 Soulful vocalist Dionne Warwick was born Marie Dionne Warrick in East Orange, New Jersey on December 12, 1940 and grew up in a family that loved gospel music. In her early 20s she moved to New York to seek a career as a professional singer; she soon landed a job as a backup singer for the pop/R&B group the Drifters, working as a session musician in her spare time. Warwick went on to become one of the top vocal pop stars of the 1960s, scoring numerous Top 10 hits for Scepter Records with Bacharach-David songs like "I Say a Little Prayer," "Walk on By," "Anyone Who Had a Heart," "Message to Michael," "Alfie," "(Theme From) The Valley of the Dolls," "This Girl's in Love with You," and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" (which became her signature song). By 1970 she had split with Bacharach and David and moved to Warner Bros., returning to the charts in 1974 with the No. 1 R&B hit "Then Came You," recorded with the Spinners. Over the next two decades Warwick continued her solo career, all the while remaining in demand as a guest artist. She appeared on the hit single "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" with Johnny Mathis, on "Love Power" with Jeffrey Osborne, and on the Grammy-winning '80s hit "That's What Friends Are For," recorded with none other than Stevie Wonder and Elton John. Along the way she racked up five Grammys and five gold albums, despite devoting increasing amounts of time to non-musical endeavors like the Dionne Warwick Design Group (an interior design firm), the nationally syndicated radio show "Love Notes From Around the World," the TV show "Solid Gold" (which she hosted for several years in the early '80s), a perfume company, the Psychic Friends Network 1-900 business, and, most importantly, major charity work for AIDS-related causes (she has raised millions of dollars through benefit concerts and fundraising efforts). Warwick's two most recent albums, recorded for Arista, are 1993's Friends Can Be Lovers, which features cameos by Sting and her cousin Whitney Houston, and 1995's Latin-themed Aquarela Do Brazil. Both sold well and received generally positive reviews, indicating that after more than 30 years in the recording business, Warwick is as creative and popular as ever.
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