Dionne Warwick - Ashford & Simpson: We Need To Go Back
Dionne Warwick's career at Warner Bros. in the 1970s was, apart from her 1974 duet with The Spinners, Then Came You, overall a commercial failure, despite the involvement of high profile producers such as Holland-Dozier-Holland, Thom Bell and Jerry Ragovoy. She would not land a major hit until 1979's I'll Never Love This Way Again, written & produced by Barry Manilow for her first album with Arista.
However, Ashford & Simpson recorded two gorgeous tunes with her in 1973 that mysteriously did not appeal to Warner. "She's so fast - she catches on so quickly to musical ideas," said Valerie Simpson in an interview with Blues & Soul, December 1973. While the two tracks sat in the can for a year, they were asked to remix the tracks because Dionne wanted to redub the vocals, but even after that Warner shelved the tracks to the duo's disappointment: "Well, that day a few plates got smashed about and it wasn't exactly one of our better days, you could say."
Both tracks were gathering dust for 40 years before seeing the light of day in 2013. Listening to We Need To Go Back now, it is inexplicable how this could be rejected. The full 7:24 mix has only just now been released in 2023, 50 years after it was recorded. Interestingly, Ashford & Simpson completely rewrote the song but kept the original verses for Angela Bofill's Rough Times in 1978 [[also covered by Candi Staton as a 1979 B-side).
https://youtu.be/wh_8xetic94
The second track, Someone Else Gets The Prize, is just as gorgeous and classic A&S. They never recorded the song with anyone else, but the lyrical theme was of course recycled for Diana Ross in 1979 as No One Gets The Prize.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXdhRxa5G0c
What a shame a full album never materialized because this could have been as wonderful as Diana Ross's three Ashford & Simpson albums.
