Dionne Warwick Deja Vu The Arista Years

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03-06-2020, 10:05 AM
drlorne

Dionne Warwick Deja Vu The Arista Years

I know she's not Detroit, but she is of the same vintage and recorded enough motown songs, and did release an album produced by the HDH or the Hollands at least.
I just got this 12 disc box set, and it is incredibly great. David Nathan went to great lengths to bring this about and he did incredible work. For example on her Live and Otherwise album, he moved to studio songs from the original and put them on another CD, so that he could add Touch Me in the Morning and another song from the original playlist, but not on the albums.
The booklet is detailed and a lovely piece of work.
I'm working my way through them and appreciating them more than I had..they are timeless.
Heartbreaker was her biggest selling album with huge international sales. No Night So Long was a disappointment to Clive Davis because it didn't do as well as he expected. It was a great song and album, and should have sold better.
Well worth the price. Cudos to David Nathan.
03-06-2020, 11:07 AM
reese

If David Nathan is involved, I expect no less than the best. Good to hear that this release is up to his usual standards. My copy hasn't arrived yet but I can't wait until it does.
03-06-2020, 12:37 PM
PeaceNHarmony

Quote:

Originally Posted by drlorne

I know she's not Detroit, but she is of the same vintage and recorded enough motown songs, and did release an album produced by the HDH or the Hollands at least.
I just got this 12 disc box set, and it is incredibly great. David Nathan went to great lengths to bring this about and he did incredible work. For example on her Live and Otherwise album, he moved to studio songs from the original and put them on another CD, so that he could add Touch Me in the Morning and another song from the original playlist, but not on the albums.
The booklet is detailed and a lovely piece of work.
I'm working my way through them and appreciating them more than I had..they are timeless.
Heartbreaker was her biggest selling album with huge international sales. No Night So Long was a disappointment to Clive Davis because it didn't do as well as he expected. It was a great song and album, and should have sold better.
Well worth the price. Cudos to David Nathan.

Don't worry; Dionne is an Honorary Detroiter here! Loved NNSL and also thought it would do better; glad this set is as good as it seems to be.
03-06-2020, 03:31 PM
daviddesper

Mine is on the way too. Can't wait. I am one of the few people in my crowd who considered her Arista years to be the prime time in her career.
03-07-2020, 03:39 AM
Bluebrock

Quote:

Originally Posted by drlorne

I know she's not Detroit, but she is of the same vintage and recorded enough motown songs, and did release an album produced by the HDH or the Hollands at least.
I just got this 12 disc box set, and it is incredibly great. David Nathan went to great lengths to bring this about and he did incredible work. For example on her Live and Otherwise album, he moved to studio songs from the original and put them on another CD, so that he could add Touch Me in the Morning and another song from the original playlist, but not on the albums.
The booklet is detailed and a lovely piece of work.
I'm working my way through them and appreciating them more than I had..they are timeless.
Heartbreaker was her biggest selling album with huge international sales. No Night So Long was a disappointment to Clive Davis because it didn't do as well as he expected. It was a great song and album, and should have sold better.
Well worth the price. Cudos to David Nathan.

It's a great collection beautifully put together by David. It is worth the money just for the booklet alone! Some great bonus cuts included, some of them included on previous expanded versions and some of them new to cd. I hope this fantastic box set is supported by the fans, and the good news is there are a few more similar collections in the pipeline.Enjoy!
03-07-2020, 08:32 AM
PeaceNHarmony

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluebrock

It's a great collection beautifully put together by David. It is worth the money just for the booklet alone! Some great bonus cuts included, some of them included on previous expanded versions and some of them new to cd. I hope this fantastic box set is supported by the fans, and the good news is there are a few more similar collections in the pipeline.Enjoy!

If I bribe you with, say, as much as $10 USD would you pass on to David my personal request for Jerry Butler's The Spice of Life and The Sagittarius Movement? It's seeming that upon reappraisal Dionne's Arista years were even better than we thought at the time, and that's quite a goalpost.
03-07-2020, 09:07 AM
reese

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rOhYDsAiLY
03-07-2020, 09:48 AM
Bluebrock

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeaceNHarmony

If I bribe you with, say, as much as $10 USD would you pass on to David my personal request for Jerry Butler's The Spice of Life and The Sagittarius Movement? It's seeming that upon reappraisal Dionne's Arista years were even better than we thought at the time, and that's quite a goalpost.

I have just been speaking with him! He is very pleased with the initial reaction to this collection. I agree with you when you say Dionne's Arista period has perhaps been somewhat underappreciated by some of us. She was at her vocal peak, and some of these albums are quite outstanding and so consistent. No night so long, Friends in love, Heartbreaker and Friends are especially doing the business for me at the moment. In fact the only weak[[ish) links are the disappointing Luther produced set which could and should have been so much better, and the Brazilian album which with the exception of 2 or 3 cuts still leaves me cold.
I promise to mention the Jerry Butler albums again, but the licensing issues are proving to be an absolute nightmare, but rest assured there are more of these boxsets in the works.
03-07-2020, 12:02 PM
smallworld

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluebrock

the good news is there are a few more similar collections in the pipeline.Enjoy!

I'd love for Soul Music Records to follow up their Thelma Houston Motown set with a compilation of her MCA albums. Only one of them has been released on CD, in bootleg form from a poor vinyl transfer. There are extended mixes, some courtesy of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, which would make such a collection attractive to music fans outside of Thelma's core fanbase. Also, a complete CD collection of Lulu's Dome recordings [[including what were once vinyl only mixes) remains on my wishlist.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluebrock

the licensing issues are proving to be an absolute nightmare

Isn't there a law whereby artists can make a claim for ownership of their masters after a certain period of time [[something like 35 years)? I wonder if Jerry Butler could gain control of his masters in this way. [[Getting the actual mastertapes would be a different battle, I imagine.)
03-07-2020, 12:49 PM
marv2

Quote:

Originally Posted by drlorne

I know she's not Detroit, but she is of the same vintage and recorded enough motown songs, and did release an album produced by the HDH or the Hollands at least.
I just got this 12 disc box set, and it is incredibly great. David Nathan went to great lengths to bring this about and he did incredible work. For example on her Live and Otherwise album, he moved to studio songs from the original and put them on another CD, so that he could add Touch Me in the Morning and another song from the original playlist, but not on the albums.
The booklet is detailed and a lovely piece of work.
I'm working my way through them and appreciating them more than I had..they are timeless.
Heartbreaker was her biggest selling album with huge international sales. No Night So Long was a disappointment to Clive Davis because it didn't do as well as he expected. It was a great song and album, and should have sold better.
Well worth the price. Cudos to David Nathan.

The first time I saw Dionne Warwick in concert was in Detroit at the Fox Theater. I have enjoyed her music all of my life, from the 60s until this very day.
03-19-2020, 08:45 PM
carlo

I received my set a few days ago and it's quite lovely. Nice to have this beautiful box set of music by Dionne during these challenging times in our world. I already had all of her Arista albums on CD and vinyl [[including the more recent reissues and the PBS compilation), but this set is a very nice assembly of her work, with a great booklet of notes on each album. My only complaint is that I wish the original album artwork [[front and back covers) were reproduced in full, on each cardboard sleeve, instead of putting smaller sized scans of the original front and back, along with the record labels, on the front of each sleeve. But I guess I can just defer to my other CD and LP versions for the full artworks. I had pre-ordered my set some time ago from Importcds.com and with an email coupon I had, I was able to get this 12 CD set for an impressive price of $40 USD!
03-19-2020, 11:51 PM
daviddesper

I too have finished my initial listen and will treasure this set. In fact for a time it appeared that I had mistakenly ordered a duplicate set [[long story) and if I had in fact received two, i was planning to keep one still sealed and hope to sell it years down the road for a hefty profit. [[Think Marvelettes and other boxes and the prices those now bring.) But I got my act together with the website and only received one copy.

As for the quality I think it is wonderful and I could spend hours going through every CD with a review, but I won't bore you guys to that extent. I will just add that the booklet was very well done and it was wonderful to have all the various bonus tracks as opposed to just reproducing the original albums. The artwork didn't bother me the way it seems to have bothered some folks and I was overall pleased with the packaging and presentation.

There are two songs that I do wish could have been included for Dionne fans that might have missed them. One was the song entitled "In Love Alone," that she did on the Richard Carpenter album. I thought it was absolutely wonderful and I am pretty sure it fit within this time frame.

The other was a special single that she did "sometime" in the 80s as a fund-raiser for SIDS. [[Yes, I mean SIDS, not AIDS.) I think the title was "The Promise of Life." If I remember it was only issued on cassette and I don't think the sound quality was good at all. It was an "OK" song musically but I sold mine on e-bay a number of years ago.

Anyway, it would have been nice to have those two songs but since neither was on Arista, that is probably the reason. Whatever the case, a great collection and as I keep saying every time something like this is released..........Keep 'Em Coming!!!!!
03-22-2020, 07:43 PM
carlo

It was a nice surprise to hear "We Never Said Goodbye" on the Hot Live and Otherwise CD included in this set. I think this is the first time that the live version of this track has been on CD? As the earlier CD versions omitted this track.
03-23-2020, 03:13 AM
Bluebrock

Quote:

Originally Posted by carlo

It was a nice surprise to hear "We Never Said Goodbye" on the Hot Live and Otherwise CD included in this set. I think this is the first time that the live version of this track has been on CD? As the earlier CD versions omitted this track.

It was omitted from the previous cd reissues due to time constraints. By moving a couple of the studio tracks to another cd there was sufficient room to include it on this collection.
03-23-2020, 03:14 AM
Bluebrock

Quote:

Originally Posted by daviddesper

I too have finished my initial listen and will treasure this set. In fact for a time it appeared that I had mistakenly ordered a duplicate set [[long story) and if I had in fact received two, i was planning to keep one still sealed and hope to sell it years down the road for a hefty profit. [[Think Marvelettes and other boxes and the prices those now bring.) But I got my act together with the website and only received one copy.

As for the quality I think it is wonderful and I could spend hours going through every CD with a review, but I won't bore you guys to that extent. I will just add that the booklet was very well done and it was wonderful to have all the various bonus tracks as opposed to just reproducing the original albums. The artwork didn't bother me the way it seems to have bothered some folks and I was overall pleased with the packaging and presentation.

There are two songs that I do wish could have been included for Dionne fans that might have missed them. One was the song entitled "In Love Alone," that she did on the Richard Carpenter album. I thought it was absolutely wonderful and I am pretty sure it fit within this time frame.

The other was a special single that she did "sometime" in the 80s as a fund-raiser for SIDS. [[Yes, I mean SIDS, not AIDS.) I think the title was "The Promise of Life." If I remember it was only issued on cassette and I don't think the sound quality was good at all. It was an "OK" song musically but I sold mine on e-bay a number of years ago.

Anyway, it would have been nice to have those two songs but since neither was on Arista, that is probably the reason. Whatever the case, a great collection and as I keep saying every time something like this is released..........Keep 'Em Coming!!!!!

I am unaware of this pair of songs and as such it is a pity they have not been included.
03-23-2020, 12:31 PM
daviddesper

The song from the Richard Carpenter album is Classic Dionne. I'll just bet someone on here could post a link to it for you. And maybe even the other one too.
03-31-2020, 06:50 PM
vgalindo

Quote:

Originally Posted by carlo

I received my set a few days ago and it's quite lovely. Nice to have this beautiful box set of music by Dionne during these challenging times in our world. I already had all of her Arista albums on CD and vinyl [[including the more recent reissues and the PBS compilation), but this set is a very nice assembly of her work, with a great booklet of notes on each album. My only complaint is that I wish the original album artwork [[front and back covers) were reproduced in full, on each cardboard sleeve, instead of putting smaller sized scans of the original front and back, along with the record labels, on the front of each sleeve. But I guess I can just defer to my other CD and LP versions for the full artworks. I had pre-ordered my set some time ago from Importcds.com and with an email coupon I had, I was able to get this 12 CD set for an impressive price of $40 USD!

Got my set today. Love her Arista years. The set is very nice but I too would really have preferred full original album artwork. However the booklet is great. I also have all the original cds.
04-04-2020, 09:41 AM
carlo

I finished playing the entire set last night and was very impressed by the sound. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there is also a discussion about the remastering of this set on the Steve Hoffman forums, which confirmed that indeed this box was remastered for maximum dynamic range, instead of being compressed and loud, like we see with a lot of new releases these days. Nick Robbins was the engineer and did a marvelous job. According to the dynamic range analysis that a fan completed on each of the discs [[there is software to do this), this box set offers the best versions of the albums on CD that exist to date, so if you are someone who has not purchased and have been debating whether to do so, I recommend it. I was extremely impressed with the sound, from album to album. So glad to have this beautiful set. It was great to read up extensively on each album, in the booklet, as I played them through in sequence.
04-04-2020, 10:30 PM
monicarivers

Quote:

Originally Posted by carlo

I finished playing the entire set last night and was very impressed by the sound. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there is also a discussion about the remastering of this set on the Steve Hoffman forums, which confirmed that indeed this box was remastered for maximum dynamic range, instead of being compressed and loud, like we see with a lot of new releases these days. Nick Robbins was the engineer and did a marvelous job. According to the dynamic range analysis that a fan completed on each of the discs [[there is software to do this), this box set offers the best versions of the albums on CD that exist to date, so if you are someone who has not purchased and have been debating whether to do so, I recommend it. I was extremely impressed with the sound, from album to album. So glad to have this beautiful set. It was great to read up extensively on each album, in the booklet, as I played them through in sequence.

Thank you for the review. I ordered my copy today from Amazon for about $52 and can’t wait to receive it!
04-05-2020, 02:26 AM
Bluebrock

Quote:

Originally Posted by monicarivers

Thank you for the review. I ordered my copy today from Amazon for about $52 and can’t wait to receive it!

You will not be disappointed. I will treasure my copy forever.
04-05-2020, 03:09 AM
jack020

Mine is on the way too:)
04-05-2020, 09:12 AM
Bluebrock

Quote:

Originally Posted by jack020

Mine is on the way too:)

Happy listening! The booklet is wonderful too.