Search - Dee Dee Warwick :: The Complete Atco Recordings

It s not easy being a singer and the younger sister of music legend Dionne Warwick, but Dee Dee Warwick contributed a rich body of soulful recordings from the early 60s all the way into the mid- 80s. While she didn t attain the same international recognition afforded her sibling, the two-time Grammy-nominated Warwick more than earned her place in the soul music pantheon. Indeed, as Dionne herself put it succinctly in a note for a 1996 compilation of some of Dee Dee s Atco work, Dee Dee is the singer in the family...

Sharing the same gospel background as her sister and other members of her family (the renowned Drinkard Singers whose line-up included famed aunt, Emily Cissy Houston), Dee Dee s career in secular music began in 1961 when she and Dionne (as part of The Gospelaires, a group they had formed as teenagers) were invited to sing backgrounds for a recording by saxophonist Sam The Man Taylor. Dee Dee became a consistent and well-known New York session singer during the early 60s, and could be heard on recordings by Dinah Washington, Aretha Franklin (at Columbia Records at the time), Nina Simone and a bevvy of soul stars including Garnet Mimms, Maxine Brown, Chuck Jackson, Esther Phillips, The Drifters, Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke and her sister s hits for Scepter Records among others.

Dee Dee s solo career began in 1963 with the original version of the now-classic You re No Good ; in 1965, she signed with Blue Rock Records, a division of Mercury Records before switching to the main Mercury label. Over the next five years, she cut two albums and released over a dozen singles including the 1966 Top 10 R&B and Top 50 pop hit, I Want to Be with You, the original of I m Gonna Make You Love Me (covered by The Supremes & The Temptations) and the Grammy-nominated Foolish Fool, a 1969 Top 20 R&B and Top 60 pop hit.

In 1970, Dee Dee signed with Atco Records; during her two years with the label, she recorded prolifically, cutting a total of 35 tracks, all of which are included in this two-disc 2014 Real Gone Music/SoulMusic Records anthology, The Complete Atco Recordings. This unprecedented collection features her entire 1970 Atco album Turning Around (with the Grammy-nominated Top 10 R&B hit She Didn t Know (She Kept On Talking) ); three non-album singles (both A and B sides); eight tracks previously released on various compilations; and a treasure trove of twelve previously unissued tracks from Atlantic s vaults, all remastered by Mike Milchner at SonicVision. The photo-festooned liner notes by reissue producer David Nathan include quotes from Dee Dee, who passed away in October 2008, leaving behind a great legacy of some of the best soul music ever recorded.