Dionne rarities in new collection - SOUNDS FAMILIAR by Baby A. Gil

To those still unfamiliar with her music, Dionne Warwick is often introduced as Whitney Houston’s aunt. Her sister, gospel singer Cissy is Whitney’s mother and great pipes sure runs in the family. I must say, so does chart success for a generation. Before Whitney’s first hit happened, there was Dionne, an elegant blend of pop and soul unlike any other.

Dionne was a music student who did session work for various artists when the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David asked her to sing demos of their compositions. Dionne, though, sounded so good in those demos that she not only managed to interest singers and producers in the songs, she also bagged a recording contract of her own way back in 1962. And for the first 12 years of her career, she sang mostly Bacharach and David songs and they were nearly always hits.

Anyone Who Had a Heart, Don’t Make Me Over, Do You Know the Way to San Jose, Walk on By, Message to Michael, This Girl’s in Love with You, I’ll Never Fall in Love Again, Reach Out for Me, A House is Not a Home, The April Fools, Alfie, Theme from Valley of the Dolls, I Say a Little Prayer, and One Less Bell to Answer, were some of her biggest sellers.

These hits were so monstrous and considered landmarks of an era that many of her other exquisite recordings were more likely than not, ignored and being merely "album fillers," forgotten. This oversight became even more glaring when collections of Dionne Warwick hits were released in recent times on those new-fangled inventions called CD’s. Why, that Birit Queen goodie For the Rest of My Life is available only on LP’s and used ones at that.

Recently though, Rhino, a music label, which especializes in oldies compilations, came up with Love Songs and it is a great mix of the familiar and the seldom-heard songs of Dionne Warwick. It has some of the usual hits like You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart) and I Say a Little Prayer. Now I know Rupert Everett’s version of My Best Friend’s Wedding was sweet but this one is the original and it still sounds heavenly.

It has other Bacharach-David tunes too. These are not too well known but there are not too many bad songs by this duo so these are still gems, more so because Dionne sings them. There is the dreamy Forever My Love, which was first recorded by Jane Morgan, Here Where There is Love, Whoever You Are I Love You, Dreamer Sweet Dreamer, The Wine is Young, Close to You, which was a hit first for the Carpenters and One Less Bell to Answer, which was a Fifth Dimension original.

There are songs few of us have heard before like Sure Thing, World of My Dreams, You are the Heart of Me, Jealousy, Love Song and Birit Queens and karaoke buffs take note, also the show-stopping For the Rest of My Life. But best of all, and I am so glad to have "discovered" this album has a cover of a very popular song that few of us knew Dionne recorded, I Didn’t Mean to Love You which was popularized by Helen Reddy.

This is one you can listen to all day long and give you second thoughts about Whitney Houston.

Oldies but goodies

For more old songs, check out the new Crossover Gold collection from Universal Records and Crossover, of course, the FM station a lot of you out there listen to. This album puts together light jazz and R&B favorites and all of them are cool sounds we always associate with Crossover’s kind of music. The release of this album is also Crossover’s way of announcing and celebrating the recent inauguration of its newest station, 105.1 Crossover in Baguio City.

Dionne’s beautiful Walk on By appears in this album. It also has Separate Lives by Stephen Bishop; After the Love is Gone by Earth, Wind & Fire; Nightbird by Kalapana; Someone to Watch Over Me by Patti Austin; Manic Monday by Sonia; Love is the Place to Be by Workshy; Stay by Pauline Wilson; At Your Best You are Love by Aaliyah; ’Til They Take My Heart Away by Claire Marlo, J’Aime by Nathalie; Could It Be I’m Falling in Love by S-Connection; More Than You’ll Ever Know by Michael Ruff and others.