Dionne Warwick - Greatest Hits (1989) 320 vtwin88cube

Dionne Warwick
The Dionne Warwick Collection
Her All-Time Greatest Hits (1989)

It is easier to define Dionne Warwick by what she isn't rather than what she is. Although she grew up singing in church, she is not a gospel singer. Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan are clear influences, but she is not a jazz singer. R&B is also part of her background, but she is not really a soul singer, either, at least not in the sense that Aretha Franklin is. Sophisticated is a word often used to describe her musical approach and the music she sings, but she is not a singer of standards such as Lena Horne or Nancy Wilson. What is she, then? She is a pop singer of a sort that perhaps could only have emerged out of the Brill Building environment of post-Elvis Presley, pre-Beatles urban pop in the early '60s. That's when she hooked up with Burt Bacharach and Hal David, songwriters and producers who wrote their unusually complicated songs for her aching yet detached alto voice. Warwick is inescapably associated with those songs, even though she managed to build a career after leaving Bacharach and David that drew upon their style for other memorable recordings, such that she remains a unique figure in popular music.

Channels: 2 (Stereo)
Sample Rate: 44.1 KHz
Sample Size: 16 bit
Bit Rate: 320 kbps

Audio Quality: Very High (Lossy)
Encoder: LAME 3.98r
Encoder Settings: Constant Bit Rate 320 kbps (Insane)
Contains: Album Art, ID Tag [ID3v2.3 (ANSI) & ID3v1.1]

Format: Mp3
Source: Web
Genre: R&B
M3U Playlist: Yes

Rhino's The Dionne Warwick Collection: Her All-Time Greatest Hits is the best Warwick collection on the market, culling 24 tracks from her '60s prime. Although it doesn't cover her entire career, it does feature nearly all of her very best material, and it's all in the style that made her famous; top to bottom, it's a stronger, more consistent listen than anything else out there. This was the period when she established herself as the premier interpreter of Burt Bacharach's music, and pulled off the neat trick of appealing to both R&B and easy listening audiences. Warwick was soulful without necessarily singing soul music per se; her smooth, light delivery and polished technique meshed very well with the sophisticated pop of the Bacharach/Hal David team, who co-composed all but one of the songs included here. No other singer navigated Bacharach's deceptively tricky compositions with such effortless grace; the ease she projects on the rhythmically complex "I Say a Little Prayer" and "Promises, Promises" is startling. It's no wonder her versions of Bacharach's songs often became the definitive ones. This compilation doesn't cover Warwick's later hits, like the Spinners' duet "Then Came You," "That's What Friends Are For," or her late-'70s/early-'80s adult contemporary fare; for those, look to Arista's The Definitive Collection, which touches on every phase of her career, or the more specific Greatest Hits (1979-1990). But for a sparkling demonstration of everything that made Warwick great, there's no better buy than The Dionne Warwick Collection.

01.Don't Make Me Over
02.This Empty Place
03.Anyone Who Had A Heart
04.Walk On By
05.You'll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart)
06.A House Is Not A Home
07.Reach Out For Me
08.Who Can I Turn To
09.Lookin' With My Eyes
10.Are You There (With Another Girl)
11.Message To Michael
12.Trains And Boats And Planes
13.I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
14.Another Night
15.Alfie
16.The Windows Of The World
17.I Say A Little Prayer
18.(Theme From) Valley Of The Dolls
19.Do You Know The Way To San Jose
20.(There's) Always Something There To Remind Me
21.Promises, Promises
22.The April Fools
23.I'll Never Fall In Love Again
24.The Green Grass Starts To Grow