Dionne Warwick’s final studio album, DWuets, due Aug. 7, is expected to contain pairings with Cynthia Erivo, John Legend, Kehlani, Mya and Saweetie, among others. But Warwick has been recording duets with a wide variety of stars for more than 50 years, since before it was a common practice.
Here’s proof of that last point: “Then Came You,” Warwick’s frisky 1974 collab with The Spinners, was the first Billboard Hot 100-topping collab by two acts who had each landed previous Hot 100 hits since “Somethin’ Stupid” by Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra in 1967.
Two songs from DWuets have already been released as singles: “Ocean in the Desert,” a teaming with Erivo, and “Where Is Your Heart,” a collab with Legend. Legend is an EGOT – and Erivo is just an Oscar away from joining him in that exclusive club. Quite obviously, Warwick’s trailblazing efforts, starting in 1962 when she landed her first Hot 100 hit, “Don’t Make Me Over,” helped make their superstar status possible.
“Mom picked the lock for them, and they paid respect to one of the greatest artists ever” is how Warwick’s manager and son Damon Elliott put it in a statement that accompanied the release of the collab with Legend. Elliott produced DWuets, which is billed as Warwick’s final studio album. All of the songs on DWuets were written by Diane Warren, which gives the title double meaning. The album is being released via Elliott Entertainment in partnership with Vydia, a gamma. company.
Here, we’ve rounded up all of Warwick’s duets that have made Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100 and/or the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Adult Contemporary charts. They are listed in chronological order. The latter two charts are abbreviated here as R&B and AC. NC signifies the record didn’t reach the chart in question.
Warwick recorded second pairings with both The Spinners and Jeffrey Osborne. For simplicity’s sake, they are mentioned in the same capsules as the artists’ previous, better-known collaborations, “Then Came You” and “Love Power,” respectively.
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“Then Came You,” Dionne Warwicke & Spinners, 1974
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (one week)
R&B peak: No. 2
AC peak: No. 3
Notes: First off, Warwicke in the header isn’t a typo. In 1971, the singer changed the spelling of her last name on the advice of a numerologist. In 1975, she changed it back. And The Spinners dropped the “The” from their name for this release.
The great Thom Bell produced, arranged and conducted this smash, which is one of several 1974 hits that enabled him to win the inaugural Grammy Award for producer of the year, non-classical. (Bell didn’t write the song, though. Sherman Marshall and Phillip Pugh wrote the smash, which became Warwick’s first Hot 100 No. 1 and The Spinners’ only one.)
“Then Came You” received a Grammy nod for best pop vocal performance by a duo, group or chorus. Warwick and The Spinners reteamed for “I Don’t Need Another Love,” which reached No. 84 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs in 1990. Bell wasn’t on board for this one. Nick Martinelli produced.
Fun Fact: Bell, Warwick and The Spinners have all been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
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“Friends in Love,” Dionne Warwick & Johnny Mathis, 1982
Hot 100 peak: No. 38
R&B peak: No. 22
AC peak: No. 5
Notes: These longtime friends and mutual admirers teamed for this elegant ballad. Jay Graydon, Bill Champlin and David Foster, who had teamed to co-write Earth, Wind & Fire’s 1979 classic “After the Love Has Gone,” also co-wrote this one, with Graydon producing.
Fun Facts: Both Warwick and Vandross released 1982 albums titled Friends in Love. Both made the Billboard 200. Both singers have received lifetime achievement awards from the Recording Academy.
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“How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye,” Dionne Warwick and Luther Vandross, 1983
Hot 100 peak: No. 27
R&B peak: No. 7
AC peak: No. 4
Notes: Vandross was a huge fan of Warwick’s — his 1981 debut album Never Too Much contains an epic, seven-minute version of “A House Is Not a Home,” a Bacharach-David all-timer that she had recorded in 1964. Steve Goldman wrote “How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye” about mismatched lovers (“We’re so in love but wrong for each other).” This is peak work from two of our greatest vocalists. Vandross produced the classy track, as well as Warwick’s album of the same name.
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“Finder of Lost Loves,” Dionne Warwick & Glenn Jones, 1985
Hot 100 peak: NC
R&B peak: No. 47
AC peak: No. 12
Notes: Vandross originally recorded the male part on this duet, which is no match for their previous duet, “How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye.” Burt Bacharach and his then-wife Carole Bayer Sager wrote the song for a new TV series produced by TV mogul Aaron Spelling. The series was in the mold of The Love Boat, another Spelling series. But whereas The Love Boat stayed afloat for nine years, Finder of Lost Loves was cancelled after just one season (1984-85).
Though “Finder of Lost Loves” wasn’t much of a hit record, and the TV show was a flop, the recording marked a reproachment between Bacharach and Warwick, who had been on the outs for years. Because of this song, the principals in one of the finest composer/vocalist pairings in pop music history were able to mend what needed mending.
Though “Finder of Lost Loves” was a dud, it put Warwick in Spelling’s orbit. She was asked to record The Love Boat theme for that show’s final season (1985-86), replacing the version by Jack Jones that was heard throughout the show’s first eight seasons. (The show was shlock, but the theme song, co-written by Paul Williams and Charles Fox, was really quite good. And both Jones and Warwick made it shine.)
Jones went on to land one Hot 100 hit in 1987, “We’ve Only Just Begun (The Romance Is Not Over)” — no relation to the Carpenters’ 1970 hit “We’ve Only Just Begun.”
The Vandross/Warwick version of “Finder of Lost Loves” was included on an expanded edition of Warwick’s album of the same name in 2014.
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“Run to Me,” Dionne Warwick & Barry Manilow, 1985
Hot 100 peak: NC
R&B peak: NC
AC peak: No.12
Notes: Manilow had produced Warwick’s 1979 album Dionne, which went Platinum and spawned a pair of Grammy-winning hits, “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” (best pop vocal performance, female) and “Déjà vu” (best R&B vocal performance, female). Here, the two pros duetted on a remake of a Bee Gees hit from 1972. Manilow produced the track. Like many singles of that era, it simply goes on too long. It runs 4:07. The Bee Gees’ original, which reached No. 16 in September 1972, ran just 3:09. It got the job done.
Warwick had attained previous success with the Bee Gees, who wrote her sleek 1982 single “Heartbreaker,” which made the top 10 on the Hot 100. Barry Gibb teamed with Karl Richardson and Albhy Galuten to produce that single and her 1982 album of the same name.
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“That’s What Friends Are For,” Dionne & Friends, 1985
Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (four weeks)
R&B peak: No. 1 (three weeks)
AC peak: No. 1 (two weeks)
Notes: Bacharach and Sager also wrote and produced this midtempo ballad, which Warwick recorded with Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder. It brought the four vocalists a Grammy for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal. It also enabled Bacharach and Sager to win a Grammy for song of the year. (It was Bacharach’s only song of the year Grammy, which is hard to fathom.) The smash was also nominated for record of the year.
“That’s What Friends Are For” raised both money and consciousness about AIDS. (The song doesn’t specifically comment on the disease, but it was well-known at the time that it was a fundraiser for AIDS charities.) The single was released in October 1985, the same month that actor Rock Hudson became the first major American celebrity to die of the disease. President Reagan, famously, didn’t utter the word AIDS in public until 1987, but events like Hudson’s death and the success of a mainstream smash like “That’s What Friends Are For,” by four singers who were widely known and loved, forced the disease into the public conversation.
Bacharach and Sager originally wrote the song for the 1982 Ron Howard comedy film Night Shift. Rod Stewart recorded it.
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“Love Power,” Dionne Warwick & Jeffrey Osborne, 1987
Hot 100 peak: No. 12
R&B peak: No. 5
AC peak: No. 1 (one week)
Notes: Bacharach and Sager also wrote and produced this silky duet, which features an alto sax solo by Warwick’s then-Arista Records labelmate, Kenny G. The best part is when Warwick slips into an alluring lower register on the chorus. The worst is that cheesy opening line, “Saw a psychic in L.A./ Was just the other day.” (In the 1990s, Warwick was a spokesperson for the Psychic Friends Network, though few even remember that lapse today.)
This was Warwick’s final top 40 hit on the Hot 100, nearly 25 years after she landed her first, “Don’t Make Me Over.” This was Osborne’s highest-charting solo hit on the Hot 100 — though he had a bigger hit as the lead singer for L.T.D. — “(Every Time I Turn Around) Back in Love Again,” which reached No. 4 in 1977.
Warwick and Osborne recorded a second duet, “Take Good Care of You and Me,” at the same time as “Love Power,” but it was shelved until 1989, when it reached No. 46 on R&B and No. 25 on AC. Bacharach and Sager also wrote and produced that track — with help on the songwriting front from Gerry Goffin.
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“Reservations for Two,” Dionne & Kashif, 1987
Hot 100 peak: No. 62
R&B peak: No. 20
AC peak: No. 7
Notes: Warwick went by just her first name on this single to match Kashif. This duet was the title track from a Warwick album that was half duets, half solo tracks. Kashif produced this song. Nathan East, Tena Clark and Gary Prim wrote it.
This was Kashif’s only Hot 100 hit as an artist, though he also had hits as a producer. He produced “You Give Good Love,” the 1985 smash by Whitney Houston — who, of course, was Warwick’s first cousin.
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“Another Chance To Love,” Dionne Warwick & Howard Hewett, 1988
Hot 100 peak: NC
R&B peak: No. 42
AC peak: No. 24
Notes: Warwick teamed with Hewett, then a member of the R&B trio Shalamar, on this duet from Reservations for Two. Hitmaker Albert Hammond (“It Never Rains in Southern California”) co-wrote the song with Sue Shifrin. Aaron Zigman and Jerry Knight produced the dynamic track, which deserved to make the Hot 100.
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“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” Melba Moore & Friends, 1990
Hot 100 peak: NC
R&B peak: No. 9
AC peak: NC
Notes: Just as Warwick enlisted friends to assist her on “That’s What Friends Are For,” here she was one of Moore’s friends on an update of the hymn that is often referred to as the Black National Anthem. Besides Warwick, the guest artists on the single were R&B stars Stephanie Mills, Freddie Jackson, Anita Baker, Bobby Brown, Stevie Wonder, Jeffrey Osborne and Howard Hewett; and gospel stars BeBe & CeCe Winans, Take 6 and The Clark Sisters. BeBe Winans also produced the recording, which was added to the National Recording Registry in 2016, alongside a 1923 recording of the song by Manhattan Harmony Four.
According to the Library of Congress, which administers the National Recording Registry, the text was written by James Weldon Johnson in 1900 and set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson in 1905.
Fun Fact: Warwick and Moore were both Grammy nominees at the first live Grammy telecast in 1971. Warwick won best contemporary vocal performance, female for “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.” Moore was nominated for best new artist.
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“What the World Needs Now Is Love,” Dionne Warwick & The Hip-Hop Nation United, 1998
Hot 100 peak: No. 87
R&B peak: NC
AC peak: NC
Notes: The Hip-Hop Nation United consisted of 14 contemporary hip-hop acts, including Big Daddy Kane, Bobby Brown, Coolio, Ray J and Tyrese. Warwick’s son Damon Elliott produced the track.
As the principal artist for the peerless songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Warwick was offered this song in 1965, but she passed on it. Jackie DeShannon recorded it instead and turned it into a top 10 hit on the Hot 100 and an enduring classic. Warwick later recorded it for her 1966 album Here Where There Is Love. That recording was featured on the B-side of her 1969 single release “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” which made the Hot 100’s top 10.
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