Dionne Warwick, Producer

[grooverider]

While glancing at the credits to an album by Leslie Uggams, "Try To See It My Way", I was very surprised to see that the album was produced by Dionne Warwick, A Dionne Warwick Production. I don't ever remember Ms. Warwick producing an album and this album was from 1972, I believe. I found it interesting that of titles, there was only one Bacharach-David song, the title song. But then I remembered the time frame, when it was released, if indeed it was 1972.
Can anyone shed any light on this album, it's history? I don't remember the label, but it wasn't Scepter or Warner Brothers, I believe it was a "small" label.

[Steve Schenck]

here's a link to the song.

[BachtoBacharach]

Dionne Warwick founded Sonday Records in 1970 and signed Leslie Uggams and The Constellations in 1971. Sonday was distributed nationally by Scepter Records. Warwick owned the company. Warwick also wrote and produced a demo recording for Helen Reddy entitled "Go" and tried to sell Helen to a major label in 1968. Warwick produced a brother/sister duo from Canada named Ronnie and Natalie (Pollock) in late 1968 and their recording "A Red Fire Burns" was released on Capitol Records in 1969. Ronnie and Natalie went on to have several tunes hit the Hot 100 Easy Listening charts in the early 70s for several labels. Warwick also arranged and produced "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" for the 1965 film Thunderball...in what John Barry called one of the most interesting arrangements of the tune he had ever heard. Warwick's recording of Kiss Bang was removed from the film at the last minute and replaced with Tom Jones' Thunderball...rumor has it that the tune was considered to have sexual connotations unacceptible to an American audience...but the truth is that Barry was not impressed with a version of the tune recorded by Shirley Bassey and asked Warwick to cut the tune. Warwick arranged and wrote the charts for her version and also assembled the orchestra to record the tune. When Bassey threatened to sue, the tune was scrapped and the more routine Tom Jones tune was quickly wrtten and substituted. Warwick was an immensely talented musician and arranger and has never been given her due. She also has written other tunes including "Two Ships Passing in the Night" which was the "B" side of the "That's What Friends are For" single and several tunes for her "Watercolors of Brazil" album. She co-produced her 1969 album "Soulful" without any participation from Bacharach/David (except for a Blue/Jac Production credit) and the album was the most successful R & B album ever recorded for the Scepter/Wand family of labels. The album hit #2 on the R&B charts and #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 Album chart in 1969. She also arranged and produced her 1968 Scepter gospel album "The Magic of Believing" also attributed to Blue/Jac but with no participation from Bacharach/David. She was ahead of her time... in the 1960s, few female singers were producing their own recordings much less producing other singers...but the fact that Scepter was helmed by the very female Florence Greenberg allowed Dionne to grow in areas she would have never had the chance to at another label...Dionne was very much a prototypical feminist and an African-American one at that...a pioneer but that fact hasn't been acknowledged frequently or even known much outside New York music circles. Now back to Sonday...Warwick has always had more of an interest in the business side of music than in recording and through the years, has had many outside ventures...and unlike most celebrities...she often put her own money at risk as well as her name. She and Uggams are longtime friends and when Uggams was released from her Columbia contract, Dionne signed her to her own Sonday Label. Warwick traveled the country in 1971 with Leslie promoting the album...many critics felt it was one of the best albums Uggams ever did. Warwick produced all the tunes on the Uggams album and can be heard in the background. One can speculate that Warwick wanted to stretch her wings beyond the Bacharach/David relationship and I believe that is true to an extent but I also believe that Bacharach was not a svengali...far from it ...Warwick inspired Bacharach to push the envelope because she could sing anything he threw at her. What an exponentially synergistic relationship Bacharach/David/Warwick had.

[ron hertel]

BachtoBacharach!
Thanks for the most interesting and informative post. ............ Dionne did her best to promote the Constellations as they appeared as her opening act for a year or two. Her label "Sonday Records" was named in honor of her first born son David who now tours with his Mom from time to time. His baby photo was an integral part of the actual label which appeared on the Sonday LP's. ......... I have a copy of Leslie's "Try And See It My Way" LP containing that label and photo. ....... Hope some of this is information is expanded upon in Dionne's upcoming book scheduled for release this fall!
Ron

[grooverider]

Thank you to all, esp. BachtoBacharach, for the interesting facts surrounding "Try To See It My Way". I really enjoyed the part about "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang". I never knew that Ms. Warwick had recorded it. Has it ever been released?
And, yes, that's absolutely shameful that Ms. Warwick has not been given her due, heading a record label, producing, arranging and conducting, writing for others, what a supreme talent she is!

[BachtoBacharach]

"Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" was released in a James Bond theme boxset in the late 90s I believe and below is a YouTube link with the Warwick arranged and sung version over the titles as it would have been originally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oREmbGD84Kw

[MexicanDivorce]

Thanks very much for this Info, I have "Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" and I discovered when I was in school many years ago on that Movie Bond Album. I was very excieted about the track and at this time I can´t understand it why they choose the Tom Jones "Thunderball". But I never knew that, that Dionne was the producer.

"Try to see it my way" is a wonderful track with Dionne in the backround. Sadly this wonderful album is not available on CD.

Thank you for all this information.

[grooverider]

thank you, BachtoBacharach, for the link to "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang".
I just got the album and listened to it and what a great selection of writers: Jackie De Shannon ("Brighton Hill"), Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil ("I Just Can't Help Believin'"), Stevie Wonder, the great Donny Hathaway and two 60's classics: "Rescue Me" (Fontella Bass) and "The Weight" (The Band).
Ms. Warwick also utilized the talents of two great arrangers: Richard Rome and Don Sebesky.
The engineer was Phil Ramone.
Any info on Leslie Uggams, I'm not too knowledgeable about her? I did like her voice and it's too bad the album wasn't a hit, (was it?) considering the amount of talent involved.
Again, thank you to all who gave so much info on this album.

[BachtoBacharach]

Leslie Uggams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born May 25, 1943 (1943-05-25) (age 67)
New York City, New York, USA
Occupation Actor
Years active 1950s-present
Spouse(s) Grahame Pratt (1965-present)


Leslie Uggams (born May 25, 1943, New York City) is an American actress and singer, perhaps best known for her Tony Award-winning work in Hallelujah, Baby!

Uggams first started in show business as a child in 1950, playing the niece of Ethel Waters on the television series Beulah. She was a regular on Sing Along with Mitch, starring record producer/conductor Mitch Miller. In 1960, she sang, off-screen, "Give Me That Old Time Religion" in the film Inherit the Wind.

She would audition for the lead part in the film Cleopatra, but would lose out to Elizabeth Taylor. Dorothy Dandridge was also in the running, when director Rouben Mamoulian was to direct, but her part was lost when the director was taken off the project.[1][2]

The Leslie Uggams Show, a television variety show added to her list of credits and a lead role in Roots, as Kizzy. Uggams also starred in the 1975 film Poor Pretty Eddy (also called Poor Pretty Eddie, Black Vengeance and Redneck County), in which she played a popular singer who, upon being stranded in the deep South, is abused and humiliated by the perverse denizens of a backwoods town.

Uggams appeared several times on The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960s.

Uggams appeared on TV gameshow Hollywood Squares. After being asked if Roman legend says that God made the people of the world in a large oven, fellow contestant Paul Lynde looked at her and remarked "Looks like you were overcooked". She made a notable guest appearance on The Muppet Show during its third season in tandem with Big Bird. During the 1980s she appeared in Blues in the Night, Jerry's Girls, and replaced Patti LuPone as Reno Sweeney in the Lincoln Center revival of Cole Porter's musical Anything Goes. Later Broadway roles include Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie and Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond at the Cort Theatre. In 1996, Uggams played the role of Rose Keefer on All My Children. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.Early in 2009, Uggams made an appearance as the legendary jazz singer Lena Horne in a production of the stage musical "Stormy Weather" at the Pasadena Playhouse in California.

[recordman]

Calvin Arnold also had a 45 on Sonday.
As did the Gentlemen 4 who had also been on Wand previously (another Dionne production).

Does anyone know who was in the line up of The Constellations please? Their productions on Gemini Star sound great.