Dionne Warwick.  Whether you know her from her years as the muse for the hitmaking duo of composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David, her time as the host of Solid Gold, or from her myriad solo hits, duets, and collaborations, including the blockbuster award-winning charity single “That’s What Friends Are For,” her name evokes thoughts of sophistication, twinkling elegance, savoir-faire, and those luscious vocals, described vividly by Newsweek (in October 1966) as featuring a “restrained gospel style, deliciously phrased, uncontrived, and in a polished, flexible voice… deep purple below and sky-blue above… a dazzling acrobatic display of vocal weightlessness, changing colors and dynamics with chilling impact.” *

The first Black female solo artist to win a GRAMMY, in 1969 for “Do You Know the Way to San Jose”—after having been nominated in 1965 for “Walk on By,” and in 1968 for both “Alfie” and “I Say a Little Prayer”—Dionne Warwick is a six-time GRAMMY winner (including the 2019 GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award), has sold over 100 million records worldwide, with 18 songs charting in the US in the Top 20, and has recorded 80 songs that have made the Billboard charts (whether Hot 100, R&B, or Adult Contemporary); all of which has led to her being ranked 74th on Billboard‘s Hot 100’s Greatest Artists of All Time listing. 

Now, the woman who’s implored you to take a “Message to Michael,” and who’s encouraged you to just “Walk On By” is headlining an intime residency in the Stirling Room at The Stirling Club, and it’s gorgeous.  Produced by her son, Damon Elliott, the show features Warwick accompanied by a trio of talented musicians, including her elder son, David Elliott, on drums and accompanying vocals, David DeMorales on bass guitar, and Todd Hunter (her Musical Director) on keyboards.  The up-close-and-personal setting lends an air of rapport and affinity to the goings-on so that it’s rather like an episode of VH1 Storytellers.

You’ll know most, if not all, of the songs in her set (two were new to me); but Warwick and Elliott keep things fresh by introducing fantastic new arrangements to a couple of old favorites.  To wit, “I Say a Little Prayer” is now presented as a soulful duet with David Elliott, while “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” is now a Latin percussion-filled banger imbued with the spirit of the late, great ‘Queen of Salsa’ Celia Cruz (with whom Warwick performed this arrangement of the song on her 2006 album of duets, My Friends & Me).

And while, at 81, Warwick moves a bit more slowly than she once did (a recent fall required that she be assisted by Damon to and from the stage, the night I was there), not only does she remain as sharp as the proverbial tack—as witnessed by that no-nonsense rapier wit that has made her a latter-day sensation in the Twitterverse (leading to Saturday Night Live’s recurring “The Dionne Warwick Talk Show” sketch on which Warwick recently made a cameo!), and which she amusingly shares with the audience between songs—but, most importantly for her audiences, her voice, that golden instrument of song, continues to be equal parts beguiling, vivacious, and sultry.  Is it any surprise that Warwick has been nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?  (Okay, seeing as Warwick herself has said she’s “not rock n’ roll,” maybe it's a little bit surprising, but that’s another story for another time.)

Perhaps hearing Warwick sing was best summed up in a 1965 article in Time, about rock and roll and the British Invasion, which referenced unnamed Princeton students who’d penned “scholarly articles discuss ‘the brio and elegance’ of Dionne Warwick’s singing style as a ‘pleasurable but complex’ event to be ‘experienced without condescension.’”

So, in closing, if you remember nothing else that I’ve written, herein, I implore you to remember this: The moment she wakes up, before she puts on her makeup, Dionne Warwick says a little prayer for you.  And really, what more can Las Vegas ask of its legends?

The setlist from Dionne Warwick’s concert at The Stirling Club (Thursday, March 31, 2022), was as follows (links provided for videos of each song):

1. Welcome to My World (R. Winkler, J. Hathcock) – Jim Reeves cover
2. Walk On By (B. Bacharach, H. David)
3. Anyone Who Had a Heart (B. Bacharach, H. David)
4. You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart) (B. Bacharach, H. David)
5. I’ll Never Fall in Love Again (B. Bacharach, H. David) – Jill O’Hara and Jerry Orbach cover (from Promises, Promises)
6. Message to Michael (B. Bacharach, H. David) – Jerry Butler cover
7. This Girl’s in Love with You (B. Bacharach, H. David) – Herb Alpert cover
8. I Say a Little Prayer (B. Bacharach, H. David) – New arrangement, duet with David Elliott
9. Alfie (B. Bacharach, H. David) – Cilla Black cover

Intermission

10. Aquarela do Brasil (A. Baroso) – Francisco Alves cover
11. Do You Know the Way to San Jose (B. Bacharach, H. David) – New arrangement
12. I’ll Never Love This Way Again (R. Kerr, W. Jennings) – Richard Kerr cover
13. If I Want To (B. Bacharach, W. Jennings)
14. What the World Needs Now Is Love (B. Bacharach, H. David) – Jackie DeShannon cover
15. That’s What Friends Are For (B. Bacharach, C. Bayer Sager) – Rod Stewart cover (from Night Shift)
16. What’s Good About Goodbye (H. Arlen, L. Robin) – Tony Martin cover (from Casbah)

An Intimate Evening with Ms. Dionne Warwick
The Stirling Club
Click HERE for dates and tickets

Get into it!
#DionneWarwick

[Editor’s Notes: * Written by Burt Bacharach and Carol Bayer Sager, and originally recorded for the soundtrack to Night Shift (1982) by Rod Stewart; the 1985 cover of “That’s What Friends Are For” (with a different second verse than in the original) was recorded by Warwick with Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, and Elton John—as Dionne & Friends—as a charity single benefiting amfAR, raising over $3 million for AIDS research and prevention, becoming the number one single of 1986, and winning the GRAMMY Awards for ‘Song of the Year’ and ‘Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals’]