Today’s the day when we can finally share Dionne Warwick’s Make It Easy on Yourself: The Scepter Recordings 1962-1971 with our readers! Though today is the official release date and copies should be shipping within the U.K., Amazon U.S. currently shows August 15 as the release date stateside. To our American friends, we hope you will find this set worth the wait! Here are the full details on this release. “I am so very thrilled about this wonderful collection of my recordings! It is truly something that I myself would buy.” –…
NOW WITH LINKS! (Don’t) Walk On By: Dionne Warwick’s “Make It Easy on Yourself: The Scepter Recordings 1962-1971” Due in June on 12 CDs from SoulMusic, Second Disc
UPDATED 4/17 WITH PRE-ORDER LINKS: “I am so very thrilled about this wonderful collection of my recordings! It is truly something that I myself would buy.” – Dionne Warwick, 2025 For more than six decades, Dionne Warwick has been synonymous with musical excellence. The six-time Grammy Award winner, 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and Kennedy Center Honoree remains one of the most-charted vocalists of all time, with a whopping 56 singles having made the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998 and over 100 million records sold worldwide. The New Jersey-born…
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(Don’t) Walk On By: Dionne Warwick’s “Make It Easy on Yourself: The Scepter Recordings 1962-1971” Due in June on 12 CDs from SoulMusic, Second Disc
“I am so very thrilled about this wonderful collection of my recordings! It is truly something that I myself would buy.” – Dionne Warwick, 2025 For more than six decades, Dionne Warwick has been synonymous with musical excellence. The six-time Grammy Award winner, 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and Kennedy Center Honoree remains one of the most-charted vocalists of all time, with a whopping 56 singles having made the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998 and over 100 million records sold worldwide. The New Jersey-born legend became the…
Cherry Red’s El Label Celebrates Burt Bacharach, Leonard Bernstein on New Box Sets
In recent months, Cherry Red’s El imprint has turned its attention to a pair of legendary American composers. Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) and Burt Bacharach (1928-2023) were born just a decade apart, though Bacharach lived more than three decades longer than Bernstein. Neither man was born in New York City, but both created much of their remarkable work there. Both were proud Jewish Americans, and both wrote for the musical theatre. An American in New York: Leonard Bernstein – The City Scores brings together recordings of Bernstein’s musicals On the Town, Wonderful Town,…
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(Don’t) Walk on By: Real Gone Collects Dionne Warwick’s “Complete Scepter Singles”
From the moment she burst onto the music scene in 1962 exhorting “Don’t Make Me Over,” Dionne Warwick has been a musical force with which to be reckoned. The legendary singer blended elegant pop and deeply felt soul in a fashion which remains unrivaled today for its sophistication and polish; her signature songs such as “Walk On By,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Alfie,” and “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” have all become cornerstones of the new American songbook. Those songs were all co-written and co-produced by the team of Burt…
The Weekend Stream: November 6, 2021
While The Second Disc prides itself on connecting people to reissues and box sets they can keep on their shelves, it’s no secret that listening audiences are also digital – catalogue music lovers, too – and our passion is connecting people to music from the past that they might adore. So we’ve introduced a new feature: The Weekend Stream, which focuses on hidden gems that recently made it to digital channels that might make your playlists a little brighter! Hank Williams, Sings / Moanin’ the Blues (Expanded Edition) / Memorial Album (Expanded…
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The Story of His Life: Hal David Celebrated on Public Television, Upcoming CD and DVD
“Words by Hal David.” That credit graces many of the most cherished popular songs of the second half of the twentieth century, including “(They Long To Be) Close To You,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “The Look of Love,” and of course, “What the World Needs Now Is Love.” Beginning this weekend, Public Television stations nationwide will be celebrating the life and legacy of Hal David with a new special. What the World Needs Now: Words by Hal David from John Paulson Productions is hosted by The Divine Miss M, Bette Midler,…
Anyone Who Had a Heart: Dionne Warwick Saluted on Public Television, New Rarities-Packed CDs, More
From the moment she burst onto the music scene in 1962 exhorting “Don’t Make Me Over,” Dionne Warwick has been a musical force with which to be reckoned. The legendary singer blended elegant pop and deeply-felt soul in a fashion which remains unrivaled today for its sophistication and polish; her signature songs like “Walk On By,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Alfie,” and “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” have all become cornerstones of the new American songbook. Dionne’s remarkable life and career will be saluted on a new Public Television special…
A Dream In Your Heart: Real Gone Announces a Dionne Warwick Rarities Collection and Expanded Jimmy Webb “Angel Heart”
We’ve already told you about Real Gone’s reissue of Debby Boone’s You Light Up My Life, coming on December 8. Now, Real Gone has announced two other titles coming soon. Both feature legendary artists who got their start in the 1960s. First up is Odds & Ends: Scepter Records Rarities, a collection of rarities from Dionne Warwick taken from her time at Scepter Records. Due on January 12, 2018, it features new liner notes by our very own Joe Marchese based on his brand-new interview with the artist. From 1962 to 1971,…
Release Round-Up: Week of November 25
Happy Thanksgiving! Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Prince, Prince 4Ever (Warner Bros.) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) This release actually came out on Tuesday, but it’s worth a reminder here: this first posthumous collection from the late, great artist premieres one previously unreleased track, and includes a number of single versions making their CD debuts. Prince 4Ever is a 40-track summary of The Artist’s major works from his first album, 1978’s For You, to 1992’s The Love Symbol, Prince’s last release before he changed his name to the…
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(Don’t) Walk On By: Rumer’s “This Girl’s in Love” Celebrates Bacharach and David
I hear the music coming out of your radio… Who’s today’s foremost young interpreter of the timeless music of Burt Bacharach and Hal David? Chances are many would answer with one name: Rumer. On October 21, the singer-songwriter will release her first full-length tribute to the songwriting legends with the debut on Rhino/EastWest of her fourth album, the eagerly-anticipated This Girl’s in Love: A Bacharach and David Songbook. In 2010, Rumer released the single Sings Bacharach at Christmas featuring her tender reading of the classic “Alfie” along with the world premiere of…
All The Way To Paradise: BBR Revisits Stephanie Mills, Burt Bacharach, Hal David’s Motown Gem “For The First Time”
Following the commercial failure of the big-budget 1973 movie musical Lost Horizon, Burt Bacharach retreated. Tension over the film had led to a split with his longtime songwriting partner Hal David, and their split had in turn led to a breakup of their “triangle marriage” with singer Dionne Warwick. Lawsuits ensued. Only one new Bacharach song emerged in 1974, Gladys Knight and the Pips’ “Seconds,” co-written with playwright Neil Simon for a proposed movie version of the 1968 Bacharach/David/Simon Broadway musical Promises, Promises. A ’74 reunion session with Warwick – in which…
In Memoriam: Hal David (1921-2012)
What’s it all about? For Hal David, it was about dedication to his craft, a tireless commitment to songwriters’ rights and a desire to bring the world a message of love, sweet love – a sentiment that’s never gone out of fashion. The Oscar, Grammy and Gershwin Prize-winning lyricist and former president of performance rights organization ASCAP passed away on September 1. He left behind a world made immeasurably richer by his gift of song. Hal David’s turns of phrase in songs like “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” “I Say a…
