A couple of weeks back, Mike filled you in on the track listings for Sony’s upcoming slate of Playlist releases. This eclectic bunch – including Muddy Waters, Dave Brubeck, Janis Ian and the Psychedelic Furs – hits stores next week on May 10. Only one title’s track listing proved elusive, and now we can reveal that, too. Most happily, it’s worth the wait. Playlist: The Very Best of Dionne Warwick is, like many of the titles, an odd collection. It’s not a “greatest hits” but more a random selection of key tracks and under-the-radar favorites. And though Sony controls Warwick’s Arista catalogue, tracks have been licensed to make this more than just another “Dionne in the 1980s” compilation.
Warwick’s Playlist boasts one new-to-CD song, and it’s a keeper, the nearly 8-minute duet between Warwick and Isaac Hayes on two Burt Bacharach and Hal David classics, “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself” and “Walk On By.” Taken from the 1977 ABC Records live release A Man and A Woman, this long-unheard epic track finds Hayes and Warwick melding their distinct (and very different!) renditions of the songs into one harmonious whole. Kudos to Playlist for going the extra mile to license this track. Now, would a reissue of the entire album be too much to ask…? (If you like what you hear, the Warwick/Hayes duet of “By The Time I Get to Phoenix/I Say a Little Prayer” made an appearance on CD via the 2005 Stax compilation Ultimate Isaac Hayes: Can You Dig It?. )
Other duets appear, as well. The Thom Bell-produced Philly soul chart-topper “Then Came You,” with The Spinners, makes an appearance, licensed from Warner Bros., while The Shirelles reprise “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” with their former Scepter labelmate. Smokey Robinson turns up on 1987’s “You’re My Hero,” and of course, “That’s What Friends Are For” is present, with Dionne singing alongside Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder.
The lone Scepter-era track is “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” not the Elton John song but rather a bossa nova-flavored Bacharach and David original from 1966’s LP Here I Am. Two songs from 1980’s No Night So Long, only recently reissued in a wide release as an import, take a place on Playlist, though not the hit title track. Three songs have been selected from Warwick’s 1979 Arista debut Dionne, including “Deja Vu,” written by Isaac Hayes and album producer Barry Manilow’s frequent lyricist Adrienne Anderson, and the radio staple “I’ll Never Love This Way Again.” The Bee Gees-penned hit “Heartbreaker” has also been included, from the album of the same name.
Hit the jump for the full track listing with discography!
Playlist: The Very Best of Dionne Warwick looks to be a fine reminder of the late period hits of the recent Celebrity Apprentice contestant, currently enjoying a jazz chart success with her new collection Only Trust Your Heart. It hits stores on Tuesday and can be pre-ordered below. Sound samples are available here.
Dionne Warwick, Playlist: The Very Best of Dionne Warwick (Arista/Legacy 88697 88056 2 , 2011)
- Don’t Go Breaking My Heart
- Then Came You (with The Spinners)
- We Never Said Goodbye
- When The World Falls Out of Love
- In Your Eyes
- Déjà vu
- I’ll Never Love This Way Again
- Friends Can Be Lovers
- Will You (Still) Love Me Tomorrow (with The Shirelles)
- That’s What Friends Are For – Dionne and Friends
- The Woman That I Am
- Heartbreaker
- You’re My Hero (with Smokey Robinson)
- I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself/Walk On By (Live – with Isaac Hayes)
Track 1 from Here I Am, Scepter LP 531, 1966
Track 2 from Then Came You, Warner Bros. 2846, 1975
Tracks 3-4 from No Night So Long, Arista 9526, 1980
Tracks 5-7 from Dionne, Arista 9512, 1979
Tracks 8 & 11 from Friends Can Be Lovers, Arista 07822-18682-2, 1993
Track 9 from How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye, Arista 8104, 1983
Track 10 from Arista single AS1-9422, 1985
Track 12 from Heartbreaker, Arista 9609, 1982
Track 13 from Reservations for Two, Arista 8446, 1987
Track 14 from Dionne Warwick and Isaac Hayes, A Man and a Woman, ABC 996/2, 1977
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Great about the Isaac Hayes duet, but a real shame they couldn’t have thrown in “Two Ships That Pass In The Night,” the non-LP B-side of “That’s What Friends Are For” that has never appeared on CD.
“Two Ships Passing in the Night,” written by Dionne and produced by Luther Vandross, appears on the Cherry Red/SuperBird CD two-fer of HOW MANY TIMES CAN WE SAY GOODBYE/FRIENDS IN LOVE (cat. no. SBIRD0019). Hope this helps!
I echo the kudos given for the inclusion of the Isaac Hayes live duet, and a reissue of the complete A Man And A Woman live LP is indeed long overdue! However, many of the other tracks included here are not “fan favorites” as the CD cover states, and it pains me to pay over $8.00 for one rare track when I have all the albums from which the other tracks for this compilation were extracted. This was a perfect opportunity to include true Dionne rarities that have yet to make their digital debut, such as “Amanda” and “He’s Moving On” from The Love Machine soundtrack, the single remix of “Got A Date” (a minor R&B hit from 1983), or the film version of “Valley Of The Dolls” which differs from the single/album version (oddly, the liner notes for this compliation mention both the aforementioned film and “Don’t Make Me Over” yet neither track is included on the set). Some of the tracks included have been included on previous compilations and makes one ask “why bother” here (“We Never Said Goodbye”) whereas others were recorded after Dionne’s voice had peaked and began to decline in range and quality (“Friends Can Be Lovers” and “The Woman That I Am”, both taken from an album that Dionne herself dismissed as Lisa Stansfield rejects that would have been better suited for Lisa to record). Here’s to hoping for more interesting compilation and reissue releases from the extensive Dionne Warwick back catalogue.