Search - Dionne Warwick :: Hot Live & Otherwise

Dionne Sings Dionne Live!

James W. Mccully | Wake Forest, NC United States | 06/10/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I had this CD and I bought it after having the album on vinyl. The trouble is my needle broke and I accientally broke the CD. I looked on here and it was over a hundred dollars. It is a great album though with a medley of her hits including Walk on By, The Look of Love, Anyone Who Had a Heart, Do You Know the Way to San Jose? On the medley is also Valley of the Dolls. I love the arrangement of this and the other songs. She nails Make it Easy on Yourself and the rest. Years ago, she had a concert on PBS with a longer medley. The medley on the album is about 30 minutes I think. That's my only complaint that it needs to be longer. There are concert versions of No Night So Long and I'll Never Love This Way Again, Easy Love and her grammy winning Deja Vu. I'll Never Love... is also a grammy winning song, best female pop recording 1979. By the way, I think I burned this album on my parents' computer so I hope I can go back and make myself a copy. Fortuately, I still have Alfie, this version. I also recommend Dionne Sings Dionne 2 available here. There are some wonderful remakes of some of these songs. The otherwise side has some gorgeous Michael Masser Songs(He wrote Mahagony and Someone That I Used to Love) My favorite on the Otherwise side is Some Changes Are For Good. She also does a version of Now We're Starting Over Again that Natalie Cole had a hit with. Buy this and you will love it. Maybe it will be rereleased so we all can afford it. I hope Dionne also will come out with some new CDS here in the U.S. One other note(No pun intended)is there is a song missing from the CD that was on the Vinyl called Dedicate this Heart written by Michael McDonald who sang What a Fool Believes. Why did they leave it out? I don't know. I still have my vinyl but no way to play it. Maybe, I will find another needle or buy a record player."

I Need a Sugar Daddy...or Arista Records marketing VP needs

D. Richardson | Toronto, Ontario Canada | 08/23/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It seems that I do need one; a sugar daddy, that is, not a brain scan, like Arista records! Dionne's "Hot! Live and Otherwise", the few rare CD copies that are for sale on the internet, available here only through Amazon's second hand dealers, has a price tag as high as $500 US dollars! Well, guess what, I'ld sell my first born child to be able to afford a CD copy of this former 2 disk vinyl release, circa 1990. All other 'Best Hits' releases could be trashed if Arista would put this on the market again...did they lose the master recording, the legal rights or their minds? ( I confess, I found a copy of the vinyl release sitting on the sidewalk in front of a junk store for $2, but it does have some major snap, crackle and pops! The CD version would be a sweet gift since my Walkman doesn't take 12" vinyl)



This is THE definitive Dionne Warwick recording, delivering everything a true fan could ever dream about! Her voice is at it's finest; the live recordings are rich and sensual; the orchestra reads her mind for every second of the concert and the recording engineers really knew HOW to record the 'live' part!



The track listing is way too much to list here but I can't think of anything important that was left out of the line up. It is very evident that Warwick was in love with her audience that night and might have been thinking, "We'll sing `em all - we'll stay all NIGHT!"



Two of the 'live' items which must be mentioned, however, are firstly, the 22 minute medley of her early gold! If you can get through it without a few tears of joy and some sweet memory flash backs, I'ld suspect a heart of stone.



Secondly, Dionne's prep talk to the audience, just before launching into "Don't Make Me Over", when she has a humourous 'heart to heart' with the audience for several minutes; the best audience dialogue I've ever heard! (In part only)she tells them of her fear of doing the song for the first time since 1964. She confesses that she has avoided the song because, "....I'm scared to death!!! It's still in it's original key....E eeeeeee! And it's still got the same lyrics now, that I never could remember back then (1964)! If any of you know the lyrics, and you see me fumble up here, ya'll just jump on in, ya hear!...don't you let me stand up here and fall down by myself! (thoughtful pause) If I get through it....I want a standing ovation"!! After a comic dialogue about her very real fear, she is captured on tape singing "Don't Make Me Over" in a way which probably could never be recreated again! There isn't a single change to the original release except that once again, the orchestra sounds rich and full, the back up singers alone deserved a standing ovation, and gone is the tinny sound of the original single release; something which most of Dionne's early hit records suffered from badly!



If you want a Dionne Warwick "trophy" to treasure for a lifetime and can afford it, grab a copy of the CD before it disappears forever...and if you can really afford it, please pick up one for me too? Don't worry, I'll give you my mailing address and that first born child that's wandering around here somewhere!"

Being reissued in December 2007!

M. Bell | Atlanta, GA | 02/13/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This 2 set LP was first released on vinyl in 1981. An edited CD version was put out briefly in 1990 when Warwick renewed her Arista contract. BMG/Sony might want to cash in on the recent Bacharach/Warwick resurgence

in popularity by reissuing this album in its' entirety. Not sure if that will happen. I suspect this project was done as a side bar during the first leg of Warwick's tenure with Arista. Either she got a hefty royalty

for doing the project or Clive Davis sold the master recordings to the highest bidder. To reissue the album would mean having to pay Warwick and/Clive Davis. An entertainment lawyer explained this to me. The music industry has got some issues! David Nathan, a reissue producer has secured rights to reissue this classic Warwick album with previously unreleased tracks!! Remastered!"