Dionne Warwick Love Songs-20 Classic Hits CD

Highlighting Dionne Warwick's quiet and more contemplative moments, Love Songs is a solid overview covering not only her later years on Arista, but also material from various other labels and her collaborations with Burt Bacharach. Many of the moments remain untarnished with the passage of time, with the original recordings of "Walk On By," "Alfie," and "I Say a Little Prayer" cleaned up and sounding clearer than ever. While "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and other earlier performances would have been ideal for inclusion, later songs like "That's What Friends Are For" and "Heartbreaker" help to bring things into the later years nicely. And though the song sequencing is a bit erratic, that's something easily overlooked and can be manually corrected. Love Songs is not a collection for the die-hard fan, but casual listeners will find it immediately accessible and an enjoyable listen from start to finish. ~ Rob Theakston
In the absence of the superb three-volume set Looking Back, Motown keeps playing games with its fans by repackaging and recycling hits in numerous gimmick packages. This one features 20 Stevie Wonder love numbers, all certified classics. There's absolutely nothing wrong with them; they're wonderful. But instead of Motown constantly reissuing them, they should either reissue the three-record set, or prepare a new multi-disc box set. Instead, they're content to parcel out these partial sets that only rip off novices, gullible types, and knowledgeable fans anxious to get all the Wonder available. ~ Ron Wynn
While some of the volumes in Legacy's LOVE SONGS series are limited to a particular (often latter-day) period of the artist's recording career, the label's Dionne Warwick collection is far more definitive, spanning eras in a cross-licensing coup. So you get not only Warwick's late-1970s/early-'80s MOR hits, but also the '60s Bacharach-David tunes that made her a pop icon. Such stellar examples of the latter as the transcendent "Alfie" and the breezy, bossa nova-tinged "Walk on By" share space with the Bee Gees-penned '80s hit "Heartbreaker" and the bombs-away epic ballad "I'll Never Love This Way Again" (produced by Barry Manilow, appropriately enough). Even a '90s take on the supple Sting composition "Fragile" is offered up here. By cobbling together tracks from disparate stretches of Warwick's career, LOVE SONGS presents a pretty effective snapshot of the singer's multi-faceted musical personality.

A selection of love songs gleaned from his deleted 1977 anthology Looking Back. Although the obligitory well-known love songs are included ('My Cherie Amour', 'Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday'), there are a couple of surprises included: the wonderful "Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer" and the original version of 'Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do),' which was hit-covered by Aretha Franklin in 1974. Motown. 2005.