Perhaps I’m into sappy music today, but let’s end the day, as we started it, with romantic music, and one of my favorite pop songs. This one is “I’ll never love this way again,“, and no, even though it’s sung by Dionne Warwick, it wasn’t written by Burt Bachrach but by Richard Kerr and Will Jennings. And it was produced by Barry Manilow, whom you can see below.
This live version below has both Warwick on vocals and Manilow on the keyboard (and some vocal harmony). It counts as one of my “lost love” songs (I have a list) because she realizes that her great romance is doomed to disappear (“before the good is gone”, “I won’t turn my head in sorrow if you should go away”).
Warwick was a great vocalist, and had a lot of good songs, but now she’s forgotten. Would anybody now in college have even heard her name?
Here’s what the Guardian considers her best song, though I don’t agree, though it’s very good. It was written by Burt Bachrach and Hal David, and performed here by Warwick the year after it was written (1964, when Warwick was 24).
Great tune, great performance.
Didn’t pay it much attention when it was getting lots of airtime (I was young.. ahem..).. but there’s lots of songs like that where I think they’re cheesy but then I get a moment to think it over. Example : Something (Harrison).
Shirley Bassey, another forgotten singing great, does a tremendous rendition of “Something”. Powerful.
Found it.
Sinatra too – great version, IMHO.
Thanks.
Here’s what I think is an often overlooked Bacharach/David song as performed by Warwick: “Windows of the World”
As the comments say, an anti-war song from Bacharach/David?
And here is a terrific cover of this song from Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders:
Is it just me, or does Hynde imbue the line with “there must be something we can do” with sexual tension?
Great song. Her collaboration with Burt Bacharach was legendary. “Walk on By,” “I’ll Say a Little Prayer,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?”… . The list goes on.
There are sooo many sappy songs that make me stop everything to listen to, but that is a good one.
She’s not forgotten …not yet anyway. Sure, I’m 68, but once I heard it existed, I searched EBay for awhile to find a pristine box set of the complete Dionne Warwick on CD. It was worth the effort.
I can’t believe “I Say a Little Prayer” didn’t make the “had a lot of good songs” list.
I think those who are younger may not have been familiar with Dionne Warwick’s music and career, but perhaps now they know because she has had an amusing presence on Twitter/X. She has also been a recurring character impression on Saturday Night Live in recent years due to this too.
https://x.com/dionnewarwick
Aretha Franklin recorded the absolutely finest version of “Walk on By” during her few years with Columbia Records before Jerry Wexler “discovered “her and made her into a super star at Atlantic Records.
Aretha simply cuts this song apart with her exquisite and emotional phrasing which has never been surpassed.