Dionne Warwick/Burt Bacharach-Hal David/Scepter Records

[JSngry]

I've recently begun to explore the Warwick Scepter catalog in an effort to learn more about the Bacharach/David catalog beyond the most obvious hits. So far, the albums I've checked out are Presenting..., Make Way For..., Here I Am, The Windows Of The World, & I'll Never Fall In Love Again.

I'm too tired to write much right now, but a few things jump out right away:

• Dionne Warwick in those days was a helluva singer. Some of these songs are so unconventional musically and/or lyrically that a lesser singer would not be able to give them even a straightforward reading. That Warwick is able to give the the highly sympathetic & nuanced readings that she did is not just a tribute to the producers, but also to her skills as a vocalist.
  
• The "hits" of Bacarach & David might actually be their "lesser" work. Some songs, like "In Between The Teardrops", "The Wine Is Young", "The Last One To Be Loved", & "Paper Maché" (to name a few) are far beyond being "pop songs" in any sense other than the convenient one. Even thought that is what they are, it is not what they ARE, if you know what i mean. I think they're more "art song" than anything else, since composition, performance, arrangement, and production are all in the same service to the same end - fulfilling the fullest artistic potential of that specific song.
  
• These albums are often quite erratic. You get some Bacarach/David gems. some Bacharach/David..."stuff" ranging from "almost great" to "not even trying to be great", and then some other stuff, old-school, pre-album-era FILLER. But I gotta say - Here I Am sounds more and more like like a Hidden Secret to the genetic code of Pet Sounds with every listen...
  

Fully aware that this type thing is probably outside the interest of many/most here, I nevertheless would welcome any comments on the subject(s), as well as input regarding other Warwick Scepter albums.

Edited October 2, 2008 by JSngry

[Teasing the Korean]

Bacharach's hits are so familiar to us now that it's easy to forget how offbeat and downright WEIRD some of them are musically. Interesting rhythmic patterns in the melodies, wide-range note jumps, etc. They are almost like avant-garde pop tunes. In this regard, it's amazing that he was so successful. Dionne was indeed a great singer back then. To this day her vocal on "Walk on By" blows me away.

[Daniel A]

"Greatest Motion Picture Hits" is another one which has its moments. I think that even the worn out classics are fantastic songs, which because of their over-familiarity are not appreciated as the great compositions they are. Bacharach the arranger is another forgotten story. His arrangements are often as idiosynchratic as the actual compositions and they often work just so well anyway.

[randyhersom]

Walk On By and Paper Mache made strong impressions on me with just a hearing or two. She's definitely the right singer for the material.

[Nate Dorward]

Well, you're in good company with Evan Parker, a huge Warwick fan........

[Stereojack]

I ignored (or tried to) all this shit when it was out - years later I finally "heard" it. Bacharach was a genius, and Warwick was the perfect singer for his unique songs. "A House Is Not a Home" and "Reach Out For Me" are two of my favorites, anf I never get tired of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" (by anybody!)

[bigtiny]

I've always been a huge Warwick fan, and I especially like the Bachrach-David tunes. I remember listening to them on AM radio whilst getting ready for school in the morning. Great stuff and she has great pipes (and I generally don't care for singers)....

bigtiny

[JSngry]

...I never get tired of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" (by anybody!)

Dionne's phrasing on her version of that one is at times almost Dexter Gordon-ish in it's behind the beat-ness.

She used to be married to Bill English, right?

[Christiern]

Anyone here heard her album of Cole Porter songs? It is undoubtedly one of the worst, ever!

[Soul Stream]

I saw Burt in concert twice in the last couple of years. I've always been a huge fan of his and Hal's work. Amazing music that somehow was popular! Unconventional forms, melody, harmony, beautiful arrangements and orchestrations.... I never tire of their music. Alfie may have been a pop hit, but it's one of the best songs/lyric ever written in my book.

[JSngry]

Anyone here heard her album of Cole Porter songs? It is undoubtedly one of the worst, ever!

Haven't heard it, don't want to hear it. Her doing Bacarach/David in all of their primes is good enough for me, and if they all should have quit while ahead, hey, that's a line with more than a few people in it.

[Chuck Nessa]

Geez!

[JSngry]

Anybody know "Don't Say I Didn't Tell You So"?

This Bacharach/David/Warwick trio really inhabited a parallel universe, didn't they...

Edited October 8, 2008 by JSngry

[felser]

Anybody know "Don't Say I Didn't Tell You So"?

This Bacharach/David/Warwick trio really inhabited a parallel universe, didn't they...

Great stuff. Loved it then, love it now. In general, the earlier the better on that material for me. Some great stuff on Sceptor in that period. Dionne Warwick, The Shirelles, Chuck Jackson, Maxine Brown, Tommy Hunt. B.J. Thomas. Great production by Luther Dixon as well as Bacharach/David. Magical stuff. I'm not sure how Bacharach/David's "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" missed being a smash hit for somebody. Tommy Hunt's version is especially good. The songs that Bacharach/David/Warwick let other people have the hit with are also pretty impressive ("What The World Needs Now" for Jackie DeShannon and "Make It Easy On Yourself" for the Walker Brothers also come to mind immediately) There was supposed to be a biopic on Florence Greenberg, the suburban New Jersey housewife who started the label to record her high school daughter's friends the Shirelles. It was to have starred Bette Midler, but doesn't seem to have ever been filmed. But the music from that label is stunning (also includes the Kingsmen, "Louie, Louie"!). There are many treasures buried in the Shirelles, Chuck Jackson, Maxine Brown, and Tommy Hunt catalogs from then also, as well as the amazing wealth of stunning Warwick material.

Edited October 8, 2008 by felser

[J.A.W.]

I'm not sure how Bacharach/David's "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" missed being a smash hit for somebody. Tommy Hunt's version is especially good.

Dusty Springfield's version is my favourite. It was a Top-3 hit in the U.K. in 1964. She was a great singer.

Edited October 8, 2008 by J.A.W.

[felser]

I'm not sure how Bacharach/David's "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" missed being a smash hit for somebody. Tommy Hunt's version is especially good.

Dusty Springfield's version is my favourite. It was a Top-3 hit in the U.K. in 1964. She was a great singer.

Yes she was. Also knew how to pick a great song for her voice. Only top 40 charting version of "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" here in the USA was Dionne Warwick's, which went to #26 in 1966 (which I think was the same year as Springfield's version). BTW, back on Springfield, Shelby Lynne's tribute album from this year, "Just A Little Lovin'", is amazingly good.

[skeith]

JSangry

I just love Dionne doing Bacharach/David songs - so much great stuff there!

[J.A.W.]

I'm not sure how Bacharach/David's "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" missed being a smash hit for somebody. Tommy Hunt's version is especially good.

Dusty Springfield's version is my favourite. It was a Top-3 hit in the U.K. in 1964. She was a great singer.

Yes she was. Also knew how to pick a great song for her voice. Only top 40 charting version of "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" here in the USA was Dionne Warwick's, which went to #26 in 1966 (which I think was the same year as Springfield's version). BTW, back on Springfield, Shelby Lynne's tribute album from this year, "Just A Little Lovin'", is amazingly good.

Dusty Springfield recorded the song two years before Dionne Warwick did. Dusty's version was a U.K. hit in the summer of 1964. It entered the U.K. charts in July of that year and reached #3. Scepter released Dionne's version in the summer of 1966.

Edited October 8, 2008 by J.A.W.

[felser]

I'm not sure how Bacharach/David's "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" missed being a smash hit for somebody. Tommy Hunt's version is especially good.

Dusty Springfield's version is my favourite. It was a Top-3 hit in the U.K. in 1964. She was a great singer.

Yes she was. Also knew how to pick a great song for her voice. Only top 40 charting version of "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" here in the USA was Dionne Warwick's, which went to #26 in 1966 (which I think was the same year as Springfield's version). BTW, back on Springfield, Shelby Lynne's tribute album from this year, "Just A Little Lovin'", is amazingly good.

Dusty Springfield recorded the song two years before Dionne Warwick did. Dusty's version was a U.K. hit in the summer of 1964. It entered the U.K. charts in July of that year and reached #3. Scepter released Dionne's version in the summer of 1966.

Interesting stuff. Springfield hit in the US with "Wishin' and Hopin'" (yet ANOTHER great Bacharach/David song) that summer ('64). During the "British Invasion" of 1964, a lot of songs which had already hit in England during the previous year charted in the USA at that time. That's how the Bealtes came to hold down the top six positions on the US Singles chart one of the weeks that April. I wonder if that's the case with Springfield, or if the record company just chose different songs for US and British release.

[J.A.W.]

I'm not sure how Bacharach/David's "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" missed being a smash hit for somebody. Tommy Hunt's version is especially good.

Dusty Springfield's version is my favourite. It was a Top-3 hit in the U.K. in 1964. She was a great singer.

Yes she was. Also knew how to pick a great song for her voice. Only top 40 charting version of "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" here in the USA was Dionne Warwick's, which went to #26 in 1966 (which I think was the same year as Springfield's version). BTW, back on Springfield, Shelby Lynne's tribute album from this year, "Just A Little Lovin'", is amazingly good.

Dusty Springfield recorded the song two years before Dionne Warwick did. Dusty's version was a U.K. hit in the summer of 1964. It entered the U.K. charts in July of that year and reached #3. Scepter released Dionne's version in the summer of 1966.

Interesting stuff. Springfield hit in the US with "Wishin' and Hopin'" (yet ANOTHER great Bacharach/David song) that summer ('64). During the "British Invasion" of 1964, a lot of songs which had already hit in England during the previous year charted in the USA at that time. That's how the Bealtes came to hold down the top six positions on the US Singles chart one of the weeks that April. I wonder if that's the case with Springfield, or if the record company just chose different songs for US and British release.

In the United States "Wishin' and Hopin'" was coupled with Dusty's 1964 U.K. Top-20 hit "Stay Awhile"; her U.K. record company Philips chose a different B-side for the U.K.

Dusty's 1963-1964 U.K. singles were:

1963 "I Only Want to Be with You" / "Once Upon a Time"

1964 "Stay Awhile" / "Something Special"

1964 "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" / "My Colouring Book"

1964 "Losing You" / "Summer Is Over"

Philips also released a Christmas single in 1964, with a song by Dusty's former group the Springfields on its B-side.

Edited October 8, 2008 by J.A.W.

[danasgoodstuff]

Dusty was indeed a great singer, I personally prefer her to Dionne BUT the latter did have the bonus of arrangements by the man himself. Wasn't dusty's "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" (melodramatic sclock, but really great...) co-sritten by one of the Yardbirds' managers? Know who else I like to hear 'do' Burt? stanley T!

[J.A.W.]

Wasn't dusty's "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" (melodramatic sclock, but really great...) co-sritten by one of the Yardbirds' managers?

"You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" was originally an Italian song, "Io Che No Vivo Senza Te", written by Pino Donaggio and Vito Pallavicini. The English lyrics were written by Dusty's manager Vicki Wickham and Simon Napier-Bell, who was indeed briefly the Yardbirds' manager.

[JSngry]

Here I Am sounds more and more like like a Hidden Secret to the genetic code of Pet Sounds with every listen...

And still is... I know the Wilson-Bacharach link gets made on occasion, but never as vocally as the Wilson-Spector one, it seems. I think that is a mistake.

Nice to see all the love for all the hits, but I'm tellin' y'all, it's some of these album cuts that are really opening my eyes/ears. That stuff is just...a world unto itself.

[Teasing the Korean]

Here I Am sounds more and more like like a Hidden Secret to the genetic code of Pet Sounds with every listen...

And still is... I know the Wilson-Bacharach link gets made on occasion, but never as vocally as the Wilson-Spector one, it seems. I think that is a mistake.

Nice to see all the love for all the hits, but I'm tellin' y'all, it's some of these album cuts that are really opening my eyes/ears. That stuff is just...a world unto itself.

"Let Him Run Wild" is very Bacharach-esque.

[JSngry]

As is so much of Pet Sounds.