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Dee Dee Warwick | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Delia Juanita Warrick |
| Born | (1942-09-25)September 25, 1942 Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | October 18, 2008(2008-10-18) (aged 66) Essex County, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Years active | 1961–2008 |
| Labels | |
| Website | deedeewarwick |
Delia Juanita Warrick[1] (September 25, 1942 – October 18, 2008),[2] known professionally asDee Dee Warwick, was an Americansoulsinger. Born inEast Orange,New Jersey, she was the sister of singerDionne Warwick, the niece ofCissy Houston, and a first cousin of singersWhitney Houston andLeontyne Price.[3]
Warwick was born in East Orange, New Jersey, to Mancel Warrick (1911–1977), who began his career as aPullman porter and subsequently became a chef, a gospel record promoter forChess Records and later aCertified Public Accountant; and Lee Drinkard-Warrick (1920–2005), manager ofThe Drinkard Singers. Warwick had one sister,Dionne Warwick, and a brother, Mancel Jr, who was killed in an accident in 1968 at the age of 21.[citation needed] She was ofAfrican-American,Native American, andDutch descent.[4] Warwick graduated fromEast Orange High School in 1960.
Dee Dee Warwick sang with her sisterDionne Warwick and their auntCissy Houston in the New Hope Baptist Church Choir in Newark, New Jersey: eventually the three women formed the gospel trio the Gospelaires, who often performed withThe Drinkard Singers.
At a performance by the Gospelaires with the Drinkard Singers at theApollo Theater in 1959, the Warwick sisters were recruited by a record producer for session work and Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick, along withDoris Troy, subsequently became a prolific New York City areasession singing team.
Dee Dee Warwick began to dabble in a solo career in 1963 cutting what is reportedly the earliest version of "You're No Good" forJubilee Records, produced byJerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who later recorded Warwick on their own Tiger label with the 1964 single "Don't Think My Baby's Coming Back". In 1964 Warwick recorded a version of "I (Who Have Nothing)" for a tiny Buffalo, NY label (Hurd) - although the song's lyric was written by Leiber and Stoller, the duo did not participate in Warwick's recording - and Warwick also recorded as a member of Allison Gary and the Burners (as did Cissy Houston) with a release on Royo entitled "Darling".
Warwick made her network TV debut performing the gospel song "Children, Go Where I Send Thee" with her sister Dionne on NBC'sHullabaloo, which aired on March 30, 1965. Warwick also performed onShivaree, which aired on July 17, 1965; she sang "We're Doing Fine" and "I Want to Be with You".[5]
In 1965, Warwick signed withMercury Records, where she recorded with producerEd Townsend for their subsidiaryBlue Rock label, reaching the R&B Top 30 with "We're Doing Fine". It was on the Mercury label in 1966, that she had her biggest hit with "I Want to Be with You" from the Broadway showGolden Boy, a number 9 R&B hit, which just missed the pop Top 40 at number 41 (Nancy Wilson had reached number 54 with her version entitled "I Wanna Be with You" in 1964). The follow-up single was the original version of "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" which, peaking at number 13 R&B and number 88 Pop, was not Warwick's biggest hit, but became her best known number by virtue of its later success as a duet betweenDiana Ross and The Supremes andThe Temptations.[6][7]
Warwick was regarded as one of the first openlylesbian performers within the music industry.[8]
Warwick continued to record for Mercury through the late 1960s. Although her occasional success in the R&B field—notably the 1969 Ed Townsend production ofFoolish Fool—was enough for the label to wish to re-sign her in 1970, she signed withAtco at the invitation ofAtlantic Records presidentJerry Wexler himself, Wexler having admired Warwick's early session work.
Warwick made her first recordings for Atco in February 1970, cutting four tunes with Townsend. In an early indication of the disarray that Warwick's career experienced at Atlantic, these tracks were shelved and she was sent toCriteria Studios inMiami in April to work with producer Dave Crawford and fast-emerging studio band, The Dixie Flyers. The resultantTurning Around album yielded a Top Ten R&B hit with "She Didn't Know", but Warwick never had another album release or single in the R&B Top 20.
In October, she cut 10 tracks atMuscle Shoals, again with Crawford producing (along withBrad Shapiro). Only three singles were released with one, a remake of "Suspicious Minds", becoming Warwick's penultimate R&B hit in 1971. That summer, Crawford and Shapiro produced an eight-track session for Warwick at Pac-Three studios inDetroit. One track, "Everybody's Got to Believe in Something", was issued as a single - Warwick's last release on Atco despite two final sessions for the label in early 1972. Reflecting on her unrewarding Atco tenure, Warwick opined: "The problem was simply, that the company had a lot of other big female acts - likeAretha Franklin andRoberta Flack - and you get into a situation, where you don't get the right kind of material or production or promotion..."[7]
Warwick returned to Mercury Records in 1973, but the following year she moved toPrivate Stock, where the 1975 single "Get Out of My Life" became her final charting song (number 73, R&B). That same year, she recorded forRCA Victor as DeDe Schwartz. After several years away from the recording studio, Warwick made her last recordings in the mid-1980s, releasing two albums:Dee Dee (Heritage Records, 1983), andCall Me (Sutra Records, 1984). In 1994, After living inLos Angeles for a number of years, she became a resident ofGeorgia.
Recordings from both herMercury andAtco years are available onCD. In late 2006, she returned to success singingbackground for her sister Dionne in concert, and was also part of the "Family First" song in theTyler Perry filmDaddy's Little Girls and its soundtrack album.
In January 2008, Dee Dee was featured in the title song of Dionne'sgospelalbumWhy We Sing. In February 2008, she sang background vocals for Dionne's one-woman showMy Music and Me in Europe.
Dee Dee Warwick has been nominated twice for a Grammy Award.[9] Warwick was nominated back to back in1970 and1971 for her R&B hits "Foolish Fool" and "She Didn't Know". Both times the jury gave the prize in this category to Aretha Franklin.
Warwick received a Pioneer Award from theRhythm and Blues Foundation in 1999 and was formally inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall Of Fame in 2023 joining her sister Dionne, cousin Whitney and aunt Cissy (Sweet Inspirations).
Dee Dee had congenital diabetes (type 1), and her health began to deteriorate in the 90s. She suffered a stroke in the summer of 2008 and Dionne decided to place Dee Dee in a nursing home, where she stayed for several months. Her sister was with her when she died on October 18, 2008, in anursing home inEssex County, New Jersey, aged 66.
The 2018 documentary filmWhitney, directed byKevin Macdonald, included allegations that Warwick had sexually molestedWhitney Houston and her brotherGary, when Whitney was "at a young age" and Gary was around eight years old, while Warwick was in her mid to late 20s.[10][11] Warwick's sister, Dionne, and Whitney Houston's mother, Cissy, expressed doubt regarding the truthfulness of the allegations.[12]
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