5 minutes ago/ 81-year-old legendary singer Dionne Warwick is saying goodbye, with one last regret
Marie Dionne Warwick (/diˈɒn/; born December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress, and television host. Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest U.S. hit makers between 1955 and 1999, based on her chart history on Billboard’s Hot 100 pop singles chart. She is the second-most charted female vocalist during the rock era (1955–1999). She is also one of the most-charted vocalists of all time, with 56 of her singles making the Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998 (12 of them Top Ten), and 80 singles in total – either solo or collaboratively – making the Hot 100, R&B and/or adult contemporary charts.[1][2] Dionne ranks #74 on the Billboard Hot 100’s “Greatest Artists of all time”. During her career, she has sold more than 100 million records worldwide and she has won many awards, including six Grammy Awards. Warwick has been inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Grammy Hall of Fame, the R&B Music Hall of Fame and the Apollo Theater Walk of Fame. In 2019 she won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Three of her songs (“Walk On By”, “Alfie” and “Don’t Make Me Over”) have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. She is a former Goodwill Ambassador for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Many of Warwick’s family were members of the Drinkard Singers, a family gospel group[7] and RCA recording artists who frequently performed throughout the New York metropolitan area. The original group, known as the Drinkard Jubilairs, consisted of Cissy, Anne, Larry, and Nicky, and later included Warwick’s grandparents, Nicholas and Delia Drinkard, and their children: William, Lee (Warwick’s mother) and Hansom. When the Drinkard Singers performed on TV Gospel Time, Dionne Warwick had her television performance debut. Marie instructed the group, and they were managed by Lee. As they became more successful, Lee and Marie began performing with the group, and they were augmented by pop/R&B singer Judy Clay, whom Lee had unofficially adopted. Elvis Presley eventually expressed an interest in having them join his touring entourage. Dionne began singing gospel as a child at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey.[ Other singers joined the Gospelaires from time to time, including Judy Clay, Cissy Houston and Doris “Rikii” Troy, whose chart selection “Just One Look”, when she recorded it in 1963, featured backing vocals from the Gospelaires. After personnel changes (Dionne and Doris left the group after achieving solo success), the Gospelaires became the recording group the Sweet Inspirations, who had some chart success, but were much sought-after as studio background singers. The Gospelaires and later the Sweet Inspirations performed on many records cut in New York City for artists such as Garnet Mimms, the Drifters, Jerry Butler, Solomon Burke and later Warwick’s recordings, Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley. Warwick recalled, in 2002’s Biography, that “a man came running frantically backstage at the Apollo and said he needed background singers for a session for Sam “the Man” Taylor and old big-mouth here spoke up and said ‘We’ll do it!’ and we left and did the session. I wish I remembered the gentleman’s name because he was responsible for the beginning of my professional career.”[citation needed] The backstage encounter led to the group being asked to sing background sessions at recording studios in New York. Soon, the group were in demand in New York music circles for their background work for such artists as the Drifters, Ben E. King, Chuck Jackson, Dinah Washington, Ronnie “the Hawk” Hawkins, and Solomon Burke, among many others. Warwick remembered, in Biography,[full citation needed] that after school, they would catch a bus from East Orange to the Port Authority Terminal, then take the subway to recording studios in Manhattan, perform their background gigs and be back at home in East Orange in time to do their school homework. Her background vocal work would continue while Warwick pursued her studies at Hartt.
