Friends In Love

I have rediscovered Dionne Warwick just recently. You know, the voice behind songs like "Walk On By" and "I'll Never Love This Way Again". Thanks to YouTube, I watched some of her live performances, mostly from her hosting stint in Solid Gold in the 80s. Now I really really love her. She's now my favorite "diva".

One of Dionne's songs is a duet with Johnny Mathis called "Friends In Love". I often hear it on the radio, I just never bothered to know who sang it. Since seeing Dionne sing it live on the net a few weeks ago, I started looking for her CD that carries the song. Of course, I had no idea that it was hard to find (even harder to find is any Johnny Mathis CD). Finally, I bought Dionne's CD called Love Songs (UK) yesterday, which has "Friends..." on Track 13. Mission accomplished.

Anyway, this "song-searching" reminded me of a similar search a few years ago. Around 2003, I watched a televised concert of Martin and Regine. One of the songs in their repertoire is "It's You," which I would discover later is a duet of Stevie Wonder and yes, Dionne Warwick. That didn't spur my curiosity on Ms. Warwick then, as a Stevie Wonder fan. Like "Friends...", "It's You" is also a hard to find song. Of course, I'm not really contented on getting local acoustic band U-Turn's version, I have to get the original. I found the song on Kazaa and I was playing it over and over again on my mp3 (bless my ears).

Watching Dionne on YouTube, I agree with the general opinion that she is a perfect pop singer. Of course, I wouldn't classify her as pop, as I associate the genre with the likes of Madonna and Britney Spears. Dionne's voice is flexible that she couldn't be classified on anything else. And definitely, she sings her songs better on live performances. I envied those who watched her concerts over the years.

I'm glad that Dionne is still around to serenade us with her beautiful songs. Truly, she is a legend. By the way, she has a new CD coming up to commemorate her 45th year "in this business called show," as she says.