Rhino
's
The Dionne Warwick Collection: Her All-Time Greatest Hits
is the best
Warwick
collection on the market, culling 24 tracks from her '60s prime. Although it doesn't cover her entire career, it does feature nearly all of her very best material, and it's all in the style that made her famous; top to bottom, it's a stronger, more consistent listen than anything else out there. This was the period when she established herself as the premier interpreter of
Burt Bacharach
's music, and pulled off the neat trick of appealing to both
R&B
and
easy listening
audiences.
was soulful without necessarily singing
soul
music per se; her smooth, light delivery and polished technique meshed very well with the sophisticated
pop
of the
Bacharach
/
Hal David
team, who co-composed all but one of the songs included here. No other singer navigated
's deceptively tricky compositions with such effortless grace; the ease she projects on the rhythmically complex
"I Say a Little Prayer"
"Promises, Promises"
is startling. It's no wonder her versions of
's songs often became the definitive ones. This compilation doesn't cover
's later hits, like
the Spinners
' duet
"Then Came You,"
"That's What Friends Are For,"
or her late-'70s/early-'80s
adult contemporary
fare; for those, look to
Arista
The Definitive Collection
, which touches on every phase of her career, or the more specific
Greatest Hits (1979-1990)
. But for a sparkling demonstration of everything that made
great, there's no better buy than
The Dionne Warwick Collection
. ~ Steve Huey