Among the graduates of the Lincoln School in East Orange, New Jersey, Dionne Warwick is one for the books. A six-time Grammy winner, she is the second most-charted feminine vocalist of the rock period. And so, it is becoming that at the moment the varsity is now referred to as the Dionne Warwick Institute.
She continues to offer again to her old fashioned. “Oh, absolutely. There are so many in these classrooms that are filling their heads with hope and joy and peace,” she mentioned.
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Warwick, whose actual title is Marie Warrick, was born right into a musical household. Her mom and siblings carried out because the Drinkard Sisters. “It was almost like it was preordained, that if you’re in this family, this is what you’re gonna do,” she mentioned.
And at 6 years previous, her grandfather, a minister, referred to as her as much as the pulpit to sing. “After I finished singing, the whole congregation stood and applauded me,” she mentioned. “That was my first standing ovation.”
It wouldn’t be her final. Starting within the early Sixties, a collaboration with lyricist Hal David and composer Burt Bacharach would result in hit after hit: “I Say a Little Prayer,” “What the World Needs Now,” “Walk On By,” “You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart).”
“I thought we were very strange,” Warwick laughed, “because of what we were doing musically; nobody else was doing that kind of stuff. Nobody sings five different measures in five different time frames – but I do. Why? It was something that I found quite refreshing … We were kind of pioneers.”
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Though she was competing on the charts towards rockers from the British Invasion, she mentioned “all of those who were in the quote-unquote rock ‘n’ roll era started listening to Bacharach-David-Warwick.”
In 1969 she garnered her first Grammy Award for finest feminine modern pop vocal efficiency for “Do You Know The Way To San Jose?” That similar 12 months, she met Elvis Presley whereas performing in Las Vegas. Cissy Houston, her aunt and the mom of Whitney Houston, was a member of The King’s backing group, the Sweet Inspirations.
“Oh my God, was he pretty!” Warwick laughed. “He said, ‘I’m gonna make an announcement tonight at my show that anyone who goes into a record store and they [buy] any Dionne Warwick album, they will find a photograph signed by me.’ I sold more albums in Vegas than I have ever sold!”
The hits stored coming over the following decade, whilst different artists lined a few of her previous tracks, from Issac Hayes performing “Walk On By,” to the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, singing “Say a Little Prayer.” Warwick got here round to appreciating different artists’ cowl variations: “It got to the point where I understood, or I began to understand, what a compliment that is,” she mentioned.
Though she did not suppose so at first: “No! What are you doing singing my stuff?”
Then, within the early Eighties she was one of many first stars to name consideration to the AIDS epidemic. “We were losing so many people within our industry,” she mentioned. “I wanted to find out, what can we do about this?”
She determined to drag a number of of her personal mates collectively for an excellent trigger, like Elton John: “I ran into Elton – I run into so many people in the grocery store! – I said, ‘Elton, what are you doing tomorrow?'”
Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder joined them to file a model of “That’s What Friends Are For” – a charity single which so far has raised thousands and thousands of {dollars} for the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
At 83, Warwick has stayed as related as ever, from starring in a 2021 sketch on “Saturday Night Live,” to incomes the title “Queen of Twitter,” reaching new generations together with her biting wit. She admits getting fairly saucy on the social media platform: “It’s the only way that they’ll listen to me,” she mentioned.
For Warwick, house is the place she desires to take advantage of profound influence.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to carry messages of hope, inspiration, love, joy, a couple of tears here and there. As long as these two vocal chords function the way He wants them to function, it’ll be there.”
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The 2023 Kennedy Center Honors airs on CBS at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Wednesday, Dec. 27, and streams on Paramount+.
Don’t miss profiles of this 12 months’s different honorees, together with Billy Crystal, Renée Fleming, Barry Gibb and Queen Latifah, all this week on “CBS Mornings.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kennedy-center-honoree-dionne-warwicks-lasting-legacy/