After 58 years I’ve almost forgiven Cilla for copying my song.. she was so nice anyway
She has sold 100 million records, had 80 charting singles, won six Grammys and been at the top of her profession for six decades. So you’d think Dionne Warwick would be about ready to stop and put her feet up. Instead, she’s on a UK tour and despite the name – She’s Back: One Last Time – is refusing to call it a farewell.
“It’s more a slowing down,” said Dionne, who will be 82 in December.
“This is my 60th year in the music industry and it gets kind of tiring running through airports, living out of a suitcase.”
Dionne sang in her local gospel choir in Orange, New Jersey, from the age of six and says: “There was no doubt what my fate would be.
“The combination of my musical heritage and the gospel grounding made it inevitable thatI’d end up as a singer.
“My mummy used to say I came out singing. But there’s no way in the world I could have predicted the journey I was destined to go on.
“I fully intended to teach music education… that’s why I went to college.”
While she was there, Dionne earned extra money as a session singer in New York, featuring on The Drifters’ 1962 recording of Mexican Divorce.
Dionne’s voice was noticed by the song’s composer, Burt Bacharach, who was collaborating with lyricists including Hal David. Bacharach paid her $12.50 per session to record demos of his compositions. One, It’s Love That Really Counts, caught the ear of the president of Scepter Records, Florence Greenberg.
According to legend, she told Bacharach: “Forget the song… get the girl!”
Dionne went on to score top 10 hits all over the world with Bacharach/David numbers such as Walk On By, Anyone Who Had a Heart, Do You Know the Way to San Jose and many more.
Would she regard meeting the songwriters as a career milestone? A dry laugh. “No, I’d say it was more of a milestone for them meeting me,” she said.
Dionne had hits in this country but many of her songs were covered by British artists, much to her irritation.
“I am – always was – a big fan of Dusty Springfield. But I wasn’t happy with some of the others,” she said.
In 1964, Brian Epstein heard Anyone Who Had a Heart in America, brought it back to the UK and gave it to the Beatles’ record producer George Martin as a vehicle for Cilla Black.
Dionne said: “I don’t blame Cilla. Over the years, I came to realise she hadn’t been making the decision about what to sing.
“So I’ve almost forgiven her. Not completely, but almost. And she was a nice woman… really cute.
“My real complaint was the treatment of the song wasn’t similar to mine. It was identical. If I’d sneezed, she would have done too. In other words, they copied.”
In 1972, Bacharach and David split, leaving Dionne high and dry. Eventually, she sued for breach of contract, winning $5million in an out-of-court settlement.
It took a dozen years for the friendship to heal but they never worked together again. There have been other hit collaborations over the years though: Heartbreaker with Barry Gibb, for instance, and How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye with Luther Vandross. Music can be a cutthroat business, so does Dionne regard herself as tough?
“I prefer to say I’m consistent,” she said. “I do what I feel is right. I know who I am. I like who I am.”
Dionne insists she’s a happy woman. “Why would I not be?” she says. “This is nothing to do with me – it’s pre-ordained, God’s plan for me. My faith
is very important to me. I was taught at a very early age to accept the transition of loved ones from this world to the next. My nephew died about 10 years ago. But then I read a poem called Don’t Weep For Me and I felt so empowered by it.
“He was too young to go… so was Karen Carpenter, another dear friend.
“My brother, Mancel Jr, died aged 20 in an accident in 1968. And then my sister, Dee Dee, passed in 2008.”
Of her adored cousin Whitney Houston, who died in 2012, Dionne said: “She was a wonderful, good girl. I always used to say that she was the daughter I never had. The way I feel about her passing is that she had done what God wanted her to do. And we still have her – her legacy is her music.” Dionne has made many famous friends during her career, including the Beatles and Stevie Wonder, who she calls “my baby”.
She says of Mick Jagger: “I first got to know him during Live Aid in Philadelphia when he performed with Tina Turner. He has this wild image but in reality, he’s a grounded individual.
“By contrast, whatever impression you get of me when I’m on stage is who I really am.”
Friendship sometimes spilled over into romance and Dionne had an affair with French heartthrob Sacha Distel. But in 1966, she married actor and musician William Elliott. They divorced in May 1967 but remarried in August the same year. Their second marriage ended in December 1975 and Elliott died in 1983 aged 49.
The couple had two sons: David, now 53, who is a singer and often duets with his mother and Damon, 48, who produces Dionne’s records.
“Despite my career, my sons are without doubt my proudest achievements,” she said. Dionne also has five granddaughters and two grandsons but David’s daughter Cheyenne, 26, is the only one who wants to be a singer like her grandma. “I know I would say this but the girl has real talent,” saidDionne.
Looking back on her failed marriages to William, Dionne said: “It can be very difficult if the woman is more successful. That’s what finally did for the marriage. “In my experience, a man’s ego is very fragile. But that’s how we’re
Despite my career, my two sons are without doubt my proudest achievements DIONNE WARWICK REVEALS HER LOVE FOR HER FAMILY
programmed – the male is meant to be the breadwinner.” She laughs: “I’d love to see a male have a baby. We would all be only children.”
Dionne started touring in Brazil in the 60s, fell in love with the country and bought herself a house in the eastern state of Bahia.
She said: “I only came back to the States when my mother and sister Dee Dee were ill. At some point, I intend to move back to Bahia.”
In the meantime, she’s relishing touring the UK, and will end in Scunthorpe on July 1. Dionne said: “I’ve always loved the British. And British fans have always been loyal to me. It’s been a two-way love affair.” ● See tour details at ticketek.co.uk