achieved the level of fame Gladys Knight did either. Dionne is generally recognized as a legend and is respected by many influential rock critics such as Dave Marsh and Steven Holden formerly of the NYT. She is generally held in disdain by the RRHOF's Jann Wenner and his ilk because she was deemed too MOR in the 80s, an assessment I don't generally disagree with although most everyone was MOR in the 80s and Aretha and Dionne were no exceptions. If Dionne had halted her career in 1978, she would be in the RRHOF. Interestingly, Warwick received very favorable coverage in Rolling Stone throughout the 60s and 70s. It's some of the younger general public who DON'T know her history and disdain her as the "psychic lady". Labelle is not "worshipped"; that's a stretch. Until On My Own and New Attitude hit the top 10 and top 20 respectively in the mid 80s, Labelle was relatively obscure (when compared to Franklin and Warwick, who were household names) except for fronting the group LaBelle and the tune "Lady Marmalade". Patti has had modest success on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart when compared to Franklin and Warwick, who are the #1 and #2 female hitmakers in the rock era (1955-1999) according to Joel Whitburn and his Billboard Chart History tomes. No comparison, although La LaBelle frequently speaks of herself, as do her publicists, in the same breath as Warwick and Franklin. Interesting to note that young Hop Hop artists are sampling a lot of Warwick's old music these days and that community respects her contribution tremendously...I listened to some very interesting comments recently from Mary J. Blige and Queen Latifa regarding Warwick; she's a much bigger influence than you might think. LaBelle, not so much.

[An Enormous BB Fan]

Very true and well-said, B2B.

Let me add one other thing here: I do think a terrible disservice to Dionne's place in music history happened when dibotis's channel was removed (he was MADE to remove it by the "suits") from youtube. It was such a great one-stop, all-inclusive site for most of Dionne's historical recordings. Of course, you can still find tons of Dionne's recording on youtube, but dibotis's channel was really exceptional.

[BachtoBacharach]

Some of those tunes have been reposted by Dibotis along with the histories of the tunes, included are unedited takes of I Say A Little Prayer, Walk On By and Don't Make Me Over. Maybe the rest will be reposted some day.