DIONNE WARWICK: How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye and Friends In Love (Label: Super Bird)

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DIONNE WARWICK: How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye and Friends In Love

Here, reissue label Super Bird pair two long-neglected Dionne Warwick albums recorded during her tenure with Arista records. The first, of course, is Dionne’s Luther Vandross-produced LP and on initial release back in 1983 it disappointed the critics. There are a number of reasons for this. The main one, I guess, is the fact that Vandross had always maintained that Ms. Warwick was his favourite singer of all time and the opportunity to work with her, people felt, should have produced fireworks. It didn’t … simply because both artists weren’t about that kind of dynamic. Both were at their best when working subtly and though the album opens with a mis-firing attempt at a “big tune” (‘Got A Date’) , there is an awful lot here that is superb and maybe the critics got it wrong on initial release. The re-reading of ‘So Amazing’ is outstanding and has become something of a Dionne Warwick standard. Almost as iconic are the light ‘n lovely ‘What Can A Miracle Do’, the version of Michael McDonald’s ‘I Can’t Let Go Now’ and the tear-inducing version of the Shirelles’ ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow’ , which features the hugely under-valued Shirelle, Shirley Alston. Arranger on that is none other than Jimmy Webb and throughout the album the musicians are Luther’s then front line players. The second LP in this twofer was recorded the previous year (1982) under the auspices of Jay Graydon and offers plenty more great performances and quality songs. For starters there are a couple of duets with Johnny Mathis a lovely version of ‘Betcha By Golly Wow’ and a Stevie Wonder collaboration (‘With A Touch’), but the best cut has to be the Skip Scarborough song ‘Can’ t Hide Love’. Others of course will argue the case for other tracks, but what is clear is that despite what Joe and Jill Public think ,real soul heads know that there’s so, so much more to Dionne Warwick than the Bacharach-David songbook… here’s the proof.
(BB) 4/5

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