*Dionne Warwick posed in Hyde Park, London in 1965. Photo : David Redfern/Redferns*

‘You cannot separate the voice from the heart. Dionne’s music inspired people to see and look forward to the best part of themselves.’
Stevie Wonder

I recently watched an entertaining documentary about the career of sublime singer Dionne Warwick. (‘Don’t Make Me Over’, directed by Dave Wooley and David Heilbroner, 2021)

'Years ago I learned to be totally responsible for Dionne Warwick. I will not wait for opportunities. I will create them.’

Through the ‘60s and ‘70s Warwick performed peerless versions of Bacharach & David songs - classics like ‘Don't Make Me Over’, ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’ and ’Walk On By’; ‘Alfie’, ‘A House Is Not a Home’ and ‘Do You Know the Way to San Jose.’ In the ‘80s she successfully re-launched her career, scoring more hits and winning countless awards. And she went on to be an effective activist and campaigner.

‘They’re not gonna tell me what to do.’

Warwick was the mistress of a particular form of American popular song. Achieving sustained mainstream success is deceptively difficult. She teaches us how it can be done with style and grace.

'Anyone who ever loved
Could look at me
And know that I love you.
Anyone who ever dreamed
Could look at me
And know I dream of you,
Knowing I love you so.
Anyone who had a heart
Would take me in his arms and love me too.
You couldn't really have a heart
And hurt me like you hurt me,
And be so untrue.
What am I to do?’
‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’ (B Bacharach / H David)

Born in 1940, Marie Dionne Warrick was raised in a middle-class neighbourhood in East Orange, New Jersey. Her mother worked in an electrical factory and her father was a Pullman porter.

'My parents gave me stability and a belief in myself and in all the possibilities life has to offer. I was told the only limitations I would ever face were those I placed upon myself.’

Music was central to Warrick’s life from the start. Her mother, Lee Drinkard, managed a gospel group. Accomplished vocalist Cissy Houston (mother of Whitney) was her aunt and lived in the same family home. Legendary opera singer Leontyne Price was a cousin.

'I come from a singing family, and, as is said, 'the apple does not fall far from the tree.'’

Warrick sang in church where her grandfather was a minister. At the age of 6, when she was invited to stand on some books to perform ‘Jesus Loves Me,’ she received her first standing ovation. At the age of 17 she took the stage at the famously challenging Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater Harlem.

‘If you think it, you can do it.’

Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach at Pye studios in London. 29th November 1964. (Photo by Bela Zola/Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

After finishing High School in 1959, Warrick studied at the Hartt College of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut. There she learned to read, play and write music, a technical education that would sustain her throughout her career. At the same time she found work singing backing vocals for recording sessions in New York City.

In 1962 Warrick was spotted at one of these sessions by songwriter Burt Bacharach, and hired to record demos of songs he had written with lyricist Hal David.

‘As long as it doesn’t interfere with my education – because my mother would kill you, and me too.’

Warrick hoped that one of the demos, ‘Make It Easy on Yourself,’ would become her first single release. When she discovered Bacharach & David had given the song to another artist, Jerry Butler, she was not happy.

‘That didn’t sit too well with me. So when I got to New York I kind of let them know: ‘Ahah. You don’t do that to me. One thing I want you both to understand is there’s something you can never do to Dionne – that’s try to make her over. So don’t even think it.’’

Bacharach & David apologised and were inspired by Warrick’s rebuke to write her first hit, 1962’s ‘Don't Make Me Over.’ Warrick's name was misspelled Warwick on the record label and she adopted the new construction thereafter.

'Don't make me over
Now that I'd do anything for you.
Don't make me over
Now that you know how I adore you.
Don't pick on the things I say, the things I do,
Just love me with all my faults
The way that I love you.
I'm begging you.’
‘Don’t Make Me Over’ (B Bacharach / H David)

Touring on the Chitlin’ Circuit in the American South, Warwick experienced the indignities of racism – only being allowed to use Black hotels, restaurants and toilets; not feeling safe to stay in certain towns; performing to segregated audiences.

At one such gig Sam Cooke advised her before she went on stage: ‘Do not turn your back on the white folk.’

Young Warwick wasn’t willing to comply.

‘First thing I did when I went out there, I walked straight to the band and turned my back and played to the ones that looked like me.’

On another occasion Warwick made a point of adapting the lyrics to Ray Charles’ ‘What I Say’.

'Tell your mama, tell your pa, we're gonna integrate Arkansas.'

She was warned by the police that she had minutes to get out of town.

'I refuse to allow prejudice to defeat me.’

Bigotry couldn’t stop Warwick’s progress. She scored hit after hit in the US and abroad, touring Europe to great acclaim. Marlene Dietrich announced her on stage at the Paris Olympia and introduced her to the world of couture.

‘She took me shopping, much to the chagrin of my accountants.’

Warwick was not a raw-voiced R&B or gospel artist in the traditional sense. Rather her singing was light and elegant. Her voice floated above and around the instrumentation. It could be delicate, soft, and then startlingly robust. It was always under complete control.

Warwick’s technical skills enabled her to navigate Bacharach’s complex compositions. Indeed she inspired him to write more challenging tunes.

‘To sing Bacharach’s melodies you almost had to have a music education, just to read what he wrote – different registers, time signatures. The man marched to his own drummer. If you wanted to be part of that, you had to march with him.’

With her high cheekbones and elegantly arched eyebrows; with her immaculate hair and chic wardrobe, Warwick was a class act. Her success took her to places that few Black performers had been before – to Vegas and prime time TV shows, hosted by the likes of Ed Sullivan, Perry Como and Danny Kaye. Some critics responded to her sweet voice, clear articulation and pop material by labelling her crossover or middle-of-the-road. Some underestimated her talent.

What strikes me about the Warwick story is that, while it’s relatively easy to stay niche and narrow in your appeal, it is incredibly hard to succeed in the mainstream. She demonstrates that to drive in the middle of the road, you need a rare combination of talent, technique and tenacity. Yes, she sang with poise and grace. But she was precise and meticulous in her delivery, strong and resolute in her engagement with the industry.

'I am an outspoken person. I believe in what I say.’

The mental toughness that helped get Warwick to the top was also very much evident in her later career.

With the chart dominance of disco in the late ‘70s, Warwick considered retirement. She was persuaded back to the recording studio by Clive Davis at Arista.

'You may be ready to give the business up, but the business is not ready to give you up.'
Clive Davis

There followed another string of hits, including ‘I’ll Never Love This Way Again’ and ‘Heartbreaker.’

‘I’m a messenger and I’m carrying messages of love and hope.’

Warwick was one of the first voices in the music business to speak out about the AIDS crisis, recording the benefit single 'That's What Friends Are For' for the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR) (alongside Gladys Knight, Elton John and Stevie Wonder). Appointed a health ambassador by Ronald Reagan, she prompted him to say the word AIDS in public for the first time.

‘My guide is the bible. Everybody is your brother’s keeper. Everybody. I don’t care who you are – white, black, green, orange and different. You can be striped and you’re still my sister or brother – by the rules of god. And I’ve got to do what is right to help you.’

Warwick subsequently addressed the issue of misogynist lyrics in gangster rap, taking to task the likes of Snoop Dogg, Tupac and Death Row Records’ Suge Knight.

‘You don’t call me out of my name. You don’t know me that well.’

In a 60-year career Dionne Warwick has sold over 100 million records, she has had 56 chart hits and won 6 Grammy Awards. She has been a model of mainstream success – tender, technical and tough. No one dared make her over.

'If you see me walking down the street
And I start to cry each time we meet,
Walk on by, walk on by.
Make believe
That you don't see the tears,
Just let me grieve
In private, because each time I see you
I break down and cry,
And walk on by.’
‘Walk On By’ (B Bacharach / H David)

No. 416

‘I listen to the orchestra like an X-ray machine - because I’ve been around it all my life. It’s what I do.’
Quincy Jones

I recently watched the Netflix documentary ‘Quincy’ which chronicles the life and career of the great Quincy Jones.

Jones is a multi-instrumentalist, a hugely gifted songwriter, composer and arranger. He has produced world famous music, film and television. Jones is richly textured orchestration, moody soundtracks and smooth soulful jazz. He is ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ and ‘Sinatra at the Sands.’ He is ‘The Quintessence’, ‘Soul Bossa Nova’ and ‘Killer Joe’; ‘The Italian Job’ and ‘Ironside.’ He is ‘Give Me the Night,’ ‘Off the Wall’ and ‘Thriller.’ He is a pioneer, an entrepreneur, a raconteur. He is ‘The Dude.’

Let us consider some of the lessons that Jones can teach us.

1. ‘Know What You Come From’

Jones was born on the South Side of Chicago in 1933.

He had a tough childhood. The neighbourhood was poor and gang-ridden. A local youth pinned his hand to a fence with a switchblade. On another occasion he was attacked with an ice pick. At 7 he had to look on as his mother, who suffered from schizophrenia, was taken away in a straitjacket.

‘You wanna be what you see, and that’s all we saw.’

His father, a carpenter, took him away from it all, first to stay in rural Kentucky with his grandmother, a former slave, and then to Seattle, where Jones Snr got a job in the Naval Shipyard.

When he was 11 Jones broke into a military store and discovered an upright piano.

‘The first time I touched it, it’s like every drop of blood, my heart and soul, and every cell in my body, said: ‘This is what you’re going to do for the rest of your life.’’

Jones learned percussion, French horn, tuba, trombone and sousaphone. He became particularly adept at the trumpet. He hung out in nightclubs and by 14 he was playing in the Bumps Blackwell Band. Around this time he also met 16-year-old Ray Charles and they became lifelong friends.

In 1951 Jones earned a scholarship to Seattle University, and he subsequently transferred to the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Jones was now on his way up, but he never forgot his roots.

‘To know what you come from, it makes it easier to get where you’re going.’

Quincy Jones conducts his all-star orchestra during a studio rehearsal in 1959.

2. Find the Thing You Can Control

‘Music was the one thing I could control. It was the one thing that offered me my freedom.’

Jones joined the Lionel Hampton Band and embarked on tours of the US that entailed 70 straight nights of performance. In the South he encountered the grim realities of segregation. He took solace in his music.

‘Not one drop of my self worth depends on your acceptance of me.’

3. ‘Learn to Deal with the Valleys’

Jones settled in New York where he made a living taking freelance commissions, writing, performing and arranging. His big break came when Dinah Washington hired him to arrange her next album. He subsequently worked with Louie Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Ray Charles.

All was going well. And yet Jones was mortified when his sick mother, having tracked him down performing in Birdland, admonished him for playing the devil’s music. Count Basie offered consolation:

‘Learn to deal with the valleys. The hills will take care of themselves.’

4. ‘You Can’t Know if You Don’t Go’

Jones toured Europe with Lionel Hampton, and the Middle East and South America with Dizzy Gillespie. He developed a lifelong taste for travel, for meeting local people and experiencing different cultures.

‘Get into the lifestyle of the real people in the country...You can’t know if you don’t go.’

5. Study Your Craft

In 1957 Jones moved to Paris, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger, the renowned composer and teacher of contemporary music.

‘The more restrictions you place on your music, the more freedom you have.’

Boulanger encouraged him to think outside his jazz upbringing and to consider the history of all kinds of music.

‘There are only 12 notes and you should really investigate what everybody did with those 12 notes.’

6. Study the Business

In 1959 Jones took his own 18-piece orchestra on the road across North America and Europe with the musical ‘Free and Easy.’ Though the concerts met enthusiastic audiences and rave reviews, the earnings failed to support a band of that size.

'We had the best jazz band on the planet, and yet we were literally starving. That's when I discovered that there was music, and there was the music business. If I were to survive, I would have to learn the difference between the two.'

To ease his financial problems Jones took a job back in New York working for Mercury Records. At the age of 28 he became the first African American Vice-President of a major label. Working for the first time in the pop sphere, he produced million-selling singles for Lesley Gore, including 'It's My Party' and ‘You Don’t Own Me.’

7. Trust Your Partners

In 1964 Frank Sinatra hired Jones to arrange and conduct an album with Count Basie, ‘It Might as Well Be Swing.’ Jones went on to oversee the singer's classic live album, ‘Sinatra at the Sands.’

Jones’ relationship with Sinatra was a fertile one. It was sustained by mutual respect and good faith.

‘No contract, just a handshake.’

8. Don’t Put Yourself in a Box

Throughout his career Jones resisted traditional categorisation.

‘In order for music to grow, the critics must stop categorising and let the musicians get involved in all different facets of music. We will die if we get stuck in one area of music.’

In 1964 Jones was invited by film director Sidney Lumet to compose the soundtrack for ‘The Pawnbroker.’ He relocated to Los Angeles and over subsequent years his film credits included ‘In Cold Blood’, ‘In the Heat of the Night’ and ‘The Italian Job.’ He also turned his hand to TV themes, among which were ‘Ironside,’ ‘The Cosby Show’ and ‘Roots.’

9. ‘Do It Well or Not at All’
In the 1960s Jones continued to work as an arranger for a galaxy of jazz stars. In the 1970s he went on to produce the Brothers Johnson, Rufus and Chaka Khan, and George Benson. He was also releasing a series of his own smooth jazz and soul albums. He had a phenomenal work ethic that he’d picked up from his father.

'Once a task is just begun, never leave until it's done. Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all.'

In fact Jones was pushing himself too hard. In 1974 he suffered a brain aneurism from which he was lucky to recover.

10. Be Underestimated

In 1978, when Jones was working on the soundtrack for movie musical ‘The Wiz’, Michael Jackson asked him to produce his upcoming solo album. This was something of a challenge: many critics were sceptical of Jackson’s ability to evolve beyond a child-star; and the record company was not convinced that jazz-steeped Jones fitted the brief. Jackson and Jones pressed on.

‘The best position to be in is to be underestimated. Because if you’re underestimated no one expects anything.’

The resulting record, ‘Off the Wall,’ was a pop-soul classic and sold 20 million copies.

11. ‘Leave Room for the Magic’

In 1982 Jones produced Jackson’s next album, ‘Thriller.’ Jones was a perfectionist, obsessed with detail, but he was always careful to leave room for creative flair and spontaneity.

‘Always leave 20-30% of room for the Lord to walk through the room. Because then you’re leaving room for the magic, and records are about capturing the magic - real magic moments - on tape. That’s what communicates: the magic of the moment.’

When Jones asked Eddie Van Halen to play his famous solo on 'Beat It,’ he avoided giving him specific instructions.

‘I’m not gonna sit here to try and tell you what to play. The reason you’re here is because of what you do play.’

12. Don’t Allow Time for Paralysis from Analysis

Jones worked on ‘Thriller’ with his crack team of engineer Bruce Swedien and Cleethorpes-born songwriter Rod Temperton. They didn’t have the luxury of time, but sometimes that can be a blessing.

‘We didn’t have time for paralysis from analysis. We made ‘Thriller’ in 8 weeks.’

The resultant record sold 60 million copies and became the bestselling album in history.

13. ‘Be Humble with Your Creativity and Grateful for Your Success’

Despite his phenomenal career, Jones was always alert to the fine line between confidence and arrogance.

‘You need confidence, but an ego is just an overdressed insecurity.’

In 1985 Jones coaxed a stunning array of talent into the studio to record ‘We Are the World’ and raise money for the victims of famine in Ethiopia. He had a sign taped on the entrance:

‘Check Your Ego at the Door’.

14. ‘Keep On Keepin’ On’

‘You only live 26,000 days. And so I’m gonna wear all of them out…They gonna know we came through here.’

As the years rolled on Jones sustained his tireless activity across a number of fields. He co-produced ‘The Color Purple’ and ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.’ He helped start Vibe magazine which became a hip-hop bible. His career spans over 60 years in the entertainment industry.

Jones comes across as a man, not just of phenomenal talent, but also of great charm.

‘I can party all the time. Never had a problem with that.’

He’s also capable of self-reflection. Conscious of the impact that his mother’s illness and absence had on him in later life, he gives a compelling explanation for his eternal restlessness.

‘I realised from the time I was a little boy to that moment I was always running, always trying to fill that black hole in my soul. I ran because there was nothing behind me to hold me up. I ran because I thought that was all there was to do. I thought that to stay in one place was to die.’

Jones acknowledges that his industry, perfectionism and lust for life may have come at a cost to his home life. He has been married three times and has had seven children with five different women. At the end of the Netflix documentary, his daughter Rashida Jones, who directed the film, asks her father:

‘Is there anything that you think that you’ve tried to do that you didn’t succeed at?’

Jones pauses for a moment and smiles back at her:

‘Marriage.’

'Remember the days when we never had a dime
And our dreams seemed a million miles away.
But we made it baby
Facin' the bad times with a smile.
Here we are and we're growin' stronger day by day,
Cause we got love times love.
It's always there for us to share.
And girl it sure feels good to know
You're by my side.
Cause we're just two high hearts
That beat as one forever on,
With love times love to keep us satisfied every night.’

George Benson, ‘Love X Love’ (R Temperton)

No. 286

Dionne Warwick: Driving in Style Down the Middle of the Road

Q Tips: The Wise Counsel of Quincy Jones