Dionne Warwick

Rhythm and Blues Singer

• Born: December 12, 1940
• Birthplace: East Orange, New Jersey

Pop singer

With her subtle alto voice and mastery of the intricate rhythms of songs written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Warwick was one of the first African American female singers to appeal to a pop audience.

Areas of achievement: Music: pop; Radio and television

Early Life

Marie Dionne Warwick was the oldest of three children of Mancel Warrick, a train porter and chef, and Lee Drinkard, a member of the gospel singing group the Drinkard Sisters. Music was part of Warwick’s background, and at age six, at the request of her grandfather, the Reverend Elzae Warrick, Warwick made her singing debut at the New Hope Methodist Church. She learned to play the piano and occasionally sang with the Drinkard Sisters. Warwick's Aunt Emily, her mother's sister who was nicknamed Cissy, became the mother of eventual superstar singer Whitney Houston.

When they were teens, Warwick and her sister Delia, nicknamed Dee Dee, formed a singing group, the Gospelaires. When visiting the Apollo Theater in Harlem to see the Drinkard Sisters in concert, Warwick heard that a producer was looking for a group to provide background singing for saxophone player Sam “The Man” Taylor; she jumped at the chance. The next night the Gospelaires sang backup for Taylor.

Other opportunities followed. During weekends and school breaks, the Gospelaires sang background for a number of stars, including Dinah Washington, Ray Charles, and Brook Benton. Warwick’s earnings and a scholarship financed college. In 1958, she enrolled at the Hartt School of Music, at the University of Hartford, in Connecticut, intending to become a music teacher. During one of her backup stints for the Drifters in 1961, her voice caught the attention of songwriters Burt Bacharach and his partner Bob Hilliard. Bacharach needed a vocalist for “Move It on the Backbeat,” a single he was recording, and he contacted Warwick. Bacharach and his new lyricist, Hal David, began using Warwick as their main vocalist for demonstration records. When a demonstration of their song “It’s Love That Really Counts” was presented to Florence Greenberg, owner of Scepter Records, Greenberg said she hated the song but loved the singer, and she offered Warwick a contract.

Life’s Work

Warwick’s recording debut as a solo artist was in August, 1962, singing “Don’t Make Me Over.” Her last name (Warrick) was misprinted on the record label as Warwick. The record was a hit. In 1963, Bacharach persuaded actor Marlene Dietrich, then starring in a show at the Olympia Theater in Paris, to invite Warwick to perform. Warwick left college and went to Paris. There, with Dietrich’s help, Warwick learned how to dress and move on stage. She was so successful in Paris that the French press called her “The Black Pearl.” Warwick was the first African American female contemporary music artist to achieve stardom in Europe.

Back in the states, Warwick began to record hit after hit. Singing the songs of Bacharach and David, Warwick had a sound that appealed to both pop and rhythm-and-blues audiences. “Anyone Who Had a Heart” (1963) was number eight on the Top Ten pop hits chart. Her next record, “Walk on By” (1964), sold more than a million copies and made her a star. Between the mid-1960’s and the early 1970’s, she had a string of hit songs, including “You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)” (1964); “Message to Michael” (1966); “Alfie” (1967); “I Say a Little Prayer” (1967); “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” (1968), which earned Warwick her first Grammy Award; “Promises, Promises” (1968); and “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” (1969). Warwick did not want to record “Alfie,” since a number of artists already had recorded the song, but her version hit number fifteen on Billboard’s Hot 100, and she sang it at the Academy Awards ceremony in 1967.

Warwick married Bill Elliott, an actor and musician, in 1963; they divorced in 1964 and remarried in 1965. They had two sons and divorced again in 1975. In 1971, Warwick left Scepter Records and signed a five-million-dollar contract with Warner Bros. Records. It was the most money a female vocalist had earned up to that time. She was contracted for albums, and Bacharach and David were to write the songs and produce the records. Her first, Dionne (1972), peaked at number fifty-seven on the Billboard hot album chart, but Bacharach and David had a major falling out, and their breakup affected Warwick. Without them as songwriters, Warwick’s career slumped. When her contract expired in 1977, she left Warner Bros. and moved to Arista Records. Her song “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” (1979) sold a million copies and regenerated her career. The album Dionne (1979) was certified platinum, having sold more than one million copies. Her next release, “Déja Vu,” hit number one on the adult contemporary chart. In 1980, Warwick won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, for “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” and another Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Performance, Female, for “Déja Vu.” She was the first female artist in the history of the awards to win in both categories in the same year.

During the 1980s Warwick became increasingly involved with charities. She was one of the singers on the single “We Are the World” in 1984, a record that raised money for famine relief in Africa, and in 1985 she persuaded Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, and Elton John to record “That’s What Friends Are For.” The song, written by Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager, raised more than two million dollars for research into acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Warwick was also involved in supporting other health causes, including sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and sickle cell anemia. When Warwick traveled to Brazil in the 1960s, she became fascinated by the people. She adopted a favela (shanty town), recorded Aquarela do Brasil (Watercolor of Brazil) in 1994, and purchased a home in Rio de Janeiro.

In addition to recording, Warwick had some success in television. Her first special was for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in 1969, The Dionne Warwick Chevy Special. She hosted a two-hour special, Solid Gold ’79, that was later adapted into a weekly one-hour show, Solid Gold, which she hosted in 1980 and 1981 and for the 1985-1986 season. Warwick tried acting as well, appearing in the film Slaves (1969); Rent-A-Cop (1988); and the documentary The Making and Meaning of “We Are Family” (2002). Over the years she acted in episodes of various television series and was in the television film Divas II (2008). In 2011 she appeared in the reality series Celebrity Apprentice. Among other ventures, in 2002 she cofounded the Dionne Warwick Design Group, focused on redesigning private estates and hotels. She also wrote the books My Point of View (2003) and My Life, As I See It (2010).

Warwick continued to record and tour in the early twenty-first century, maintaining a steady fanbase as a musical icon if not the heights of fame from earlier in her career. Releases included the holiday album My Favorite Time of the Year (2006); Only Trust Your Heart (2011), featuring works by lyricist Sammy Cahn; and Now (2012), a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of her musical career. However, in 2013 Warwick declared bankruptcy with a reported $10 million debt in back taxes, which her spokespeople said was related to poor financial management dating back to the 1980s. Nevertheless, she carried on her career and released several further albums, including two in 2019, the same year she began a residency in Las Vegas, Nevada. Also in 2019 Warwick was honored with a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. The following year she was featured on the reality television competition The Masked Singer.

Significance

Known for her distinctive smooth voice, Warwick recorded dozens of popular albums and won multiple Grammy Awards, carving out a distinctive place in the music industry. In the mid-1960s and into the 1970s her songs frequently hit the top of the charts, and she remained a beloved performer for decades. In addition to her musical career, she continually worked to benefit others through charity, earning particular attention for her efforts for those suffering from hunger and AIDS.

Bibliography

"Celebrating Seniors—Dionne Warwick is 75." Senior City Local. Senior City, 12 Dec. 2015. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.

Clark, Sue C. "Dionne Warwick Makes New Plans: Movie and a Gospel Album." Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone, 20 July 1968. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.

Fleming, Amy. "Dionne Warwick on Singing, Psychics and the Hell of Segregation: 'We All Bleed Red Blood.'" The Guardian, 23 Mar. 2020, www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/23/dionne-warwick-on-singing-psychics-and-the-hell-of-segregation-we-all-bleed-red-blood. Accessed 22 July 2021.

Nathan, David. “Dionne Warwick.” The Soulful Divas. New York: Billboard, 1999. Print.

Ruhlmann, William. "Dionne Warwick." AllMusic, www.allmusic.com/artist/dionne-warwick-mn0000165011/biography. Accessed 22 July 2021.

Shuler, Deardra. “Dionne Warwick: Rising to Her Blessings.” New York Amsterdam News, 22 Dec. 2005: 22. Print.

Vitali, Marc. "Singer Dionne Warwick Looks Back Over Celebrated 5--Year Career." Chicago Tonight.WTTW. WWCI, 16 Feb. 2016. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.

Wooten, Kristi York. "The Legacy of Live Aid, 30 Years Later." Atlantic. Atlantic Monthly Group, 13 July 2015. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.

Warwick, Dionne, and David Freeman Wooley. My Life, as I See It. New York: Atria, 2010. Print.