Please clarify this HD lyric for me...

[rasputin]

I'm listening to the marvelous Dionne recording, "Who Is Gonna Love Me?" on the HIDDEN GEMS album.

This surely must be one of DW's most beautiful songs, IMHO.

But there is one lyric she sings here that I cannot make out...

It's the line immediately after:

"Who will I wake up for, through all those lonely years?"

Then her voice soars high, but I can't make out what she's saying...

Ideas?

[Guest]

No one to wake up for...but sleep won't come to end these tears.

[Guest]

This is one of my favorite Bacharach songs and arrangements.
Is there a singer who could record it again and make it the hit it never was?

[vincent.cole]

Bonjour rasputin;

When I met Dionne Warwick last year after the show in Morristown New Jersey, I told her that, "Who Is Gonna Love Me?" should of been a hit!!!

Dionne said, "YES"!!!

[rasputin]

Cool story, Vincent!


That song (and two others from HIDDEN GEMS: "Let Me Go To Him" and "Let Me Be Lonely") deserved much more attention.

[Ron]

You're absolutely right - Vincent! I remember when that song first hit the charts and how much I loved it - only to see it disappear from radio airplay immediately. The same holds true for so many other BB/HD/DW songs. I've come to the conclusion that the music is just too sophisicated for the casual listener. I'm grateful that enough of the material was able to break through the "wide appeal commercial barrier" resulting in their ability to continue making records for so many years. For those of us who really appreciate their work there will be an ever growing list of "SHOULD HAVE BEEN HITS"........P.S. Try to name one recording artist who could ever capture the nuances and compexities of that song better than or equal to Dionne's recording!

[Visitor]

Loneliness Remembers is another tune that should have been a big hit. It was the flip of "Let Me Go To Him" and someone wrote about the Kraft Music Hall Special in about June of 70 that showed Dionne and Burt rehearsing the tune. The writer said that Dionne glanced at the score, giggled and said something like "Sounds groovy" and then proceeded to nail the tune cold on her first reading. Dionne's musical abilities were pretty awesome and she was so young when she and Burt were together in the 60s! I saw a snip of that clip and both Dionne and Burt were so attractive together. That young, very strikingly pretty Dionne (in June of 70 Dionne would have been either 28 or 29 depending on which birthdate is right-12/12/40 or 41) was really very cool in a short, straight bob haircut and some very groovy clothes and Burt was a very good-looking 40 or so). Anyway.....

One question regarding a lyric I can't make out. After the line

"and when you fall in love too fast, the sunshine doesn't last forever" and right before ..... first came the pleasure and then the pain"

can't make this out!!!.....

[Guest]

Visitor-

Your question about Loneliness Remembers What Happiness Forgets has always baffled me as well. On the version Stephanie Mills sings on For The First Time the lyric SEEMS to be..."After was never a drop of rain...first came the pleasure and then the pain". Doesn't make sense to me.

[An Enormous BB Fan]

Loneliness Remembers is another tune that should have been a big hit. It was the flip of "Let Me Go To Him" and someone wrote about the Kraft Music Hall Special in about June of 70 that showed Dionne and Burt rehearsing the tune. The writer said that Dionne glanced at the score, giggled and said something like "Sounds groovy" and then proceeded to nail the tune cold on her first reading. Dionne's musical abilities were pretty awesome and she was so young when she and Burt were together in the 60s! I saw a snip of that clip and both Dionne and Burt were so attractive together. That young, very strikingly pretty Dionne (in June of 70 Dionne would have been either 28 or 29 depending on which birthdate is right-12/12/40 or 41) was really very cool in a short, straight bob haircut and some very groovy clothes and Burt was a very good-looking 40 or so). Anyway.....

One question regarding a lyric I can't make out. After the line

"and when you fall in love too fast, the sunshine doesn't last forever" and right before ..... first came the pleasure and then the pain"

can't make this out!!!.....

"Who is Gonna Love Me" is one of the greatest songs of Burt's to play on the piano, too. The Bm7 with a quick jump to E7 for just the ("gonna") before going to Am7 is fantastic. The whole song is fantastic and I've mentioned this song on this site along time ago too as being one of Burt's/Hal's/Dionne's greatest efforts.

Regarding "Loneliness...", here's the lyric that you can't understand:

"and when you fall in love too fast,
the sunshine doesn't last forever after,
with never a drop of rain,
first came the pleasure and then the pain.
We were the talk of the town.
Ask anybody around.
They'll let you know."

Now the problem you're facing is that the "forever after" above (in the second line) is broken in between the words! There's a pause after "forever" and the "after" is sung together with "with never a drop of rain", so it sounds like this:

"the sunshine doesn't last forever
after with never a drop of rain... etc."

I have to admit that it doesn't sound right either and that's why it's so confusing.

Burt and Hal do the same thing with "Close to You" in this spot:

"So they sprinkled moondust in your hair
of gold and starlight in your eyes of blue."

It really should read as follows:

"So they sprinkled moondust in your hair of gold
and starlight in your eyes of blue."

The confusion is in the meter of the lyric and where the pause and accents come.

Does this make sense to anyone?

(The funniest thing is when Engelburt Humperdinck sings the song. I swear to you this is how he sings it:

"So they sprinkled moondust in your hair
and gold and starlight in your eyes of blue."

In case you've missed it.... he doesn't sing "sprinkled moondust in your of gold and starlight in...." Instead he sings "sprinkled moondust in your hair AND gold and starlight in...." He totally doesn't understand what he's singing about. And this is because the lyric doesn't fit the meter.)

[Guest]

Thanks for clearing that up.

[vincent.cole]

Bonjour Ron;

We have talk about the song, "Who Is Gonna Love Me Now"!

In my judgement, there is NOT another singer on Planet Earth who can sing this song as a great as Ms. Dionne Warwick!!!!!!!

Take care mon ami.

Vincent