Definitive Collection

Dionne Warwick

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 13, 1999)
• Original Release Date: April 13, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Arista
• ASIN: B00000IFVX
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #32,737 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This 20-track career overview's problems are summed up by the differences between two songs. "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," released in 1969, came near the end of Warwick's classic collaborative period with Burt Bacharach and Hal David; contrast its witty approach to heartbreak ("What do you get when you kiss a guy? / You get enough germs to catch pneumonia / And after you do, he'll never phone ya") with "I'll Never Love This Way Again," the single that launched her chart comeback a decade later. That track encapsulates everything wrong with late-'70s easy listening, right down to the turgid Barry Manilow production. Saddest, though, is Warwick's capitulation to empty displays of technique over the perfectly sung vulnerability she specialized in with Bacharach and David. Skip this set in favor of The Dionne Warwick Collection, 24 masterpieces from the earlier period that will rarely be far from your CD player. As for Warwick's terrific 1974 meeting with the Spinners on "Then Came You," you'd do better to check out a greatest-hits set by those smooth-soul champs. --Rickey Wright

Product Description

European only Gold Disc packaged in an exclusive slipcase. The Definitive Collection is just that, a 20-track retrospective of the New Jersey songstress' entire career. Extensive liner notes trace her career from roots in gospel to session work as a background singer, on through her association with Burt Bacharach and many later collaborations with some of the biggest names in music. The first nine tracks are all classic '60s tunes written by Bacharach and Hal David. The songwriting team presented Warwick with such chestnuts as 'Walk On By', 'Alfie', and 'I Say A Little Prayer', and she croons them perfectly. 'Then Came You', Warwick's duet with The Spinners, shows how she changed soulfully with the times. In an age when every female R&B artist is being marketed as a Diva, the 25 years of music on this album prove that Warwick has indisputably earned her title. Arista. 2005. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Compilation Ruined, October 7, 2005

By	zugzwang - See all my reviews

The Definitive Collection should have been one of the best compilations of the great Dionne Warwick's career yet. The song selection leaves out some of Dionne's' older '60s hits, but does encompass the full range of her successful career.

The remastering job sounds superb, and that is the top criteria I look for in CDs these days. They've applied 20-bit digital mastering from the original master tapes.

Unfortunately, and this is a real problem, on several of the tracks the first few seconds of the song have been truncated. Cutting off the first few notes of a song simply ruins it. It's unforgivable that professionals at a major label can publish something flawed this badly and no one notice. Yet I notice the screw ups the first time I listen to this CD.

The flawed tracks are: Alfie, Do You Know The Way To San Jose, Don't Make Me Over, I Say A Little Prayer, Message To Michael, Walk On By, The Windows Of The World, Deja Vu, After You, Love Power, That's What Friends Are For. The intro was truncated on practically EVERY single track. It's possible that I just received a bad CD, but that's not very likely.

Despite the great promise of this otherwise wonderful CD, cutting off the intros renders the CD unusable for listening - and a waste of money, unless you plan to just sample from it.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dionne rocks, July 22, 2000

By	Travis - See all my reviews

i'll come clean and say i don't actually have this CD, so therefore i don't know some of the tracks. Luckily, i have quite a few Dionne vinyl LPs, so i get the jist of this one. i'm really glad this is not another "all 60's" Dionne Warwick compilation. Sure, i love her 60's stuff, but i feel that some of her later 70's/80's material had more of a natural "oomph" in them, and weren't so formulaic. i'm also glad more recent stuff is on here because that's what most compilations of her lack. My favorite off the top of my head would have to be "Heartbreaker". Last February, i picked up the "Heartbreaker" LP, and the title song was the song that introduced me to the diva Dionne. Ever since, i have been hooked. Sure, it's a little formulaic in that just about every Barry Gibb song is like that (especially the unmistakeable backing vocals), but it's catchy, realistic (except for the line "My love is stronger than the universe"), and Dionne's vocals are great as usual. i'm also glad they included 2 songs from her great 1987 release "Reservations For Two", the tracks being the title track (a #62 hit in 1987, and a duet with Kashif), and the #14 hit "Love Power", sung with Jeffrey Osborne. My favorite is the latter, with classic 80's electric piano/synthesizers, good vocals on both sides, and clever lyrics. (The repetition does get to me after a while, though.) Including both "I'll Never Love This Way Again" and "Deja Vu" from her 1979 smash "Dionne" was another smart decision. "Deja Vu" has really grown on me, and i especially love the "odd-couple marriage" of heavy bass, string arrangements, and dreamy vocals. "I'll Never Love This Way Again" holds its own as one of Dionne's best ballads. Other good contenders include "No Night So Long", "How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye" (i'm sort of surprised they included 2 cuts from that LP, considering it was somewhat ignored), and even "That's What Friends Are For". Of course, we're talking about Dionne Warwick, so who can forget her classic 1960's singles? "Walk On By" by far is the best, with staccato back-up vocals, a beautiful piano part, and a young 20-something Dionne that sounds like a cross between her cousin Cissy Houston, and Cissy's now-infamous daughter Whitney. The witty "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" fits like a gem on any classic Easy Listening AM radio station, which certainly adds to it rather than be a burden. The ultra-60's "Do You Know The Way To San Jose" can't be forgotten either. Of course, most of these are classics, but i have a couple problems with this compilation. First of all, WHY no "Valley Of The Dolls"? It figures that one of her shining moments is overlooked. Also, if they included non-successful songs like "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" (was that even a single?) and "After You", then why not include better lesser-known material, like the 1985 single "Without Your Love", and the 1982 single "Take The Short Way Home", (which nearly made the Top 40)? Well, i guess i'll just have to retreat back to my room and the turntable and let the good times roll. In a nutshell, any Dionne fan should definitely own this. (So maybe i should actually buy it!) It's sort of a shame that Dionne has taken such a back-seat to the music world today, and it's time we start listening again!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly mastered..., May 13, 2008

A Kid's Review

The problem with this CD is that whoever did the mastering didn't know how to insert track-markings. If you are scanning through the disc, you might think that the introductions of many songs have been cut off. What has happened is that [...] Arista placed most of the track markings AFTER songs have started (You have to back-up and listen to the end of a previous track in order to hear the beginning of the next one).

Naturally, if you play the CD from start to finish, you'll never notice this problem.

This is really sad because the quality of the sound is very good, and the CD is probably the best representation of Warwick's work. But I wouldn't recommend this disc because of the technical flaw.