OK, so Taylor Hicks is the new American Idol. Whatever. I predict he’ll be a one-hit wonder and fade into the sunset. Oh, and with all the folks who were there tonight, where was Ruben? Fantasia?
For me, the best 3 minutes of the show had to be when the real American Idol showed up. I was listening to the Burt Bacharch medley of hits and was thinking how great it would be to have the woman who sang them there. I even commented aloud about it. The words were barely out of my mouth when she appeared.
Dionne Warwick. Oh my! Three minutes of hearing her made all the babbling of this show worth it. As a singer, I learned more from listening to Dionne than anybody else. She has her own distinctive style and voice. Her sense of timing is unrivaled. Personally, I put her in the top 5 singers of all time. Without Dionne, Bacharach and partner Hal David would have been just an ordinary songwriting duo. The three of them had 20 Top 40 hits over a 10 year span beginning in 1962, with seven of those hits in the Top Ten. She won her first Grammy in 1968 for the Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance in singing “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” She was only the second black female so honored, the great Ella Fitzgerald having been the first.
Her 1970s hits include “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” “Then Came You” with the Spinners, and “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” done in collaboration with Barry Manilow. In the 1980s, she teamed up with Barry Gibb and the Bee Gees to do “Heartbreaker.” In 1985, she teamed up with Barcarach again, roped in a few friends (Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder and Elton John) and recorded “That’s What Friends Are For,” the proceeds of which were donated to AIDS research.
(And she did some work on the Psychic Friends Network.)
No, her voice wasn’t perfect tonight. But wow, thanks for the memories. In my head, I heard hear sing like the Dionne of old, hitting all the high notes that she skipped tonight. Dionne is about the only one of my idols that I have never seen in person. But Ryan Seacrest mentioned that she’s going back on tour! So I checked her site for locations and (drumroll) – she’s going to be performing in Suffolk!
Two, please. 😉
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
A little known Dionne Warwick song “Paper Mache”, was popular in my country in the early 1970s. I think that it was also written by B&D. My sister and I did a version of it, arranged for two voices by a musician friend of mine. I had the version by Dionne on vinyl, but was never able to find on CD. I always thought that Paper Mache was one of her prettiest songs.
So, you’re telling me that America idolizes Hicks? 🙂
Complaints begin in five…four…three..two…one.
Ingrid: That’s not a song I remember. I’ll have to look that one up.
Melissa: I guess so. They voted for him.
Speaking of votes – there were more votes for the final than there were cast for President. What does that say?
It means that American loves it some hicks.
PS- I was trying to be clever, with Taylor Hicks and the hilbilly variety of hicks, but alas, I seem to have failed. Oh well.
Ah, I see now. Too subtle for me to catch earlier.