LOS ANGELES, CA (Concord Records) - As part of the celebration of her 45th year in show business, legendary vocalist Dionne Warwick is revisiting some of her most legendary hits on My
Friends and Me (Concord Records), an album of duets with a stellar lineup of female performers including Gladys Knight,
Olivia Newton-John, Mya,
Gloria Estefan, Kelis, Reba McEntire, Cyndi Lauper, Celia Cruz,
Wynonna Judd, Cheyenne Elliott, Lisa Tucker, Deborah Cox, Chanté Moore,
Angie Stone and Da Brat.
Bringing 13 classic songs by famed songwriting team Burt Bacharach and Hal David up to date with cutting-edge production by her son, acclaimed producer Damon Elliott (Barry White, Destiny's Child, Pink, Eminem, Keith Sweat, Jessica Simpson), My Friends and Me, out November 7th, offered Warwick a unique opportunity to present timeless material in a timely fashion - and to, as she put it, 'hang out with the girlfriends.'
'It's something I've been trying to get done for several years,' Warwick says of the project. 'I decided to celebrate my 40th year in the business with a world tour, which we're still on after almost four years. The object was to visit every continent, country and city that I've performed in during my career. It was a brilliant idea at the time!'
Over the course of this global odyssey, Warwick signed with Concord and came up with the idea of the duets album featuring contemporary female vocalists and began reaching out to potential collaborators. The singer's extraordinary reputation ensured a surfeit of eager participants.
Knight, who sang on Warwick's Grammy-winning 1986 smash (and invaluable AIDS research fundraising tool) 'That's What Friends Are For,' joins her for a powerful reading of 'I'll Never Love This Way Again,' while Newton-John guests on a bouncy interpretation of 'Wishin' and Hopin'.' R&B siren Mya lends her pipes to 'Close to You,' Kelis jumps in for 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head,' Estefan co-croons 'Walk on By,' Cruz helps point the way to 'San Jose' and Cox, Moore, Stone and Da Brat help Warwick bring the socially conscious 'Windows of the World' up to date, with Da Brat rapping about Iraq, Katrina and other controversial issues.
The latter song's message remains a potent example, to Warwick, of music's power to fire the conscience and stir the heart to action. 'It was written while the Vietnam war was going on; there was complete chaos in the world then,' she muses. 'And here we are again, with another quagmire. Somebody needs to stop and take a listen to some of these words. The world is watching us.'
Warwick's world tour continues; she'll celebrate the release of My Friends and Me with a special benefit concert on November 19, 2006, at New York's Lincoln Center-Avery Fisher Hall. The evening will raise funds for Love Our Children USA and The New York Therapeutic Riding Center.
Dionne Warwick first hit the charts in 1962 with her defiant, impassioned reading of 'Don't Make Me Over,' and scored 12 consecutive Top100 hits between 1963 and 1966, rapidly emerging as the foremost interpreter of the astonishing Bacharach-David catalog. In addition to the songs mentioned above, she
scored such hits as 'Alfie,' 'A House Is Not a Home,' 'Valley of the Dolls' and 'The April Fools' and was the first African-American female artist to give a Royal Command Performance for the Queen of England.
She earned Grammy trophies for 'Do You Know the Way to San Jose?' (1968), 'I'll Never Fall in Love Again' (1970), 'I'll Never Love This Way Again' (1979), 'Déjà Vu' (1979) and 'That's What Friends Are For' (1986), received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame and was honored by Oprah Winfrey at the 2005 Legends Ball.
In 2006, Warwick joined Bacharach to perform 'Walk on By' and 'That's What Friends Are For' for some 36 million American Idol viewers. Later in the year, Warwick appeared on Simon Cowell's new FOX-TV show, Duets, singing 'Say A Little Prayer' and 'I'll Never Love This Way Again' with top vocal contender Lucy Lawless (Xena, Warrior Princess).
Warwick's tireless efforts to preserve music education in school curricula were recognized with the first SupportMusic Appreciation Award, which she received in Washington, DC. Her myriad other good works have included serving as U.S. Ambassador for Health and as a Global Ambassador for the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. She was also recently honored with the Temecula Film and Music Festival's coveted Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in music for motion pictures.
