Dionne Warwick HEARTBREAKER

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It seems to be a pretty great bargainbin find, Bee Gees songs, Barry Gibb + two dudes production, those lovely BG warm/fluttery backing vocals, and aww it sounds like a breakup rec. Anyone else heard it? Anything to say? Go on.

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 3 January 2005 06:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Dionne Warrick - Don't Make Me Over

The only other DW thread we could find, of limited use/relevance

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 3 January 2005 06:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I liked it a lot at the time, been forever since I've heard it but I really enjoyed what in retrospect was a fairly warm late sixties style singing and production applied to an early eighties song, if that makes any sense.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 3 January 2005 06:04 (twenty-one years ago)

the keyboard intro i sgr8

― maurice jnr, Tuesday, 4 January 2005 05:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I seem to remember it being a big favourite with DLT in the mid 80s. Identikit MOR soul, but not unpleasant. By the way, she performed it again on some special Dionne Warwick retrospective on TOTP2 a few years ago. Her voice was so shot that she COULDN'T SING THE HIGH NOTES ON THE CHORUS. The bit where she sings 'Gotta get out of the spell that
I'm under/My love for you' was too high for her so she had to rewrite the melody.

― john lewis (johnnylewis), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 13:03 (twenty-one years ago)

love this song, unreservedly. YES, the synth-into is classic. YES, the bee gees harmonies really kill. related to Diana Ross's 'chain reaction', i wish the bee gees could've produced/written an album full of such motown/soul confections for their favourite soul singers, back in their prime - a conceptual piece along the lines of their work on 'chain reaction' and 'heartbreaker'.

i love this song the same amount as streisand's 'woman in love', another gibb piece.

― stevie (stevie), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 14:07 (twenty-one years ago)

What a record.

Is there a compilation anywhere of Bee Gees songs sung by others? On their own best of, a few years back, they rerecorded 'Heartbreaker', 'Islands In The Stream' etc. but it's not the same.

― Buffalo Stan (Buffalo Stan), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't know this was a Gibb production at the time, but in retrospect it totally makes sense. About the album, no clue. As for the single: When it was released, I recall being surprised to learn that it was Dionne - first few listens, it sounded like...I dunno, Leo Sayer or somebody. No, wait...Martha Whatshername and the Motels, that's who. The way they both sing the word "suddenly"...Kind of a weird, sulky vocal; sulky, not silky like the more typical Warwick(e?) fare. I really should acquire a Warwick best-of, one of these days; even tho I admire those Bacharach/David songs, it's not the sort of purchase that would consciously occur to me without my wandering thru the "Easy Listening" aisle or "Pop Vocal, Female" or wherever.

Finally, how does Dionne Warwicke's "Heartbreaker" compare to everyone else's? Here's my personal ranking, best to worst:

Pat Benatar
Led Zeppelin
The Crystals
Dionne Warwicke
The Cardigans
Rolling Stones
Grand Funk Railroad

To my knowledge, I've never heard Mariah's or Dolly's or Ray Charles's (apparently quite famous) "Heartbreaker"s. And YEAH, I know Chuck Eddy did this very same thing in "Stairway To Hell" but I honestly did NOT steal it! I've stolen lots from Chuck (like, 1/3 of my writing "style" probably!), but not this.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

I've been fixated on this song for the last couple of months…the intro alone is worth the $$$, but man, does she ever sing the shit out of it…she apparently didn't like it upon recording it…

reckon its better than competing "Heartbreaker"s…

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 12:28 (nineteen years ago)

If I'm correct, I own an entire unreleased Barry Gibb album called Heartbreaker from the early 1980's — it may just be his demos from the period. I may now go check that out again...

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 15:22 (nineteen years ago)

It would have been. Legal action kept the Bee Gees out of the recording studio from 1981-7 so they had to concentrate on writing hits for others (see also Islands In The Stream, Chain Reaction etc.). More than once they have intimated that they would have much preferred to have recorded most of these songs themselves.

I expect Dionne got to like "Heartbreaker" a lot more after it became her biggest-ever UK hit and indeed her first UK hit of any kind for eight years!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 13:20 (nineteen years ago)

LOVE this song. Lush, almost ridiculous production paired with Dionne simply singing what's probably the best non-Bachrach & David song she was ever given (though I'm partial to "Deja Vu" as well) = marvelousness.

― Thomas Inskeep (submeat), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 16:36 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, "deja Vu," with that sublime keyboard intro, is mighty fine. But "heartbreaker" sounds like the end of the word…

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 21:42 (nineteen years ago)

I rediscovered 'Heartbreaker' about two years ago(always loved Deja Vu) it was like I found a long lost mommy or something. yes yes yes. The melody is so maudlin-pretty it creates like a black hole of emotion she has to belt her way out of over and over(and dionne warwick belting = achy + cute + tenuous + sad = perfect)
Is there something stopping us from rattling off Gibb-written, non-Gibb-sung tunes? I love just about every song named on the thread so far.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 22:06 (nineteen years ago)

Quick five in no order off the top of my head:
1. Al Green - How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?
2. Samantha Sang (or Destiny's Child if you must) - Emotions
3. Marbles - Only One Woman
4. Frankie Valli - Grease
5. Barbra Streisand - Woman In Love

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 25 January 2007 09:22 (nineteen years ago)

6. Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers - Islands In the Stream
7. Yvonne Elliman - If I Can't Have You

I was going to add Chain Reaction by Diana Ross but you can hear them quite clearly on that

― JohnFoxxsJuno (JohnFoxxsJuno), Thursday, 25 January 2007 11:05 (nineteen years ago)

Add Chain Reaction by Steps instead. That and their version of Tragedy are something approaching unintended genius.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 25 January 2007 11:47 (nineteen years ago)

there's also "All the Love in the World" from the Dionne/Gibb bros collaboration, totally great song

as far as non-Bacharach/David Dionne sides though "Then Came You" is the greatest

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Thursday, 25 January 2007 13:33 (nineteen years ago)

Nina Simone's "To Love Somebody" of course!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 25 January 2007 13:37 (nineteen years ago)

Marcello mentioned "Woman In Love" but the Babs collab I have recently been maxing out on is "Guilty"

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Friday, 26 January 2007 01:58 (nineteen years ago)

'Desire' by Andy Gibb is very, very weird and intriguing. For example please listen to the melody and phrasing of 'And when I get to you
My desire is glowing in your light.' What is the emotional logic? How did they come up with this? I bow before the musical genius of it. It was a big hit, not even one of their biggest.

We may be big or small
Or black or white, eternally
And black and white is you and me
In a special light
We may be young or old or in between
But this much I know
Together we can learn to grow
In a world that's ever turning
It's back on you

If you give it all away
Make it mine, mine, ine, ine, ine
You are desire, everything you need
I give you right or wrong
And you are the woman
That I base my whole existence on
And when I get to you
My desire is glowing in your light

These are the golden years we get to live
We lead the way
Tomorrow we can start today
In a special light
Love could be good or bad or in between
But this much I learn
Baby, you and I can learn
In a world that's rearranging
It's reality

And it's nice to light a fire
When it's cold outside
If you give it all away
Make it mine, mine, ine, ine, ine
You are desire, everything you need
I give you right or wrong
And you are the woman
That I base my whole existence on
And when I get to you
My desire is glowing in your light

You are desire, everything you need
I give you right or wrong
And you are the woman
That I base my whole existence on
And when I get to you
My desire is glowing in your light

― Dr. Joseph A. Ofalt (hyloolnuspstt), Friday, 26 January 2007 02:28 (nineteen years ago)

1. Barbra Streisand, "Woman in Love"
2. Andy Gibb, "An Everlasting Love"
3. Andy Gibb, "Shadow Dancing"
4. Tavares, "More Than a Woman"
5. Frankie Valli, "Grease"

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 26 January 2007 02:37 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

Is Andy Gibb really any good? Love the Bee Gees, but dl'd one Andy Gibb and found it a little lightweight. Also his personal tragedy makes it difficult to listen to him. Anyway, what post-sixties Dionne is worth getting, apart from the track in the subject line? I forgot about Deja Vu.

― Department of Energy Department (u s steel), Friday, 24 July 2009 22:37 (sixteen years ago)

Anyone else heard it?

LOL I think I heard it about 30 times at a class party during 6th grade once. :)

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 24 July 2009 23:53 (sixteen years ago)

Btw. I hated it at the time, but it isn't all too bad. Her 60s Bacharach stuff is better though.

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 24 July 2009 23:53 (sixteen years ago)

dionne warwick 'just being myself' LP from 1973 is probably a good one to look for. i just the title track on 45 today, it's great. holland-dozier-holland did production/songwriting on it.

― one time, Saturday, 25 July 2009 00:02 (sixteen years ago)

I may or may not have that. I noticed that the post-sixties stuff is not too hard to find in the used bins. I'm a Bacharach snob though. If I have it I shall rip.

― Department of Energy Department (u s steel), Saturday, 25 July 2009 02:08 (sixteen years ago)

three months pass...

God, this song. I could fill a CD-R with the chorus on a 120 minute loop.

― lihaperäpukamat (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 2 November 2009 22:41 (sixteen years ago)

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