This is my second favorite song from her 1979 Barry Manilow produced comeback album right behind the album track "In Your Eyes". The entire album is excellent and varied, it is one of my summer favorites and I play the entire CD...quality from start to finish. It was good hearing from a old friend like her...jeez I was 19 at the time.
Dionne Warwick has charted 69 times with 31 of those songs reaching the Top40 from 1963 to 1987 making her the second most charted female of the rock era, right behind Aretha Franklin. She has sold over 75 million singles and 25 million albums worldwide.
Dionne was born Marie Dionne Warrick on December 12, 1940 in Orange, New Jersey to Lee Drinkard and Mancel Warrick. Mom was manager of the Drinkard Singers, a popular family gospel group and Dad was a jack of all trades working as a Pullman porter, a certified Public Accountant, a chef and a record promoter.
She actively pursued a secular recording career and attended the Hartt College of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut in the early 60's. Her gigs as a background singer in NYC landed her the opportunity to work with soon to be legendary songwriter Burt Bacharach who took her on as a demo singer.
She soon was signed to a recording deal with Florence Greenberg's Scepter Records after Florence heard her demo of "It's The Love That Really Counts" that was to go to the Crystals. She told Bacharach, "forget the song, get the girl".
Her first solo single was "Don't Make Me Over" was released in 1962 and it was the first hit by Bacharach and Hal David to reach the Top40, #21 on the Hot100 and #5 R&B. There was a spelling error on the single and her name appeared as Dionne Warwick, which she adopted as her stage name. It helped to make her image regal.
By the end of the 60's she had amassed 19 top 40 hits. Her fortunes changed in the 70's, signing with Warner Brothers and starting out strong but slowly losing steam until she rebounded with a #1 hit with the Spinners, "Then Came You" in 1974. The main reason for her lack of hits was the acrimonious split between Bacharach and David who failed to honor their contract with Warwick and she was left with no option but to file suit. She eventually settled her case out of court and was paid five million dollars and the masters of all her songs with Bacharach/David, a very smart move.
Dionne released five albums on Warner, and in 1975 turned to Thom Bell but nothing caught the attention of the US radio listeners. She floundered artistically until she changed producers to Barry Manilow in 1979.
That first album together was a hit! The first single issued was the power ballad, "I'll Never Love This Way Again", a #5 Hot100 hit, then released "Deja Vu" a lovely ballad written by Isaac Hayes in 1977. Warwick heard Isaac play the unnamed instrumental song when she was on tour with him and she never forgot the song. When Manilow entered the scene, she brought a specially recorded version of "Deja Vu" along and Manilow had his collaborator and friend Adrienne Anderson write the lyrics.
Released as a single in November, 1979, it peaked at #15 on the Hot100, #25 on the R&B survey and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Her second career assured, she continued to release Top 40 hits throughout the 80's and garnered a second #1 Hot100 hit that spent four weeks at the top was her collaboration with Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder "That's What Friends Are For" that appeared on her 1985 album "Friends".
In 2020, she became a social media darling on Twitter.