Dee Dee Warwick: I Want to Be With You - The Mercury/Blue Rock Sessions (1965-69)

Like Darlene Love and Cissy Houston, Dee Dee Warwick's considerable gifts as a soul singer were mostly confined to session work. And like Aretha Franklin's sisters, Dee Dee had to struggle with the shadow of a superstar sibling, Dionne Warwick. Certainly she had the talent to compete as an artist in her own right -possessing a rawer approach than Dionne’s and closer to that of her cousin’s Cissy-, but she only had a sporadic run of small hits in the ‘60s and early-‘70s, and benefited from neither frequent recording opportunities nor substantial promotion from her labels. As a sort of companion to She Didn't Know: The Atco Sessions (though I personally prefer this one), this collection compiles everything she recorded for Mercury/Blue Rock from 1965 to 1969, with two tracks from a later 1973 session. Most of the better-known and significant of Dee Dee's recordings are represented here, including her highest charting and signature song, ‘I Want to Be With You’; besides, it marks the first digital appearance of many other rare songs. Warwick lays into the bluesy ‘That's Not Love’ like Etta James, causing distortion as she hauls off and wails with soul-searing power. The obscure Goffin & King tune ‘Yours Until Tomorrow’ is a should-have-been hit, as is the original version of ‘I'm Gonna Make You Love Me,’ later a smash when the Temptations and the Supremes took it to the charts. Ultimately, Warwick was a substantial talent who didn't find her niche, or land songwriters of the Bacharach/David stature to guide her. This AMAZING compilation -predominantly taken from the original masters but still sounding thin and sometimes shrill- is an important historical item for soul fans. I must add that Dee Dee is one of the very few soul sisters who will always deserve a place on my personal Top Five: she is absolutely fantastic. http://www.answers.com/, http://music.aol.com/.

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Dee Dee Warwick performing ‘We’re Doing Fine’ on Shivaree (1965) [minute 3:07 to 5:41]: