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My Friends & Me
by: Dionne Warwick

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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0888072231023
Label: Concord Records
Manufacturer: Concord Records
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Concord Records
Release Date: November 07, 2006
Sales Rank: 125993
Studio: Concord Records

Disc 1:

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Editorial Review:

Album Description:
As part of the celebration of her 45th year in show business, legendary vocalist Dionne Warwick is revisiting some of her most legendary hits on My Friends and Me, an album of duets with a stellar lineup of female performers including Gladys Knight, Olivia Newton-John, Mya, Gloria Estefan, Kelis, Reba McEntire, Cyndi Lauper, Celia Cruz, Wynonna Judd, Cheyenne Elliott, Lisa Tucker, Deborah Cox, Chante Moore, Angie Stone and Da Brat.

Bringing 13 classic songs by famed songwriting team Burt Bacharach and Hal David up to date with cutting-edge production by her son, acclaimed producer Damon Elliott (Barry White, Destiny's Child, Pink, Eminem, Keith Sweat, Jessica Simpson), My Friends and Me offered Warwick a unique opportunity to present timeless material in a timely fashion--and to, as she put it, 'hang out with the girlfriends.'

'It's something I've been trying to get done for several years,' Warwick says of the project. 'I decided to celebrate my 40th year in the business with a world tour, which we're still on after almost four years. The object was to visit every continent, country and city that I've performed in during my career. It was a brilliant idea at the time!'

Over the course of this global odyssey, Warwick signed with Concord and came up with the idea of the duets album featuring contemporary female vocalists and began reaching out to potential collaborators. The singer's extraordinary reputation ensured a surfeit of eager participants.

Knight, who sang on Warwick's Grammy-winning 1986 smash (and invaluable AIDS research fundraising tool) 'That's What Friends Are For,' joins her for a powerful reading of 'I'll Never Love This Way Again,' while Newton-John guests on a bouncy interpretation of 'Wishin' and Hopin'.' R&B siren Mya lends her pipes to 'Close to You,' Kelis jumps in for 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head,' Estefan co-croons 'Walk on By,' Cruz helps point the way to 'San Jose' and Cox, Moore, Stone and Da Brat help Warwick bring the socially conscious 'Windows of the World' up to date, with Da Brat rapping about Iraq, Katrina and other controversial issues.

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Amazon.com:
Any megawatt artist with four decades of music-making behind her deserves the chance to cut loose once in a while. But in Dionne Warwick's case, the sense of playfulness and artistic abandon (that has served old-school contemporaries such as Bettye LaVette well) doesn't necessarily suit her longtime fans. Classics like 'Walk on By' and 'Do You Know the Way to San Jose,' the consensus goes, ought not to be sullied with new voices or older ones no longer in their prime. That's one way of looking at My Friends & Me. Another way is as a chance to get to know Dionne in her golden years: The seasoned diva's vocal chords may not be as resilient as fellow senior scenesters Tony Bennett's or Gladys Knight's, but they're still unmistakably her honey-smoked own (check 'Deja Vu'). And her son, the producer Damon Elliott, may not suffuse each track with Bacharach-style melancholy, but his bag of tricks is not without tenderness and sophistication. Cyndi Lauper warms to it best; 'Message to Michael' drapes its Kentucky bluebird in sweet yearning. Elsewhere, Warwick is content to step aside and let future legends strut through her catalog with their newfangled stuff: 'The Windows of the World,' featuring Angie Stone, Chante Moore, Deborah Cox, and most memorably Da Brat, dispenses almost entirely with Warwick, not to mention formality, and fast-forwards its social commentary to 2006. Groan at the mid-song rap if you will, but its content--misplaced as it may be on a Dionne Warwick disc--redeems it. And so it goes with the rest of this record. If you're not too to traditional-minded to roll with it, you should.--Tammy La Gorce

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Disappointing, but not THAT bad.
As a long-time fan, I was very disappointed in this cd. However, it really doesn't deserve the reviews it has been getting.

Unlike some other reviewers, the material wasn't the biggest problem to me. Yes, I'd rather hear something new than a rehash, but occasionally an artist can bring something new to a song.

For me, the arrangements and music were the letdown. These are classic, well written songs, and most of the performances are quite good. Sadly, Ms. Warwick sometimes sounds like she is being accompanied by a teenager on an old Casio. Honestly, the drums and synthesizers reminded me of my three year-old daughters' toy keyboards.

With that out of the way, it was nice to hear these wonderful songs performed by such talented people. A few of the duet partners that seemed like odd choices were actually quite inspired. For one, I wouldn't have guessed how great Cyndi ... Read More

Rating:

- good singing but bad music
I enjoyed the singing although some tracks took me a while to be warmed up to. That was the saving grace of the record. The backing musicians were awful. The electronic music sounded plastic and cold. It was an insult to the singers. Mr. Elliot and his friend could have done better by getting together a decent backing band rather then being supermen themselves. The strings were ghastly. The sound was pretentious. That dragged down the quality of the music.

On the other hand, was Dionne on a shoe string budget with Concord Records?

Rating:

- Warwick-Bachrach music slaughter
Poor production and rearrangements with a lot of synthesised music doesn't do any good to the legacy and talents, please keep that in mind for the future releases, this cd is NOT recommended unfortunately I purchased it because I'm a die hard fan.

Rating:

- hopin and wishing
all those guest ladies are great but my top list goes to miss olivia newton john who put a very special note to that song.thank you olivia for such a great job and thank you miss warwick for this beautiful cd. laurent france

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