Dionne Warwick - Cherry Red 12 CD set of Sceptor Recordings 1962-1971

[felser]

Coming May 27.   280 tracks, 14 hours.   Amazing stuff, I can't wait.

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/dionne-warwick-make-it-easy-on-yourself-the-scepter-recordings-1962-1971-12cd-slipcase

[JSngry]

I did most of this work thru the blogosphere back in the day and learned that when Bacharach was not deeply involved the material too often became filler quality, and there was more of that than I would have preferred. Not surprising, Pop albums of the time did that. There's less filler here than on many artists' albums and the stuff with Bacharach is truly wonderful. But he's not everywhere, alas 

Plus. The live stuff was not yet gelled. The gospel stuff I would have to revisit, but my recollection of it was...disappointing. But at the time I was deeply immersed in classic Hard Gospel and some contemporary mass choir stuff, so ..perceptions possibly skewed.

Still, that's a really good price and the packaging will no doubt be good. If anybody thinks that the Warwick/Bacharach magic was limited to the hits, this would be the perfect place to discover otherwise!

[Teasing the Korean]

I have a three-CD set of all of her Scepter singles, A&B sides.  It is around 95% Bacharach.  Beyond the hits, you get a number of amazing B-sides that you may not have heard.  This set is mostly mono, and the mono mixes of the early tracks are so much better than the thin stereo versions we've heard all these decades. 

I don't see anything about mono/stereo content on this box set. If the early albums are presented in mono, I may spring for this, but if it is all-stereo or mostly stereo, I'm not so sure.  I have many of these on LP as it is.

[felser]

Agreed that there are some wonderful deep Bacharach/David cuts by Warwick.  Decades ago, Rhino put out a CD called 'Hidden Gems' which highlighted some of them.   My favorite Warwick record (and one of my favorite records, period), "Reach Out For Me", got lost in the early 1964 Beatlemania shuffle and only reached #20 on the Billboard Pop Charts.  It is increasingly a very emotional listen for me as I age and experience life, and sometimes I play it several times in a row. As mentioned by Jim and TTK, I agree that a lot of great work by her was B-sides, album cuts, low-charting A-sides, almost all written by Bacharach/David.  And she or Sceptor passed on releasing her versions of some great Bacharach/David songs as A-side singles, and they went on to be big hits for others.  Foremost is "What The World Needs Now Is Love", which saved Jackie DeShannon's career (and Warwick's version doesn't approach DeShannon's emotion and urgency - Warwick did not like the song, said it was "Too country").  Others include "Make It Easy On Yourself" (Jerry Butler, Walker Brothers), "Wishin' and Hopin" (Dusty Springfield), "Close To You" (Carpenters), "The Look of Love" (Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66, Dusty Springfield), etc.  Another of my favorite lost deep cuts is her version of "It's Love That Really Counts", though she could not match the vulnerability the Shirelles brought to that one.

I own maybe half of the cuts on the upcoming box, but between the price and the expected top quality packaging and remastering, I'm all in and will sell off my current ownings of this material.

 

Edited Sunday at 05:25 PM by felser

[mjzee]

Interesting that Amazon doesn’t have it yet.  Maybe Dusty Groove.

I have 5 of these albums as an Original Album Series.  I’ll see if this box is offered in mono.

Anyone remember when she changed the spelling of her last name to Warwicke on the advice of her astrologer?

[JSngry]

10 minutes ago, mjzee said:

Anyone remember when she changed the spelling of her last name to Warwicke on the advice of her astrologer?

I do!

[felser]

Full details here:

https://theseconddisc.com/2025/03/31/dont-walk-on-by-dionne-warwicks-make-it-easy-on-yourself-the-scepter-recordings-1962-1971-due-in-june-on-12-cds-from-soulmusic-second-disc/

[mjzee]

This is the one I own:

One album per disc.  All albums are between 31 - 35 minutes.

[felser]

39 minutes ago, mjzee said:

This is the one I own:

One album per disc.  All albums are between 31 - 35 minutes.

I owned that at one point, upgraded to the Edsel sets which came out in 2014 (194 cuts on 9 CD's,they were a substantial improvement in every regard).  The sound quality difference between the set you have and what Cherry Red will do in the remastering is likely to be astounding.  But that doesn't matter much unless her music is important to you (it is to me).

[jlhoots]

What did Aretha Franklin say about Dionne Warwick?

 

 

 

"We've never been friends and I don't think that Dionne has ever liked me." Aretha Franklin died the following year on 16th August 2018, and it seems that two iconic R&B singers refused to let bygones be bygones even at the very end.

 

Wonder what that was about. 

[mjzee]

26 minutes ago, jlhoots said:

What did Aretha Franklin say about Dionne Warwick?

 

 

 

"We've never been friends and I don't think that Dionne has ever liked me." Aretha Franklin died the following year on 16th August 2018, and it seems that two iconic R&B singers refused to let bygones be bygones even at the very end.

 

Wonder what that was about. 

https://pagesix.com/2017/05/06/how-the-aretha-franklin-and-dionne-warwick-feud-began/

https://www.goldradio.com/news/music/aretha-franklin-dionne-warwick-feud-explained/

Might just be professional rivalry or jealousy.  Aretha sounds a bit unhinged.