The gospel teenager who became Burt Bacharach's voice

Dionne Warwick grew up surrounded by gospel. Her mother managed the Drinkard Singers, a family gospel group, her father promoted gospel records, and as a child she sang her first church solo at six in her grandfather's AME church in Newark. As a teenager she joined the vocal group the Gospelaires, and she sang with her sister Dee Dee from the age of fourteen under the mentorship of an aunt, Cissy Drinkard.

After studying on a music scholarship at the Hartt College of Music, she began her solo career in 1962 with composers Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Their run of hits on Scepter Records included “Don't Make Me Over”, “Anyone Who Had a Heart”, “Walk on By”, “Alfie” and “I Say a Little Prayer”, plus the Grammy-winning “Do You Know the Way to San Jose”.

A fallout with Bacharach and David and a slump at Warner Bros. followed. She rebuilt her career at Arista under the mentorship of Clive Davis with “I'll Never Love This Way Again”, “Heartbreaker” and “That's What Friends Are For”. In the 1990s, she became known for hosting the Psychic Friends Network infomercial, a very different kind of exposure.

The totals tell the rest: 56 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998, including twelve in the top ten, making her the second-most charted female vocalist of the rock era. She has won six competitive Grammys, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, and in 2024 entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “Walk on By”, “Then Came You” and “For You” are among the songs the radio keeps from her.