Dionne Warwick and a Duet partner (Scepter)

[Nikray]

Robin Platts "What the World needs Now" Page 74 I quote " A lot of times they would give me a tape of the song..., because I didn't read music. And the one thing that me and Burt kind of butted heads on. He wanted me to learn how to read music, and I told him I didn't really want to be any more technical with my singing.

There are other stories of that BJ like to party at the time and would come to studio in not the best shape. My point that to my recall both BJ and Burt have talked about this in more than one interview. Sounds like it bothered Burt some....common fact or not.

[BachtoBacharach]

Here's my 2 cents worth! Bacharach was looking for a male who could bring his songs success as consistently as Dionne Warwick had; he was no dummy and I believe by the late 60s he knew that at any time his luck with Warwick could change. Warwick was beginning to be unhappy with Scepter and was growing bored with touring and recording...she had begun to delve into production, not only producing herself but as early as mid-1968, producing others such as Ronnie and Natalie and their Capital release A Red Fire Burns. She and Bacharach had also begun to argue about what she would and wouldn't record...she was dead set against recording Promises, Promises...she told Bacharach the tune would never be a hit for her because it didn't suit her but Bacharach prevailed (with intervention from Steve Tyrell and Hal David) and it was a hit for her (does San Jose not come to mind here!). As a side note, the story of the Warwick recording of the tune being a demo for the cast was true. She also refused to record This Girl's In Love With You until she was convinced by Ronnie and Natalie Pollock (she was producing them at the time and they were at the session) Bacharach, and Tyrell to do the tune and it was a Top 10 hit for her as well. At the time, Warwick was pregnant with her first child as well and had just completed filming the movie "Slaves" and Bacharach was naturally concerned that she was branching out and might find success in other venues and wanted an ace in the hole to continue his success. She was also recording her Soulful album with Chips Momon and Bacharach was ambivalent about her self-produced (sans participation of Bacharach/David except for label credit of a Burt Bacharach/Hal David production and a Blu-Jac Production credit) project and humored her; he didn't feel it would go anywhere. Bacharach was stunned when it became a huge success; #2 R & B, #13 Pop and spawning a hit single You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling a #16 Pop and # 10 R & B hit. He came to understand that Warwick could do things well without him. When Raindrops hit and became the biggest hit of Bacharach/David up to that time, he believed that BJ was lightening in a bottle. But, he was never able to repeat that consistent success with BJ that he had with Dionne. As another side note, Warwick also had to be convinced to record I'll Never Fall In Love Again; Ella Fitzgerald had recorded a cover of the tune in early 1969 and Warwick only agreed to record the tune after Ella's version failed to chart, out of respect to Ella according to Warwick.

(Here is a link to A Red Fire Burns produced by Dionne Warwick...Warwick's brother Mancel, Jr. was killed in an automobile accident shortly before this session.)

Bacharach has stated that he didn't give Dionne Warwick advice in the studio after the first few recording sessions with her but that's not exactly true either. Dionne was a mucic education major who could not only read music but could play a mean piano and guitar. She understood completely the technical aspects of anything Bacharach wrote. Bacharach worked on Warwick to polish her sound...listen to Wishin' and Hopin' versus Anyone Who Had a Heart. To the listener unfamiliar with Warwick, the tunes don's sound as though they were recorded by the same singer. As time went on, because Warwick was such a technically proficient singer, she adapted her style to suit his compositions; she technically knew what the tunes vocally required and learned quickly and just as quickly, Bacharach began to write technically complex tunes for her. If there is a criticism of Bacharach's later tunes for Warwick is that they were almost too vocally smooth according to some critics, but I think that's a moot point; by this time Bacharach had moved away from the more R&B sound and was exploring his Brazilian influences. The spontaniety and less refined sound heard in the earlier recordings was mostly absent unless he wanted Warwick to achieve that sound (Let Me Be Lonely comes to mind) and that's a testament to her versatility as a singer. By 1970 Bacharach's tunes had become more "California" cool and less New York hot, if that makes sense. BJ was not Dionne Warwick and thank goodness because there has never been a male singer who could approximate the "Bacharach/Warwick" sound. Why go there? I think many of the tunes Bacharach was writing during the late 60s were suited more toward a male like BJ...Dionne did them all well, but Who Gets the Guy, The Green Grass Starts to Grow, Walk the Way You Talk, and a couple of others sound as though Burt composed them with BJ in mind. I am so thankful that BJ didn't listen to Burt because I think it would have changed BJ's sound. Although Warwick never sounded overrehearsed even though Bacharach was a believer in run-throughs, many times Bacharach used the recording session as a rehearsal to get the sound he wanted. I think the danger with a less technically trained singer like BJ would be that his charm was his spontaniety and that could be rehearsed out. BJ never needed to be a technical singer...Warwick was and could sound spontaneous even if rehearsed repeatedly and that's why Bacharach could compose the most difficult compositions without restraint because he had a singer who could sing them all and never sounded rehearsed.

[BachtoBacharach]

More on the Soulful album. Bacharach wasn't the only person who humored Warwick regarding Soulful. Florence Greenberg reluctantly agreed to the project believing that Warwick and Bacharch were, in the public's perception, joined at the hip and arranged the meeting in Memphis between Warwick, Moman and herself. Bacharach did not participate as he was busy with the play opening and re-writes and Greenberg knew that the Warwick/Bacharach/David product was getting sparse due to Bacharach's other obligations and his own career. Moman, who produced BJ Thomas, was was a known quantity to Greenberg and Warwick. Warwick, feeling the confines of both Scepter and Bacharach/David, wanted to explore her R & B roots outside her relationship with Bacharach/David and they as well as Greenberg were ambivalent about the project but Greenberg was more convinced than Bacharach that it could work. Greenberg was also aware that Warwick was restless and as early as 1968 rumors began to surface that Warwick was label shopping. A report in the trades published in the summer of 1968 had Warwick leaving Scepter for Atlantic but apparently this was only a rumor. Bacharach felt Soulful was not something that would be well received nor successful and Greenberg was somewhat afraid that the effort would alienate Warwick's audience if it were too hardcore R & B. But, in 1968-1969, Warwick had clout of her own and she prevailed. Neither Bacharach nor David had any participation in the production but received label credit as Warwick was contracted to Bacharach/David's production company, Blu-Jac. Greenberg was not about to tell Scepter's cash cow that she couldn't do the project nor was Bacharach. She had come off a 15 month streak of Top 10 and 20 hits (Alfie, I Say A Little Prayer, Theme from Valley of the Dolls, Do You Know the Way to San Jose, Promises, Promises), and a series of best-selling albums and was hot. Bacharach was also acutely aware that her biggest hit to date was not composed by him, the tune being Theme from Valley of the Dolls. Warwick had received RIAA awards for I Say A Little Prayer, Dionne Warwick in the Valley of the Dolls, Here Where There Is Love, and Dionne Warwick's Golden Hits Part 1 in a six month period in 1968. Both Bacharach and Greenberg were dead wrong; when Soulful was released in April of 1969 it began a run of over a year on the Billboard Hot 100 album chart peaking at #13 and peaking at #2 on the R & B chart. There were no singles released from the album however, until October 1969, when Warwick begged Greenberg to release "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" as a single. Greenberg was afraid that the single was such a departure for Warwick that she backed the single with "Window Wishing", a Bacharach/David penned tune from 1965 appearing on the Here I Am album, instead of a cut from the Soulful album to remind everyone that Bacharach/Warwick were still together. Greenberg was also cognizant that the last two Bacharach/David singles, The April Fools and Odds and Ends had failed to hit the Top 30 despite high hopes from both Greenberg and Bacharach; Greenberg took the gamble that perhaps Warwick's audience was ready to hear some straight R & B from her and it paid off big. Greenberg had nothing in the can to follow up Odds and Ends that she felt would hit. To Bacharach astonishment and Greenberg's surprise, the tune hit #16 on the pop charts and #10 on the R & B charts and both Bacharach and Greenberg laughed all the way to the bank. Greenberg, despite the album's success, didn't follow up with another track from Soulful (lest Warwick's audience like her R & B recordings too much!) as the next single but instead followed with Warwick's recording of I'll Never Fall In Love Again. Because there was little Bacharach/David/Warwick in the can except recordings for the future INFILA album, Greenberg backed the single with Warwick's 1967 recording of What the World Needs Now.

[ron hertel]

BachtoBacharach and all who contribute!

The incomparable insight that all of you provide to this forum regarding Bacharach, David, Warwick, Greenberg, Thomas and all of the other individuals relevant to the topics we discuss here is an "invaluable contribution". It keeps the discussion forum both "real" and "interesting" ... and ... precludes it from being only an outlet for "praise and adoration" of these very accomplished people that have given us so much for so long! Were it not for the "ups and downs", "controversies" and "complexities" of their relationships - they would not have endured and achieved their status that exists to this day!

I'm sure I've been around longer than most of you - and much of what is stated here has been corroborated over the years by my own personal experiences and observations as well as countless media reports. I've been an avid admirer of BB/HD/DW since the early 60's!

THANKS AGAIN! .. and ... KEEP POSTING!

Ron

[BachtoBacharach]

Ron,

Thanks. Those of us who have been around a long time can provide context for the Bacharach/David/Warwick recordings. Having lived through the 60s and loving their music, we both know that they were about the hottest thing going...giving the Beatles, Elvis, the Supremes and Aretha a run for their money...AND everyone in the music industry wanted to record Bacharach but Warwick had first dibs and the maestro's ear...according to Burt and Hal...they both heard Dionne singing in their heads no matter what they composed!

[gillanddon]

Bachto Bacharach .. your knowledge of the period is brilliant. Have you had anything published? It would be nice to know and if so, could I get hold of them? If not, recording it would be amazing for all your detailed knowledge to be published for on going generations. Much of what you write here could be collected and published RIGHT NOW!!