Artist:Dionne WarwickSong:Anyone Who Had A Heart
Album:The Dionne Warwick Collection: Her All-Time Greatest Hits
Though Anyone Who Had A Heart was not Dionne Warwick's biggest hit, it was her first top ten pop hit in 1963 and established her long partnership with the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Dionne was in the right place at the right time and now she's approaching her 50th year in music. She was born Marie Dionne Warrick Dec. 12, 1940 in East Orange, NJ. Her father was a gospel music promoter for Chess Records and her mom managed the family gospel group The Drinkard Sisters. As a teen, she formed The Gospelaires with sister Dee Dee Warwick. Doris Troy, Judy Clay and Dionne's cousin Cissy Houston were among those who went through the group. Then she started doing background vocals at New York recording sessions and she met Brill Building songwriter Burt Bacharach while working on a Drifters session. He asked her if she would record some demos and Scepter Records owner Florence Greenberg liked the demos so much she signed Dionne to a contract. She wanted one of her demos Make It Easy On Yourself to be her first single. But Jerry Butler had already recorded it so Don't Make Me Over was released and reached #5 on the R & B Singles chart and #21 on the Billboard Hot 100. Her name was misspelled Warwick on the label so Dionne changed her name. Anyone Who Had A Heart was her next single and reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. And though Walk On By was an even bigger hit, there's not much question that Anyone Who Had A Heart was Dionne Warwick's breakthrough hit. She continued to have a lot of success with Bacharach and David but never had a #1 hit in the 60s. Her two #1 hits were her duet with The Spinners Then Came You in 1974 and That's What Friends Are For in 1985. You can get all her 60s hits on this Rhino comp and the Arista comp Ultimate Collection covers a wider range of her career. Dionne Warwick recorded for Warner Bros. in the 70s and Arista in the 80s. She recorded a gospel CD a couple of years ago. She attempted to reunite with Bacharach and David in the 70s but their failed musical adaptation of Lost Horizon split them up in 1973. But those three sure made a lot of magic in the 60s. Here's Dionne Warwick performing Anyone Who Had A Heart in the 70s.
No comments:
Post a Comment