Smorgasbord Music Column 2022 – William Price King meets the Music Legends – Dionne Warwick – A hit filled 1960s and beyond

It is eight years since William Price King joined Smorgasbord to share music across the genres. It is six years since we have featured some of the music legends and delighted to showcase them again in 2022.

Dionne Warwick – A hit filled 1960s and beyond

Welcome to part two of the Dionne Warwick series and this week the hits keep rolling in for this dynamic artist. 

The mid-1960s and the remainder of the decade was a wonderfully productive time for Dionne Warwick and the team of Hal David and Burt Bacharach. This included “Message to Michael” in 1966. The song had been a Bacharach and David hit for other artists including Jerry Butler  with “Message to Martha” and Adam Faith with the title ‘Kentucky Bluebird’ which reached #12 in the UK Charts.

In all the different versions including “Message to Michael” by Dionne Warwick, the lyrics are addressed to a bluebird by the singer, whose lover is in New Orleans and wants them to return. There were two other massive hits for Dionne Warwick released that year. vintage video clips

In “I Say a Little Prayer,” Hal David wanted to convey a woman’s concern for her man who was serving in the Vietnam War with this song recorded by Warwick in 1966. This song, from the album “Windows of the World” peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in December 1967. On the R&B Singles chart it peaked at number eight.

The other song was “Trains and Boats and Planes” which Dionne Warwick recorded in 1966, arranged and conducted by Burt Bacharach, and produced by Bacharach and David. It spent 7 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also reached #37 on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart and #49 on Billboard’s Hot Rhythm & Blue’s chart. Other hit versions of this song were recorded by Bacharach himself and by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas.simplyscrummy 

“(Theme from) Valley of the Dolls” is a 1967 song by André and Dory Previn, composed for the film version of the Jacqueline Susann novel “Valley of the Dolls.” Actress Barbara Parkins, who starred in the motion picture, suggested that Warwick be considered to sing the film’s theme song. The song was to be given to Judy Garland, who had been fired from the film. Warwick performed the song, and when the film became a success in the early weeks of 1968, her single from the film theme became a million-seller, peaking at #2 for four weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1968, #2 on the Cash Box Top 100 and #1 on the Record World chart.

The song was the B-side of the million selling tune “I Say a Little Prayer.” The single would become one of the biggest double-sided hits of the rock era. The album “Dionne Warwick in Valley of the Dolls” peaked at number six on the Billboard Top 10 Albums chart, and would remain on the chart for over a year.

Dionne also saw success with another movie theme for “Alfie” in 1967 getting into the top twenty in the US.. There had been a number of covers of the Cilla Black original, including by Cher, but it was the Dionne Warwick interpretation of the Bacharach and David composition and lyrics that made it in America.

“Do You Know The Way To San Jose” was written and composed for Warwick by Bacharach/David. The song was Warwick’s biggest international hit, selling over a million copies and winning Warwick her first Grammy Award. David’s lyrics tell the story of a native of San Jose, California who, having failed to break into the entertainment field in Los Angeles, is set to return to her hometown. It became Warwick’s third consecutive Top Ten song, punctuating the most successful period of Warwick’s recording career. The song peaked at #8 in the UK, Ireland, and Canada. It also charted in France, Italy, South Africa, Australia, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, and many other countries. Dionne won the Grammy Award for Contemporary Pop Vocal for this song in 1968  dibotis 

“I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” was written by Bacharach/David for the 1968 musical Promises, Promises. Several recordings of the song were released in 1969, the most popular of which was by Dionne Warwick, who took it to number six on Billboard magazine’s Hot 100, and spent three weeks at number one on the magazine’s list of the 40 most popular Easy Listening songs in the US. At the 12th Annual Grammy Awards on March 11, 1970, Bacharach and David were the songwriting nominees of “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” in the “Song of the Year”category but lost to Joe South for “Games People Play.” However Dionne Warwick won the Grammy Award for Contemporary Pop Vocal for the song.

“This Guy’s in Love with You” was written by Bacharach and David and recorded originally by Herb Alpert and Tijuana Brass with Alpert singing lead vocals. He originally sang the track on television on the Beat of the Brass show and due to viewer response went on to release it as a single in June 1968. It went to #1 and stayed there for four weeks. Dionne Warwick’s version went to #7 in the charts in 1969.

Bacharach told “Newsweek” that Warwick’s sound “has the delicacy and mystery of sailing ships in bottles. It’s tremendously inspiring. We cut songs for her like fine cloth, tailor-made.”

Warwick’s appeal crossed racial barriers. She was to the 1960s what Nat King Cole had been to the 1950s—a mainstream performer who happened to be black. Nevertheless, Warwick occasionally faced race related problems such as bigoted hecklers in the audience  Cool and confident, Warwick responded to anti-black sentiment with cutting remarks and, if necessary, forceful letters to local authorities. Having grown up in a racially mixed, lower middle class community in the North, Warwick was never hesitant about appearing in the South. “To me, Mississippi is just a long word. They’ve got their problems, but they’re not going to make them my problems,” Warwick explained to “Ebony Magazine” in 1968.

Dionne Warwick made her acting debut in the film “Slaves” with co-stars Ossie Davis, and Stephen Boyd. The film was directed by Herbert Biberman and was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival.

Buy the music of Dionne Warwick: Amazon

Additional material: Wikipedia

I hope you will join us again next week for the next part of the story of the incredible Dionne Warwick thanks William

William Price King is an American jazz singer, crooner, and composer.

His interest in music began at an early age when he studied piano and clarinet in high school. At Morehouse College in Atlanta where he grew up, he sang in the Glee Club and studied classical music. After graduation he went off to the Yale School of Music where he earned a Masters degree. From there he journeyed to New York where he created a jazz trio ‘Au Naturel’ which performed in some of the hottest venues in Manhattan including gigs on Broadway and the famous ‘Rainbow Room.’ These gigs opened doors for performances in Montreal and a European tour.

While touring Europe he met a lovely French lady, Jeanne Maïstre, who, a year later became his wife. King left the group ‘Au Naturel’ and settled in the south of France where he started a new life on the French Riviera, opening his own music school – the “Price King Ecole Internationale de Chant.” He has had the pleasure over the years of seeing many of his students excel as singers on a professional level, and some going on to become national celebrities. He continues to coach young singers today, in his spare time.

Blog– IMPROVISATION – William Price King on Tumblr – Buy William’s music: William Price King iTunes – Facebook – William Price King – Twitter – @wpkofficial
Regular Venue – Cave Wilson

 

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