Dionne Warwick Makes New Plans: Movie and a Gospel Album
“I recorded as a joke — to get them off my back. They were bugging me no end. As a result I had a hit — so there was nothing to do but sing!” said Dionne Warwick, smiling, making success sound like the easiest thing in the world.
The people who were “bugging” Dionne are her writers/producers Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who discovered Dionne six years ago, singing on demonstration records and in background groups.
“I was in college, home on vacation semester breaks, and I did quite a bit of background work. I was the spokesman for the group on the session with the Drifters (which included “Mexican Divorce” and “Sweets For My Sweets”) that Burt had written and was producing. There are two producers involved here: there’s Burt Bacharach and Hal David and both are my writers.”
Dionne Warwick will begin a new phase of her career, acting, in a film called “The Slave,” scheduled to be filmed in Tallahassee, Fla., during a six-week period in July and August. Dionne will portray a slave-mistress of a rich plantation owner. Because of her extremely heavy personal appearance schedule, she has had to squeeze her participation in the filming into an already full itinerary. She’s looking forward to it, although she hasn’t had a chance to study any acting.
“I don’t know if it’s to my advantage or disadvantage, but they don’t seem to want me to. And, I’m very excited about it. I’m kind of, you know, a little shaky because I’ve never done anything like this before. But it sounds, and it’s gonna be, I hope, very interesting.”
Dionne has also managed to find time to produce other artists on record. She has already produced other artist on record. She has already produced one record by the Gentlemen Four called “You Can’t Keep A Good Man Down,” which will be released on either the Scepter or Wand label. She is also recording a brother and sister duo from Winnepeg, Canada, which she hopes to release sometime this summer or early fall.
Dionne’s musical background is gospel music (“At the beginning of my career the only music I listened to was gospel. That was my first love.”) Many people are confused and think that she was a part of the famous Drinkard Singers. “The Drinkard Singers consisted of my mother, her sisters and brothers who are my aunts and uncles. I never belonged to the Drinkard Singers. The only time I ever sang with them was during an occasion, like, when my aunt was sick and I’d fill in for her. I had my own gospel group known as the Gospelaires. We basically traveled in the Philadelphia/New Jersey area. We never went too far away from home.”
She will be releasing a gospel album around Christmas, on which she is accompanied by the Drinkard Singers and studio musicians who normally play for gospel recordings. When asked who arranged the album, she replied:
“Wow! You don’t arrange gospel music, it just happens!”
The quartet that accompanies Dionne has been with her for varying periods of time. “My guitarist, Lee Valentine, has been with me since I started six years ago. My bassist, Peter Warren, is two years old now. My drummer, Ray Lucas, is about seven months, and my piano player, John Myer, is about a year and a half.”
Dionne has a great admirer in Miss Marlene Dietrich, whom Dionne also admires. “She has been very helpful to me in foreign countries. On my first trip abroad, in fact, she was like mother away from home. She’s just a groovy lady. “