Showing posts with label Dionne Warwick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dionne Warwick. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

Dionne Warwick - Dionne, Burt and Hal: The Definitive Songbook, Bonus Volume: Foriegn Language Versions, 1964-1967 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's the finale for guest poster Mike Solof's collection of all the songs Dionne Warwick sang that were written by Hal David and/or Burt Bacharach. This is a bonus volume. That's because, while Mike was putting his collection together, he noticed that Warwick sang a number of Bacharach-David songs in foreign languages. There weren't a lot, but it's enough for a short album. 

Everything here is from 1964 to 1967. She sang three songs in French, then two songs in German, and finally four songs in Italian. All were released as singles in those countries. So this is an interesting curiosity, especially if you speak any of those languages.

This album is 28 minutes long. 

01 Un Toit ne Suffit Pas [A House Is Not a Home] [French Version] (Dionne Warwick)
02 Reach Out for Me [French Version] (Dionne Warwick)
03 How Many Days of Sadness [French Version] (Dionne Warwick)
04 You'll Never Get to Heaven [If You Break My Heart] [German Version] (Dionne Warwick)
05 Walk On By [German Version] (Dionne Warwick)
06 A House Is Not a Home [Italian Version] (Dionne Warwick)
07 The Windows of the World [Italian Version] (Dionne Warwick)
08 Walk Little Dolly [Italian Version] (Dionne Warwick)
09 Walk On By [Italian Version] (Dionne Warwick)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/bD6LzqHD

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Mcve2ptBTCaZJi9/file

The cover photo was taken near the Nice Jazz Festival in Nice, France, on July 11, 1987. Since this is a foreign language version album, we wanted a photo of her in one of the foreign countries here, though unfortunately you totally can't tell that from the photo.

Saturday, March 21, 2026

Dionne Warwick - Dionne, Burt and Hal: The Definitive Songbook, Volume 7: 1987-2012 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

I'm back from my two week vacation from Peru. It got off to a rough start due to the plane flight there, which I posted about. But everything else since then went great, with no more problems. :) I even had good weather the whole time, despite it being the rainy season there.

Here's the last album in a series that contains all the songs written by Hal David and/or Burt Bacharach and sung by Dionne Warwick. Though note that there's a bonus album of sorts still to come that will be explained later.

As I mentioned in Volume 6, the Bacharach-David songwriting partnership broke up around 1973, and they didn't collaborate for a long time after that. The second half of Volume 6 consisted entirely of songs written by Bacharach and another successful songwriter, Carole Bayer Sager. (In fact, Bacharach and Sager were married for a few years around this time). 

The Bacharach and Sager collaboration continued for a little while. The first songs are from a 1987, and are all co-written by those two. One song, "Love Power," was a hit. After that, there are a bunch of songs from 1989 to 2011, one song per year with many years skipped. "Sunny Weather Lover" from 1993 is a key song here, because it's the first song Bacharach and David wrote together since about 1972. However, that was a rare collaboration. Their songwriting partnership didn't reignite after that. (They also co-wrote two songs for the 2000 movie "Isn't She Great," but Warwick didn't sing them.) Furthermore, both of them were simply getting older and didn't write songs nearly as often as they used to. 

So the rest of the songs were written by Bacharach with others or David with others. For instance, "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" was a Number One hit in the U.S. for Christopher Cross in 1981, and was written by Bacharach with Sager and two others. Track 101 is an unreleased live version by Warwick recorded in 2005.

The last four songs are from a 2012 album called "Now." It was billed as a celebration of Bacharach and David songs. However, it mostly consisted of rerecordings of old hits. The four new songs, presented here, were written by either Bacharach with others or David with others. For instance, "99 Miles from L.A." was written by David with Albert Hammond, and was a hit for Hammond in 1975. 

Hal David died in 2012, so that ended the chance for any more songs written by both of them. Bacharach died in 2023.

While I was on vacation, a commenter noted that a song, "(Theme From) The Valley of the Dolls" was included on Volume 4 of this series, despite neither Bacharach nor David being involved in writing it. Now that I'm back home, I was able to repost that album with that song removed. That also means that the numbering of all the songs after that has been fixed as well. So you might want to redownload Volumes 4, 5, and 6 if you're a stickler about such things. Also, since I had complaints about the cover art for Volume 1, I've posted an alternate version of the cover at the bottom of my write-up for that album that uses the original black and white photo, in case anyone wants that.

Thanks again to Mike Solof for putting this together.   

This album is one hour long. 

092 Take Good Care of You and Me (Dionne Warwick & Jeffrey Osborne)
093 Love Power (Dionne Warwick & Jeffrey Osborne)
094 In a World Such as This (Dionne Warwick)
095 Heartbreak of Love (Dionne Warwick & June Pointer)
096 On My Own (Dionne Warwick)
097 Sunny Weather Lover (Dionne Warwick)
098 Captives of the Heart (Dionne Warwick)
099 If I Want To (Dionne Warwick)
100 On My Way (Dionne Warwick)
101 Arthur's Theme [Best That You Can Do] (Dionne Warwick)
102 Keep Me in Mind (Dionne Warwick)
103 99 Miles from L.A. (Dionne Warwick)
104 Is There Anybody Out There (Dionne Warwick)
105 It Was Almost like a Song (Dionne Warwick)
106 Love Is Still the Answer (Dionne Warwick)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ieF2gBUW

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/DKTsSUgj9dgKC43/file

The cover photo shows her in concert in an unknown location, in February 1989.

Thursday, March 19, 2026

Dionne Warwick - Dionne, Burt and Hal: The Definitive Songbook, Volume 6: 1972-1985 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Things changed drastically for this volume of all the songs written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach and sung by Dionne Warwick. Since the start of Warwick’s hit-making years in 1963, she was signed to Scepter Records. She was their biggest star by far. But in 1971, her contract ended and she signed a new deal with Warner Brothers Records. (Scepter Records went bankrupt a couple of years later.)

For her first album on her new label, released in 1972, all seemed well, because all the songs were written by Bacharach and David. But in 1973, the two songwriters wrote the songs for the movie “Lost Horizon,” without Warwick’s involvement. This turned out to be a disaster. The movie was a flop and so was the soundtrack. But worst of all, Bacharach and David had a falling out during the making of the soundtrack. They wouldn’t write songs together for many years, and both of them had much less success without the other one. To make matters worse, Warwick’s new record company expected her to have most of her songs written by Bacharach and David. When that couldn’t happen anymore, that resulted in more lawsuits, including Warwick suing the songwriting duo.

Decades later, Bacharach wrote about this dispute in his autobiography: "It was all my fault, and I can't imagine how many great songs I could have written with Hal in the years we were apart. So I now know that on every level, it was a very bad mistake." But at other times, he suggested that both he and David were somewhat creatively exhausted, so they probably wouldn't have been able to keep their streak of hit songs going much longer anyway. That can be seen by the fact that the two of them had wrote very few hits for most of the rest of the 1970s. 

The first seven songs are from 1972. The eighth song, "One Less Bell to Answer," is from 1977, but was written in the 1960s. The Fifth Dimension had a hit with it in 1970. Warwick didn’t have much success without Bacharach and David for most of the 1970s, but she resumed having hits in 1979. 

In 1985, she resumed performing some songs written by Bacharach, but not David, since Bacharach and David wouldn’t reconcile until later. Instead, Bacharach was cowriting songs with Carole Bayer Sager at the time. The rest of the songs here are written by those two, from 1985. One of those songs,”That’s What Friends Are For,” was a massive hit, helped by Warwick being joined by some other big stars. Not only did it reach Number One in the U.S., it was the biggest selling song in 1986. 

Warwick had this to say about working with Bacharach again in 1985: "We realized we were more than just friends. We were family. Time has a way of giving people the opportunity to grow and understand... Working with Burt is not a bit different from how it used to be. He expects me to deliver and I can. He knows what I'm going to do before I do it, and the same with me. That's how intertwined we've been."

This album is 55 minutes long.

078 Be Aware (Dionne Warwick)
079 [They Long to Be] Close to You (Dionne Warwick)
080 Hasbrook Heights (Dionne Warwick)
081 I Just Have to Breathe (Dionne Warwick)
082 If You Never Say Goodbye (Dionne Warwick)
083 The Balance of Nature (Dionne Warwick)
084 One Less Bell to Answer (Dionne Warwick)
085 Early Morning Strangers (Dionne Warwick)
086 That's What Friends Are For (Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder)
087 Extravagant Gestures (Dionne Warwick)
088 Finder of Lost Loves (Dionne Warwick)
089 How Long (Dionne Warwick)
090 Stay Devoted (Dionne Warwick)
091 Stronger than Before (Dionne Warwick)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ku4tY3Qr

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/msqzMLVw1J3DQje/file

The cover photo shows her at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, on February 9, 1972.

Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Dionne Warwick - Dionne, Burt and Hal: The Definitive Songbook, Volume 5: 1969-1970 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here’s another album of Dionne Warwick singing all the songs written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach. Once again, thanks to Mike Solof for putting these albums together.

Warwick, David, and Bacharach had a great thing going from about 1963 until 1970. They had hit after hit after hit. The end of this album marks the end of that golden era. The three of them would still collaborate together, but much more intermittently. There are two more volumes dealing with those later years.

This album is 53 minutes long.

061 I'll Never Fall in Love Again (Dionne Warwick)
062 Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (Dionne Warwick)
063 Dream Sweet Dreamer (Dionne Warwick)
064 Knowing When to Leave (Dionne Warwick)
065 Let Me Go to Him (Dionne Warwick)
066 Loneliness Remembers What Happiness Forgets (Dionne Warwick)
067 Paper Mache (Dionne Warwick)
068 The Wine Is Young (Dionne Warwick)
069 Check Out Time (Dionne Warwick)
070 Make It Easy on Yourself (Dionne Warwick)
071 The Green Grass Starts to Grow (Dionne Warwick)
072 The Very First Person I Met [In California] (Dionne Warwick)
073 They Don't Give Medals to Yesterday's Heroes (Dionne Warwick)
074 Walk the Way You Talk (Dionne Warwick)
075 The Look of Love (Dionne Warwick)
076 Who Gets the Guy (Dionne Warwick)
077 Only Love Can Break a Heart (Dionne Warwick)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/nMDebKmr

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/4j7hPKMNNw5COdY/file

The cover photo shows her on the Engelbert Humperdinck TV Show some time in 1969. 

Friday, March 13, 2026

Dionne Warwick - Dionne, Burt and Hal: The Definitive Songbook, Volume 4: 1968 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

I am posting this while waiting in an airport for a flight inside Peru. So far, my vacation is going great after a rough start getting here. This is another volume of Dionne Warwick singing songs written by Hal David and/ or Burt Bacharach. At this point, their songwriting partnership was going strong and they were still writing all their songs together.

Thanks again to guest poster Mike Solof for putting these albums together.

This album is 45 minutes long.

048 As Long as There's an Apple Tree [Extended Version] (Dionne Warwick)
049 Do You Know the Way to San Jose (Dionne Warwick)
050 Let Me Be Lonely (Dionne Warwick)
051 Odds and Ends (Dionne Warwick)
052 Promises, Promises (Dionne Warwick)
053 The April Fools (Dionne Warwick)
054 Reach Out and Touch - All Kinds of People (Dionne Warwick)
055 This Girl's in Love with You (Dionne Warwick)
056 Wanting Things (Dionne Warwick)
057 Where Would I Go (Dionne Warwick)
058 Who Is Gonna Love Me (Dionne Warwick)
059 Whoever You Are, I Love You (Dionne Warwick)
060 Walkin' Backwards Down the Road (Dionne Warwick)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/PQUwnfKQ

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/VBcAZtk0uWxyYgh/file

The cover photo shows her on an unknown TV show in London, in 1968.

Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Dionne Warwick - Dionne, Burt and Hal: The Definitive Songbook, Volume 3: 1966-1967 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here’s another Dionne Warwick album in Mike Solof’s series of all the songs she sang written by Hal David and/or Burt Bacharach. I’ll keep my comments short. But I’ll note I think the three of them were peaking around this time until the end of the 1960s, with songwriting, production, and singing.

This album is 39 minutes long.

035 I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself (Dionne Warwick)
036 Go with Love (Dionne Warwick)
037 Message to Michael (Dionne Warwick)
038 Trains and Boats and Planes (Dionne Warwick)
039 Here, Where There Is Love [Alternate Version] (Dionne Warwick)
040 What the World Needs Now Is Love (Dionne Warwick)
041 Alfie (Dionne Warwick)
042 The Windows of the World (Dionne Warwick)
043 Another Night (Dionne Warwick)
044 The Beginning of Loneliness (Dionne Warwick)
045 Walk Little Dolly (Dionne Warwick)
046 I Say a Little Prayer [Alternate Version] (Dionne Warwick)
047 [There's] Always Something There to Remind Me (Dionne Warwick)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oLsc5LBu

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/NEh31dMotYhnVFJ/file

The cover photo was taken backstage during an engagement at the Copacabana nightclub in New York City, on May 2, 1967.

Monday, March 9, 2026

Dionne Warwick - Dionne, Burt and Hal: The Definitive Songbook, Volume 2: 1965 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here is the second volume collecting all the songs Dionne Warwick written by Hal David and/or Burt Bacharach. Like all the other albums in this series, this was mainly put together by guest poster Mike Solof.

Since I’m writing this on vacation, I’ll keep the comments short. Enjoy.

This album is 44 minutes long. 

019 Are You There [With Another Girl] (Dionne Warwick)
020 Don't Go Breaking My Heart (Dionne Warwick)
021 Don't Say I Didn't Tell You So (Dionne Warwick)
022 Forever My Love (Dionne Warwick)
023 If I Ever Make You Cry (Dionne Warwick)
024 Here I Am (Dionne Warwick)
025 Is There Another Way to Love Him (Dionne Warwick)
026 Wives and Lovers (Dionne Warwick)
027 Looking with My Eyes (Dionne Warwick)
028 In Between the Heartaches (Dionne Warwick)
029 Only the Strong, Only the Brave (Dionne Warwick)
030 Window Wishing (Dionne Warwick)
031 How Many Days of Sadness (Dionne Warwick)
032 That's Not the Answer (Dionne Warwick)
033 How Can I Hurt You (Dionne Warwick)
034 Long Day, Short Night (Dionne Warwick)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/dC4gq6mc

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/eODweEN1JWe1Yrp/file 

The cover photo was taken in Hyde Park, in London, in 1965. 

Saturday, March 7, 2026

Dionne Warwick - Dionne, Burt and Hal: The Definitive Songbook, Volume 1: 1962-1964 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

In the last album I posted, I mentioned that I'm leaving for a two week vacation to Peru, starting tomorrow morning. But while I'm gone, I'm hoping to keep post albums from time to time. Most or all of the albums will be from two big musical projects, one by Fabio from Rio, and the other by Mike Solof. I've gotten them ready in a kind of assembly line fashion, and they take little extra work for me. That's the plan anyway.

So you already know the Fabio project: Covered albums for Neil Young. This Mike Solof project attempts to collect all the songs Dionne Warwick sang that were written by Hal David and/or Burt Bacharach. The vast majority were written by both, until the last couple of albums.

A couple of weeks ago, Mike came to me with the idea for this collection. I was delighted, because I already made a bunch of "Covered" albums for the Burt Bacharach and Hal David songwriting team. But when I did that, I deliberately avoided including any Warwick versions, because otherwise those albums would have probably been more than half her versions. So this collection perfectly complements that one. So a big thanks from me to Mike for making these albums. I did the cover art and some other minor things, but he was the one who collected all the songs.

Mike managed to find enough music for seven albums, plus a bonus album we'll explain later. If you want to know more, check out Mike's PDF included in the download zip. In fact, it's the same PDF for all the albums in this series.  

By the way, note that the song numbering begins with 001, 002, 003, etc... That's because Mike wanted the numbering from the end of one album to continue with the beginning of the next one. That way, you can put all the songs in one mega-album if you want. Since there's over a 100 songs, we have the extra zero at the same of each number. 

This album is 54 minutes long. 

001 Don't Make Me Over (Dionne Warwick)
002 I Smiled Yesterday (Dionne Warwick)
003 Wishin' and Hopin' (Dionne Warwick)
004 I Cry Alone (Dionne Warwick)
005 Make the Music Play (Dionne Warwick)
006 It's Love that Really Counts (Dionne Warwick)
007 The Love of a Boy (Dionne Warwick)
008 This Empty Place (Dionne Warwick)
009 A House Is Not a Home (Dionne Warwick)
010 Land of Make Believe (Dionne Warwick)
011 The Last One to Be Loved (Dionne Warwick)
012 Reach Out for Me (Dionne Warwick)
013 Anyone Who Had a Heart (Dionne Warwick)
014 Any Old Time of Day [Alternate Version] (Dionne Warwick)
015 I Could Make You Mine (Dionne Warwick)
016 Please Make Him Love Me (Dionne Warwick)
017 Walk On By (Dionne Warwick)
018 You'll Never Get to Heaven [If You Break My Heart] (Dionne Warwick)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/75y7xMfQ

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/5blQU4ahwkF5DEG/file

The cover image shows, from right to left: Hal David, Dionne Warwick, and Burt Bacharach. I don't know the details, but it's from some time in the 1960s. The original was in black and white, and very poor quality. I got it in somewhat decent shape colorizing it with the Kolorize program, then cleaning it up and adding detail with the Krea AI program.

Since some people didn't like the transformation I made of this image, here's the totally unchanged black and white version, in case you want to use that instead. As you can see, the AI program made some changes as I tried to improve the quality. I wasn't happy with those, but I preferred the end result over the rough original. If anyone can do better, please do, and post it here.

Friday, December 5, 2025

Dionne Warwick - BBC In Concert, Mermaid Theatre, London, Britain, 9-4-2005

Here's a BBC concert for Dionne Warwick. She's had a very long career, starting in the early 1960s and continuing to this day as I write this in 2025, but this seems to be the only concert that she did for the BBC, at least as far as I can tell.

It's too bad this wasn't from earlier in her career. But in terms of song selection, it basically was. I'm pretty sure that every single song here is from the early 1960s until the early 1980s, which was her long hit-making era. And, not surprisingly for her, the vast majority of the songs were written by the remarkable songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

After a long spoken intro over some music, the rest of the concert is practically one long medley, with almost no breaks between songs. But she alternated between performing truncated versions of some songs and full versions of other songs.

This is another album where I must thank musical friend Progsprog. I didn't know this existed, and it doesn't seem available on the Internet. But he had it and sent it to me. 

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 56 minutes long. 

01 Intro (Dionne Warwick)
02 Here I Am - The April Fools (Dionne Warwick)
03 Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (Dionne Warwick)
04 Arthur's Theme [Best That You Can Do] (Dionne Warwick)
05 [Theme From] Valley of the Dolls (Dionne Warwick)
06 The Look of Love (Dionne Warwick)
07 A House Is Not a Home (Dionne Warwick)
08 What the World Needs Now Is Love (Dionne Warwick)
09 Walk On By (Dionne Warwick)
10 Anyone Who Had a Heart (Dionne Warwick)
11 You'll Never Get to Heaven [If You Break My Heart] (Dionne Warwick)
12 Message to Michael (Dionne Warwick)
13 This Girl's in Love with You (Dionne Warwick)
14 Alfie (Dionne Warwick)
15 talk (Dionne Warwick)
16 All the Love in the World (Dionne Warwick)
17 Heartbreaker (Dionne Warwick)
18 I'll Never Love This Way Again (Dionne Warwick)
19 That's What Friends Are For (Dionne Warwick)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/aYDRxKe1

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/3s6AFby3w3E90gj/file

The cover photo isn't from this exact concert, but it's close. It's from the concert she did the night before, at the Hackney Empire in London, on September 3, 2005.

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Various Artists - A Tribute to Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 6-29-2000

Unfortunately, I'm all done posting Gershwin Prize and MusiCares tribute concerts, at least until more of them become publicly available. But there are other similar tribute concerts out there. This one is so similar in format that it's basically the same as the other two kinds of concerts. This concert honors the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. 

In fact, there was a Gershwin Prize concert in 2012 honoring these two songwriters. But I'd argue this one is superior. For one thing, its twice as long. But also, it has more big name stars, especially Dionne Warwick, who is widely considered the top singer of Bacharach-David songs.

I'm not sure of the exact reason for this concert, be it an anniversary or something like that. But I suppose it doesn't matter much. But I do know the profits from the concert went to support the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy non-profit. And it was broadcast on TV at the time, and later released on DVD. That's how I have it here in excellent sound quality, since it's never been released on any audio format.

By the way, I know Hal David was there, because of photos of him there, including the cover photo I selected. But there's no sign of him on this recording. I suspect he gave a speech near the end of the concert, just like Burt Bacharach did, but his speech got edited out of the TV show (and thus the DVD) since Bacharach is the much more famous one out of the two. 

This album is an hour and 42 minutes long. 

01 talk (emcee)
02 Wives and Lovers (Kenny Lynch)
03 talk (emcee)
04 One Less Bell to Answer (Lucie Silvas)
05 talk (emcee)
06 Don't Make Me Over (Lynden David Hall)
07 talk (emcee)
08 Reach Out for Me (Brian Kennedy)
09 talk (emcee)
10 Do You Know the Way to San Jose (Yazz)
11 talk (emcee)
12 You'll Never Get to Heaven (Shola Ama)
13 talk (emcee)
14 Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (Sacha Distel)
15 talk (emcee)
16 This Guy's in Love with You (Paul Carrack)
17 talk (emcee)
18 A House Is Not a Home (Petula Clark)
19 Wishin' and Hopin' (Petula Clark)
20 [They Long to Be] Close to You (Petula Clark)
21 talk (emcee)
22 [There's] Always Something There to Remind Me (Leo Sayer)
23 talk (emcee)
24 Alfie (Sumudu Jayatilaka)
25 talk (emcee)
26 I'll Never Fall in Love Again (Brian Kennedy)
27 talk (emcee)
28 What's New Pussycat (Brian Conley)
29 Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa (Brian Conley)
30 talk (emcee)
31 I Just Have to Breathe (Teish O'Day)
32 talk (emcee)
33 Make It Easy on Yourself (Edwin Starr)
34 talk (emcee)
35 The Look of Love (Linda Lewis)
36 talk (emcee)
37 Elvis Costello (talk)
38 I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself (Elvis Costello with Burt Bacharach)
39 talk (emcee)
40 Walk on By (Dionne Warwick with Burt Bacharach)
41 I Say a Little Prayer (Dionne Warwick with Burt Bacharach)
42 Do You Know the Way to San Jose (Dionne Warwick with Burt Bacharach)
43 Anyone Who Had a Heart (Dionne Warwick with Burt Bacharach)
44 What the World Needs Now Is Love (Dionne Warwick & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6Ec9rngv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/mrGkAfgvmiFeA5M/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. That's Bacharach on the left and David, wearing glasses, on the right.

Sunday, October 12, 2025

Various Artists - Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 9-7-2001

Given I've posted well over 3,000 albums by now, it surprises me I haven't posted anything starring Michael Jackson until now. But I only came across something worthy a few days ago, when I found this concert. I think it's a really interesting concert even if you're not a big Michael Jackson fan. It's got a lot of big stars singing classic songs.

Jackson's solo music career began in 1971, even as he continued to perform as part of the Jackson 5 (later renamed to the Jacksons) for many years. So someone came up with the idea of a concert to celebrate the first 30 years of his solo career. This concert was his first major concert appearance in the mainland U.S. since 1993, and in any country since 1997. (I say "major" because he occasionally sang a song or two for awards shows and the like.) It also would prove to be his last major concert appearance. (When he died in 2009 of cardiac arrest related to drug use, he was a few weeks away from starting his next major world tour.)

Before I go further, I need to explain that the title has this taking place on September 7, 2001, but that's not entirely true. There actually were two very similar concerts, one on September 7th, and the other on September 10th. A second concert was added because of the great ticket demand. Highlights from the concert were shown on CBS in the U.S. a couple of months later. They picked the best performances from the two nights. I don't know which songs is from which in most cases, so I'm just saying this took place on September 7th, for simplicity's sake, and because it was reported that most of the footage came from the 7th. 

However, in a few cases I do know which song is from which date, because some of the acts only performed in one of the two concerts. For instance, Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick, Gloria Gaynor, Missy Elliott, Nelly Furtado, and Aaron Carter all only performed on the 10th. Others, like Whitney Houston and Britney Spears, only performed on the 7th. But I'd say about 80 percent of the song list was the same both nights.

You can see the set list from both nights at the Wikipedia page about this concert event:

Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration - Wikipedia 

The vast majority of this album is from a DVD released from the concert, which is very similar to the TV broadcast. I guess there were some slight differences though, and maybe different songs in different broadcasts, because I was able to find a few more songs when I kept digging. For instance, the celebrated duet between Jackson and Britney Spears on the song "The Way You Make Me Feel" apparently wasn't shown on the original broadcast, but eventually did make it into a later rebroadcast.

After digging around, mostly on YouTube, I was able to find the vast majority of the songs, all in pretty good sound quality. However, a few remained elusive. For instance, Ray Charles and Cassandra Wilson performed a duet of the song "Crying Time" that I really would have liked to hear. But the only version I found was from some shaky audience video footage with pretty bad sound quality, so I skipped that one. A humanitarian speech by actor Marlon Brando also wasn't found, probably because it was reportedly booed by the crowd. A medley of "Never Never Land" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" Liza Minnelli wasn't found. I did find "My Baby" by Lil' Romeo and Master P, but I disliked the song so much that I couldn't bear to include it. It was just "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5 with rapping on top. Ugh! The original, performed at the concert, is a million times better.

Surprisingly, the finale song "We Are the World," the 1985 famine relief charity single co-written by Michael Jackson, was not included in the DVD or any of the TV broadcasts. I found a version from an audience bootleg that sounded pretty rough, but I decided to include it due to its key role in the concert, with everyone from earlier in the concert on stage and many of the big names singing individual lines. I tried to clean it up as best I could, running it through the MVSEP program two times for various reasons, but there was only so much I could do. That was the case with the talking track right after it as well. That's why those two have "[Edit]" in their titles.

Probably the biggest news of this concert, other than the rarity of Michael Jackson performing for the first time in several years, was the reunion of the Jacksons (a.k.a. the Jackson 5). This was the first time in 17 years they performed together, and it would be the last with Michael's inclusion. Actually, it was one of the rare times all six performed together. (In the mid-1970s, Jermaine Jackson left the group and was replaced by Randy Jackson.)    

This album is two hours and two minutes long. I checked, and Michael Jackson was on stage for slightly less than half of that.

01 talk (Samuel L. Jackson)
02 Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (Whitney Houston, Mya & Usher)
03 Midnight Train to Georgia (Gladys Knight)
04 I'll Never Love This Way Again (Dionne Warwick)
05 I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)
06 Get Ur Freak On (Missy Elliott & Nelly Furtado)
07 I Want Candy (Aaron Carter)
08 Home (Monica)
09 You Can't Win (Jill Scott)
10 Ease On Down the Road (Deborah Cox, Al Jarreau, Monica & Jill Scott)
11 Ben (Billy Gilman)
12 Angel - It Wasn't Me (Shaggy, Rayvon & Rikrock)
13 Heal the World (Deborah Cox, Rah Digga, Monica, Mya & Tamia)
14 She's Out of My Life (Marc Anthony)
15 Bootylicious (Destiny's Child)
16 You Are Not Alone (Liza Minnelli)
17 I Just Can't Stop Loving You (Gloria Estefan & James Ingram)
18 Man in the Mirror (98 Degrees, Usher & Luther Vandross)
19 talk (Elizabeth Taylor)
20 Can You Feel It (Jacksons)
21 ABC - The Love You Save (Jacksons)
22 I'll Be There (Jacksons)
23 talk (Jacksons)
24 I Want You Back (Jacksons)
25 Dancing Machine (Jacksons & NSYNC)
26 Shake Your Body [Down to the Ground] (Jacksons)
27 The Way You Make Me Feel (Michael Jackson & Britney Spears)
28 talk (Chris Tucker)
29 Black or White (Michael Jackson, Jason Paige & Slash)
30 Beat It (Michael Jackson, Jason Paige & Slash)
31 Billie Jean (Michael Jackson)
32 You Rock My World (Michael Jackson)
33 We Are the World [Edit] (Michael Jackson, Ray Charles & Everybody)
34 talk [Edit] (Michael Jackson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iBBo6SCr

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/zGamSEAhq7LPvJS/file

There are two parts to the cover art. The top part was taken from promotional material from the concert, with some extra text added by me at the bottom. The main photo shows Michael Jackson and Britney Spears singing a duet during this exact concert.

Thursday, March 20, 2025

Dionne Warwick - PBS Soundstage, Park West, Chicago, IL, 10-12-1980

Here's another "PBS Soundstage" show. This one is a concert from Dionne Warwick in 1980.

Warwick was very commercially successful in the 1960s, but the 1970s were much more uneven for her. She largely lost her source of seemingly endless classics from the Burt Bacharach and Hal David songwriting team. She did have a Number One hit in 1974 with "Then Came You," but that was almost her only big hit of the decade. Until 1979, that is. She rebounded that year with the hits "I'll Never Love This Way Again" and "Deja Vu." 

So at the time of this concert, she was in the middle of a comeback. Naturally, she performed both of those songs in this concert. However, the vast majority of the concert was made up of what is probably the biggest medley I've ever come across. She did a medley of over twenty songs (she said 23 in her banter, but I count 21), that lasts for over half of the whole concert! During the medley, she just played sections, never complete songs. I broke it into shorter tracks, because otherwise the length of the song title would have been unworkable.

I found a video of this concert, converted it to audio, and chopped it up into mp3s. There are very few audio bootlegs of Warwick concerts, especially from when she was younger. I'm glad to put another one into circulation.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 With One More Look at You (Dionne Warwick)
02 Watch Closely Now (Dionne Warwick)
03 Deja Vu (Dionne Warwick)
04 talk (Dionne Warwick)
05 Don't Make Me Over - Anyone Who Had a Heart (Dionne Warwick)
06 You'll Never Get to Heaven [If You Break My Heart] - A House is Not a Home (Dionne Warwick)
07 Message to Michael - Trains and Boats and Planes (Dionne Warwick)
08 The Look of Love (Dionne Warwick)
09 [They Long to Be] Close to You (Dionne Warwick)
10 I Say a Little Prayer - Alfie (Dionne Warwick)
11 Do You Know the Way to San Jose - [Theme From] Valley of the Dolls (Dionne Warwick)
12 [There's] Always Something There to Remind Me (Dionne Warwick)
13 This Girl's in Love with You - The April Fools (Dionne Warwick)
14 You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling - I'll Never Fall in Love Again (Dionne Warwick)
15 Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head - Promises, Promises (Dionne Warwick)
16 What the World Needs Now Is Love - Then Came You (Dionne Warwick)
17 The Letter (Dionne Warwick)
18 I'll Never Love This Way Again (Dionne Warwick)
19 Finale (Dionne Warwick)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UvDmyoNu

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/hviORl94K6QB3oV/file

The cover image is a screenshot from a video of this exact concert.

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach - The Rainbow Room, New York City, 12-31-1996

Songwriter Burt Bacharach died in February 2023. He was 94 years old. Because he was such a musical giant, along with his songwriting partner Hal David, I wanted to post something from him in tribute. But there are virtually no Bacharach related bootlegs, and I had already posted seven albums of his songs in my Covered series. But finally, a couple of months later, I came up with something that serves as a good tribute, so here it is.

The person best known for singing Bacharach's songs is Dionne Warwick. The two of them occasionally went on tour together, and this concert is from one such tour. I found this because it was released on DVD as "Live from the Rainbow Room." But it seems to be a pretty obscure release, and it was never put out as an album.

Bacharach was a great songwriter, but although he put out many albums under his own name, his vocal abilities were limited. (Most of his solo stuff was instrumental.) He does sing a bit here, but, wisely, the vast majority of the lead vocals were done by Warwick. There are lots of songs here co-written by Bacharach and then made into hits by Warwick, plus a couple that were hits by others ("[They Long to Be] Close to You," "One Less Bell to Answer," and "What the World Needs Now Is Love"). But there are even more hits that they didn't get to. I could be wrong, but I think the only song here Bacharach didn't have a hand in writing is "(Theme From) Valley of the Dolls."

This concert recording is rather strange in two respects. The first is that the vast majority of songs were done in truncated versions in medleys. I guess they really wanted to cram in as many songs are possible in a limited time. It's possible that the actual concert was different but things were edited down for the DVD release. The other strange thing is that there are some voice-overs by Warwick or Bacharach, where they talk about the song during instrumental sections. One can find the video of this concert on YouTube, and it's clear from that that much of the talking didn't take place during the concert. It's not a terrible thing, but I thought I'd point that out.

This concert is 56 minutes long.

01 talk (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
02 Don't Make Me Over - Walk on By (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
03 I Say a Little Prayer - Do You Know the Way to San Jose (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
04 talk (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
05 [They Long to Be] Close to You (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
06 I'll Never Fall in Love Again (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
07 [There's] Always Something There to Remind Me (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
08 One Less Bell to Answer (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
09 Anyone Who Had a Heart (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
10 talk (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
11 Make It Easy on Yourself (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
12 I'll Never Love This Way Again (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
13 talk (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
14 Here I Am - The April Fools (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
15 Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
16 Arthur's Theme [The Best That You Can Do] - What's New Pussycat (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
17 [Theme From] Valley of the Dolls (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
18 The Look of Love (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
19 A House Is Not a Home (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
20 What the World Needs Now Is Love (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
21 Alfie (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
22 talk (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)
23 That's What Friends Are For (Dionne Warwick & Burt Bacharach)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15192198/DionneW_1996_RainbwRoomNYC__12-31-1996_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London in June 2000.

Sunday, May 22, 2022

Dionne Warwick - 27 Club, Knokke, Belgium, 12-31-1964

Here's something I randomly came across on YouTube today, and thought I'd share straight away.

Dionne Warwick bootlegs are few and far between. She has a few live albums, but they're not that essential, because her live shows were carefully crafted without much spontaneity. But here's a concert that's worth hearing. It's from very early in her long music career. Her first single was released in late 1962, and this concert took place just two years later, on the last day of 1964. But she already had a bunch of classic songs she was associated with, thanks to her association with the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

The only other live recording I know from around this time is her first official live album, "In Paris." That was recorded and released in 1966. But that's significantly different, with only three of the same songs - "A House Is Not a Home," "Walk On By," and "What'd I Say."

This was recorded for a TV show in Belgium (which you can find on YouTube, as I did). It was recorded in a very small club of less than a 100 people. If you watch the video, it looks as if there's no backing band. But an astute viewer noted in YouTube commented that if you watch closely, at one point part of someone playing guitar can be seen off stage. So it's likely that the rest of the band was hidden off stage too, so the TV show could concentrate entirely on Warwick and the crowd reactions.

Warwick barely said anything between songs, other than a few "thank you" comments. But even though the performances are close to the record versions, this shows she could "bring it" in live shows, without the benefit of overdubs or retakes, which was common for official live albums in those days.

The sound quality is very good for a bootleg of this early era, since it was professionally recorded for a TV show and a good version still exists. The one bummer about the recording though is that it's fairly short, at just 28 minutes.

01 Don't Make Me Over (Dionne Warwick)
02 This Empty Place (Dionne Warwick)
03 People (Dionne Warwick)
04 A House Is Not a Home (Dionne Warwick)
05 Any Old Time of Day (Dionne Warwick)
06 Anyone Who Had a Heart (Dionne Warwick)
07 Walk On By (Dionne Warwick)
08 What'd I Say (Dionne Warwick)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cbpc17RC

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/4iT2VW40zQaJMYw/file

For the cover photo, I took a screenshot of the exact concert in question. It was in black and white, so I jazzed it up by adding some color. I chose a shot where you can see some of the audience in the background, to show how small the club was, and how close she was to the audience. Also, if you look closely, in the upper right of the cover you can see a TV camera on a tripod. There were several of those in the room.

In March 2025, I decided to fully colorize the cover image instead of just tinting it. I used the program Kolorize. I'm impressed with the results. I also improved the image some more with the Krea AI program.