The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Joe,
Thanks for all the info, I can't wait to hear the three new Bacharach/David songs.

Take care,
"blue"

Hello Everyone,

I, too, am anxious to purchase a few of these titles. I have noticed that in previous reissues, whether, it's by Collecters, Rhino, Ambassadors Soul Classics series, that although the liner notes and pictures are awesome and plentiful, none of these list, by track, who the specific background singers are. I am a background singer aficionado, and this information is perennially missing. Does anyone know why?

Librother66

I'm not sure why background singer lists were not issued on Dionne's 60s albums. I've wondered about this in regard to Burt's 60s and early 70s solo albums. Especially when, on later albums all musicians were given credit. Was the earlier absence because of a lack of space available to list all of the session musicians? Or was it a contractual matter?

I've always been curious about the identity of the singers because, in the case of Burt's solo albums, I think they were key to the great sound of some of the instrumental pieces. The names Linda November, Maretha Stewart (not to be confused with Martha Stewart!), Marilyn Jackson and Valerie Simpson have been mentioned as contributing back-up vocals to Dionne's 60s albums and it's perhaps likely Burt used these singers on his instrumentals as well.

I, for one, would love to know who sang the honey-coated lead vocal in the chorus of the title track to Burt's 'Reach Out' album (Valerie Simpson?). And it would be nice to know who the vocalists were on 'Wanting Things' from his MIEOY album.

Martyn

Martyn,

I thought I was alone! Thanks for replying and validating my background vocal insanity. LOL. I do know that Valerie Simpson and Cissy Houston sang the background on 'Do You Know the Way to San Jose?'. Val stated it in an interview once. I know Cissy, Dee Dee and some of the Sweet Inspirations did some background for Dionne, but I would love to see a full itemized list.

Take care,
Librother66

I think it´s very difficult to find out who are the backround singers on the Dionne 60`s tracks, could be really Valerie are one of them, I thought she was a Motowner? I know that on "You can have him" (no Bacharach / David Song) there are the Ladybirds in the backround, two white ladies form England, on "Young gifted and black" you can hear clearly Cissy and Dee in the backround and on verse Dionne sings togehter with Dee Dee. On many But Bacharach collections there are no vocal credits, so on one of them you can find "Mexican Divorce" and "All kinds of people" sung by Cissy Houston.

They never credited musicians on these albums, let alone background singers...I think it's the Breakaways who sing on all of Hitmaker! they sang on Jimi Hendrix's Hey Joe...

For Dionne's albums, I always assumed it was Dee Dee & Cissy? There are a few moments of crazy high notes interludes on Here Where There Is Love and Let Me Be Lonely, and it does not sound like Dionne singing those, I always wondered who it was reaching those insane notes.

But in any case background singers have always been a huge part of the Bacharach sound, and they've always been fantastic.

I have run across the names of Dionne's usual background singers several times, either in Dionne's book, Cissy's book, Burt's book, or online. I'll see if I can dig them up and get back to you. I do know that Cissy and Dee Dee were regulars, but there are some other names that escape me at the moment.

According to Dionne's autobiography,"The Gospelaires did the background vocals on all of my recordings and continued to do this when I left the group to go solo. Dee Dee took over my position as the contractor for the sessions, and Cissy became a member of the group. Working with family in my case was easy and loads of fun, and artistically it benefited us to have the blend of voices to create a 'family' sound" (p. 24). Here are the names of the Gospelaires: Dee Dee, Myrna Utley, John Utley, Carol Slade, and Sylvia Shemwell (p. 13).

Now, according to Burt's autobiography, he would sometimes add others. For example, he writes, "Along with Cissy Houston, Dee Dee Warwick, and Myrna Smith, I brought in three white girl singers who were making a lot more money at the time doing jingles than any of us were ever going to see from a record. One of them was Linda November, who could sing all the way up into the stratosphere. [ ... ] On 'Don't Make Me Over,' I had Cissy, Dee Dee, and Myrna singing in the lower register, with the white girls singing on top of them. If you listen to the record, you can hear the soul on the bottom and the altitude from the white girls" (p. 84-5).

So, to answer your question, it sounds like Dionne's gospel group formed the core of her background vocals, while others were added occasionally for various effects. I hope this helps!

In her book, Cissy Houston lists the names of the Gospelaires as follows: Dee Dee, Sylvia Shemwell, Carol Harding, and Myrna Smith (p. 147). Notice that she uses alternate (married?) last names for two of the ladies and drops Myrna's brother, John.

Well, I caught the Bacharach special on PBS for the first time yesterday, and they showed some behind-the-scenes footage of the "Say A Little Prayer" recording session. Present as the background singers were Myrna Smith, Cissy Houston, and I'm pretty sure the third was Dionne's aunt Annie Drinkard Moss. I didn't realize that Annie did any background work for Dionne. If I could only go back in time and rip that cig out of Dionne's hand! If she had never ruined her voice with cigarettes where might she be today?

Thanks, everyone, for your replies!!

For those interested, here's Part 1 of The Second Disc's two-part review of Real Gone's recent Dionne titles

Here's my review of THE COMPLETE WARNER BROS. SINGLES:

http://theseconddisc.com/2013/08/19/rev ... s-singles/

Best,

Joe

Here's Part Two, looking at WE NEED TO GO BACK: THE UNISSUED WARNER BROS. MASTERS:

http://theseconddisc.com/2013/08/20/rev ... s-masters/

Best,

Joe