In 1979, Dionne Warwick was at a crossroads.  Her unprecedented string of pop and R&B hits written and produced by Burt Bacharach and Hal David at Scepter Records were in the rearview mirror.  Bacharach and David had bitterly split after just one album with Warwick at Warner Bros. Records, leaving their muse feeling high and dry. One more dynamic success followed for Dionne in 1974 with the Thom Bell-produced Spinners duet “Then Came You,” unbelievably her first-ever No. 1 Pop single.  But other than that one smash, Warwick’s studio career was commercially floundering.  Her expressive voice was as strong as ever, maybe even stronger than before, but producers including Jerry Ragovoy, Michael Omartian and all Holland/Dozier/Holland had all been unable to rekindle the magic she had with her “triangle marriage.”  Enter Clive Davis.  The Arista honcho believed that Dionne’s best days weren’t all behind her.  Davis’ gamble paid off when 1979’s Dionne, produced by Barry Manilow, became Warwick’s first platinum LP and spawned two massive, Grammy-winning hit singles in “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” and “Déjà Vu.”  Warwick became the first-ever artist to take home Grammys in the same night for her pop and R&B vocals.  She remained at Arista through 1994, recording eleven studio albums and one live set.  Three of those LPs – No Night So Long (1980), How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye (1983) and Finder of Lost Loves (1985) – are set for expanded reissues from Funky Town Grooves this fall.

No Night So Long, Dionne’s second Arista LP, was built around the title track written by “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” tunesmiths Richard Kerr and Will Jennings. Isaac Hayes and Adrienne Anderson, the team responsible for “Déjà Vu,” also returned with “We Never Said Goodbye.”  Crucially, however, Manilow didn’t return for No Night So Long; instead, production duties were handled by Steve Buckingham (Dolly Parton, Alicia Bridges).  The album very much continued the classy, smooth pop style of its predecessor, however, with the sweeping title ballad scoring Warwick her third No. 1 AC single and a No. 23 Hot 100 success.  Other songs on the LP came from such talents as Peter Allen, Melissa Manchester. Peabo Bryson, Steve Dorff and the team of Carole Bayer Sager and David Foster (“It’s the Falling in Love,” also recorded by Michael Jackson).  A 2010 reissue from Expansion Records added three bonus tracks - "Dedicate This Heart" from Hot! Live and Otherwise (a cut that was omitted from that album’s CD release), the Michael Masser-produced Hot! Live B-side "This Time is Ours,” and “Only Heaven Can Wait” from the same sessions.  Funky Town drops those three songs, as none are actually related to No Night So Long, and instead adds four never-before-released outtakes from the album: "This Is What I've Wanted All My Life" in two distinct versions, "Now That the Feeling's Gone" and "Starting Tomorrow.”

After the jump: full details on the Luther Vandross-produced How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye plus Finder of Lost Loves, with productions from Barry Manilow, Burt Bacharach and Stevie Wonder!

Jay Graydon was at the helm of 1982’s Friends in Love, and Barry Gibb gave Dionne another of her all-time greatest triumphs with Heartbreaker and its No. 1 AC/Top 10 Pop title hit.  (Heartbreaker, like Arista debut Dionne, has been reissued on CD in recent years by Big Break Records.)  FTG resumes its reissue program with 1983’s Luther Vandross-produced How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye.  At Arista, Vandross got the chance to produce his heroes Dionne and Aretha Franklin; he also wrote much of the album including the title duet which appeared, too, on his Busy Body album. Vandross  later recorded “So Amazing” for his Give Me the Reason LP.  Michael McDonald supplied “I Can Let Go Now,” and Dionne herself wrote “Two Ships Passing in the Night.”  The closing track reunited Warwick with her old Scepter Records labelmates The Shirelles for a revival of Carole King and Gerry Goffin’s “Will You Love Me Tomorrow.”  FTG expands How Many Times with six bonus tracks – five singles (four versions of “Got a Date” and the instrumental of “How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye”) and the previously unreleased instrumental mix of “Two Ships.”

The final reissue in FTG’s series is dedicated to Finder of Lost Loves (released in non-U.S. territories as Without Your Love), from 1985.  This album marked the long-awaited reunion of Warwick with Burt Bacharach as well as with Barry Manilow.  When Bacharach and his then-wife Carole Bayer Sager were tapped to write the theme to Aaron Spelling’s television drama Finder of Lost Loves, the great composer reached out to the one woman he knew would do his soaring theme justice.  Bacharach and Bayer Sager produced “Finder of Lost Loves,” a duet with Glenn Jones, but the lead producer on the album was Manilow, who also appeared to duet with Warwick on a warm yet dramatic cover of The Bee Gees’ “Run to Me.”  Richard Landis produced the international title cut “Without Your Love” and a couple more tracks were reprised from the Stevie Wonder soundtrack to The Woman in Red on which Dionne had appeared.  FTG adds twelve bonus tracks (nine previously unreleased) to Finder of Lost Loves:  two versions of the title track featuring the late, great Luther Vandross, the outtakes “Broken Bottles” (cut from Heartbreaker) and “Dangerous” and alternate takes of Manilow and Adrienne Anderson’s “Bedroom Eyes” and Ken Hirsch and Marti Sharron’s “No One in the World,” and three instrumental mixes, plus the single edits of “Run to Me,” “It’s Love” and “Without Your Love.”

Funky Town Grooves may have these titles available next month (October) directly via the label's website; Amazon has the reissues currently listed for November 18. All three titles have been remastered at Sony's own Battery Studios and feature new liner notes from Alex Henderson.  Dionne fans should also take note of the October 28 release date set for her latest studio album, Feels So Good.  You can peruse the track listings for FTG's reissues and pre-order below!

Dionne Warwick, No Night So Long: Expanded Edition (Arista AL-9526, 1980 – reissued Funky Town Grooves FTG-392, 2014) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

1. Easy Love
2. No Night So Long
3. It's The Falling In Love
4. When The World Runs Out Of Love
5. We Never Said Goodbye
6. How You Once Loved Me
7. Reaching For The Sky
8. Sweetie Pie
9. Somebody's Angel
10. We Had This Time
11. Starting Tomorrow (previously unreleased)
12. Now That the Feeling's Gone (previously unreleased)
13. This Is What I've Wanted All My Life (Piano Version) (previously unreleased)
14. This Is What I've Wanted All My Life (Full Mix) (previously unreleased)

Dionne Warwick, How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye (Arista AL8-8104, 1983 – reissued Funky Town Grooves FTG-391, 2014) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

1. Got A Date
2. So Amazing
3. I Do It Cause I Like
4. How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye
5. What Can A Miracle Do
6. Two Ships Passing In The Night
7. I Can Let Go Now
8. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
9. Got A Date (7 " Version)
10. Got A Date (Special Remix)
11. Got A Date (Instrumental)
12. Got A Date (Single Version)
13. Two Ships Passing In The Night (Instrumental) (previously unreleased)
14. How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye (Instrumental)

Dionne Warwick, Finder of Lost Loves: Expanded Edition (Arista AL8-8262, 1985 – reissued Funky Town Grooves FTG-393, 2014) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

CD 1

1. No One In The World
2. Without Your Love
3. Run To Me (With Barry Manilow)
4. Finder Of Lost Loves
5. Love Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
6. It’s You (With Stevie Wonder)
7. It’s Love
8. Bedroom Eyes
9. Weakness (With Stevie Wonder)
10. You Made Me Want To Love Again

CD 2

1. Broken Bottles (previously unreleased Heartbreaker outtake)
2. Dangerous (Demo Version, previously unreleased)
3. Finder of Lost Loves (Duet with Luther Vandross, previously unreleased)
4. Finder of Lost Loves (featuring Luther Vandross Backing Vocals, previously unreleased)
5. No One in the World (Alternate Version, previously unreleased)
6. Without Your Love (7" Version)
7. Run To Me (7" Version)
8. It's Love (7" Version)
9. Bedroom Eyes (Alternate Version, previously unreleased)
10. No One in the World (Instrumental, previously unreleased)
11. Run to Me (Instrumental, previously unreleased)
12. It's Love (Instrumental, previously unreleased)