TWO-TIME GRAMMY NOMINATED 60’S SOUL R&B SINGER DEE DEE WARWICK PASSES AWAY SOUTH ORANGE, NJ---Grammy nominated 60’s soul and R&B singer Dee Dee Warwick has passed away at the age of 63 after a long illness, it was announced today by her family. Warwick was the younger sister of legendary recording artist and entertainer Dionne Warwick, who was with her at the time of her death, and cousin to pop singer Whitney Houston. Dee Dee was most recognized for her hits during the 1960’s, including the #13 R&B hit song “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me, co-written by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff and later covered by Diana Ross & The Supremes., The Temptations and Play. She was also two-time Grammy Award nominee for “Foolish Fool,” and “She Didn’t Know.” Warwick began singing with her older sister Dionne as a teenager at the New Hope Baptist Church in New Jersey in the late 1950’s when they formed The Gospelaires.=2 0Together, they collaborated and sang with the Drinkard Singers, a long-running gospel singing group that their mother Lee Warrick managed, and featured their aunts and uncles. Like many gospel singers, Dee Dee moved into the secular soul in the early 60’s. Along with her sister Dionne and aunt Cissy, Dee Dee was one of New York’s most in-demand session vocalists during that time, contributing to numerous pop/soul records by the likes of The Drifters, Chuck Jackson, Garnet Mimms, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone and Wilson Pickett, as well as sister Dionne Warwick. Making a comfortable living as a back-up session singer, Dee Dee began making her own records in the early sixties. She concentrated more seriously on her solo career in the second half of the decade, during which she released over a dozen singles for Mercury Records, as well a couple of acclaimed albums. Dee Dee’s 60’s recordings were solid New York pop/soul with a more pronounced R&B influence than her sister Dionne’s. Some of her substantial R&B hit records included “I Want To Be With You,” “Foolish Fool,” and “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me,” which all made the R&B Top 20 charts. Subsequent cover recordings of the latter song by The Supremes and The Temptations, however, stole some of Dee Dee’s original thunder. Warwick signed to the Atco Records label in the early 70’s, earning an immediate Top Ten R&B single with “She Didn’t Know (She Kept on Talking)” which was nominated for a Grammy Award. Over the next few years, she released several other singles and an album for the label, sometimes including the back-up of The Dixie Flyers rhythm section and vocals by the Sweet Inspirations. Her single, “Cold Night In Georgia” and “Suspicious Minds” were commercial successes, however, she returned to Mercury Records in 1973. She continued to record for various labels in the 70’s, releasing another single to hit the R&B charts, “Get Out of My Life,” in 1975. Warwick continued to perform and record, singing with sister Dionne in concert, including a recent tour of the U.K. She also performed with the family in the recording of “Family Comes First,” for Tyler Perry’s soundtrack for his film, “Daddy’s Little Girls.” She also performed background vocals for Dionne’s one-woman autobiographical show “My Music & Me,” which enjoyed a sold out European tour this past year. Most recently, Dee Dee was featured in the title song from Dionne’s new gospel album (Rhino Records), “Why We Sing.” Services will be private and the family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to The Rheumatoid Arthritis Foundation. A special memorial for Dee Dee Warwick will be announced shortly.
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 23 October 2008 04:22 (seventeen years ago)