I bought DIONNE WARWICK ORIGINAL ALBUM SERIES with Original Album Series:Bobby Darin/Bobby Darin Sings Ray Charles/That's All/Things & Other ThingsThis Is Darin/ and I must say that I love them both!
The DIONNE WARWICK ORIGINAL ALBUM SERIES contains five of her albums: her first three (Presenting Dionne Warwick, Anyone Who Had A Heart, Make Way For Dionne Warwick) and two others (The Windows Of The World and Dionne Warwick In Valley Of The Dolls). Basically you'll get all of Dionne's hits (or at least well known favorites that became hits for other artists) from the 60s like "Walk On By," "Don't Make Me Over," "Anyone Who Had A Heart," "A House Is Not A Home," "(There's) Always Something There To Remind Me," "Up, Up And Away," "Do You Know The Way To San José," "(Theme From) Valley Of The Dolls," and my favorite "I Say A Little Prayer."
Each album has been remastered (or so it sounds--there isn't any remastering credits but the compilation was released in 2009) and sounds fantastic.
Warwick's voice was really something back then; it was sharp and clear as a bell! And she really handled the Bacharach/David compositions and arrangements with ease. Just listen to "The Beginning Of Loneliness," "Somewhere," and the Barbra Streisand standard "People," and you'll understand that Warwick had so much more to offer than just adult-contemporary radio hits. Her take on "Love" starts off with cooing off-key in a little girl's voice and then coming in full throttle and in a big booming voice, swinging away! Anyway, at this price you're getting each CD for a little over $6 each, which is a pretty good deal.
The packaging is the only thing that's lacking on this release. Just like another reviewer stated, I appreciate the cardboard replicas of the original album covers but the CDs aren't in any kind of protective sleeve! They're just in the cardboard jacket and the inside isn't even laminated, so you have to be careful not to scratch the disc when you take it out or put it back in. Also, there are no current liner notes, only the ones that were present on the original album covers will provide information on the song or on Warwick. Rhino should take a cue from Hip-O-Select when it comes to re-releases and provide something extra along with the new release like song lyric sheet or some bio info, extra tracks or something. And I found a typo on the "The Windows Of The World" jacket. The back of the jacket lists 11-tracks, but there are only ten on the CD. It lists "Taking A Chance On Love," but that isn't on the CD (unfortunately).
I would've taken one star off for the packaging, but the CD set is so strong that I'll overlook it. And thanks to the previous reviewer's heads-up, I bought a CD wallet to keep these CDs (and the ones from Bobby Darin's set) in. I highly recommend the set to Warwick fans or even casual fans like myself because if you're a music lover there's no denying that the teaming of Burt Bacharach and Hal David with Dionne Warwick was a winning combination that put the lush sounds of Bacharach/David on the map.
