The Definitive Collection should have been one of the best compilations of the great Dionne Warwick's career yet. The song selection leaves out some of Dionne's' older '60s hits, but does encompass the full range of her successful career.

The remastering job sounds superb, and that is the top criteria I look for in CDs these days. They've applied 20-bit digital mastering from the original master tapes.

Unfortunately, and this is a real problem, on several of the tracks the first few seconds of the song have been truncated. Cutting off the first few notes of a song simply ruins it. It's unforgivable that professionals at a major label can publish something flawed this badly and no one notice. Yet I notice the screw ups the first time I listen to this CD.

The flawed tracks are: Alfie, Do You Know The Way To San Jose, Don't Make Me Over, I Say A Little Prayer, Message To Michael, Walk On By, The Windows Of The World, Deja Vu, After You, Love Power, That's What Friends Are For. The intro was truncated on practically EVERY single track. It's possible that I just received a bad CD, but that's not very likely.

Despite the great promise of this otherwise wonderful CD, cutting off the intros renders the CD unusable for listening - and a waste of money, unless you plan to just sample from it.

i'll come clean and say i don't actually have this CD, so therefore i don't know some of the tracks. Luckily, i have quite a few Dionne vinyl LPs, so i get the jist of this one. i'm really glad this is not another "all 60's" Dionne Warwick compilation. Sure, i love her 60's stuff, but i feel that some of her later 70's/80's material had more of a natural "oomph" in them, and weren't so formulaic. i'm also glad more recent stuff is on here because that's what most compilations of her lack. My favorite off the top of my head would have to be "Heartbreaker". Last February, i picked up the "Heartbreaker" LP, and the title song was the song that introduced me to the diva Dionne. Ever since, i have been hooked. Sure, it's a little formulaic in that just about every Barry Gibb song is like that (especially the unmistakeable backing vocals), but it's catchy, realistic (except for the line "My love is stronger than the universe"), and Dionne's vocals are great as usual. i'm also glad they included 2 songs from her great 1987 release "Reservations For Two", the tracks being the title track (a #62 hit in 1987, and a duet with Kashif), and the #14 hit "Love Power", sung with Jeffrey Osborne. My favorite is the latter, with classic 80's electric piano/synthesizers, good vocals on both sides, and clever lyrics. (The repetition does get to me after a while, though.) Including both "I'll Never Love This Way Again" and "Deja Vu" from her 1979 smash "Dionne" was another smart decision. "Deja Vu" has really grown on me, and i especially love the "odd-couple marriage" of heavy bass, string arrangements, and dreamy vocals. "I'll Never Love This Way Again" holds its own as one of Dionne's best ballads. Other good contenders include "No Night So Long", "How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye" (i'm sort of surprised they included 2 cuts from that LP, considering it was somewhat ignored), and even "That's What Friends Are For". Of course, we're talking about Dionne Warwick, so who can forget her classic 1960's singles? "Walk On By" by far is the best, with staccato back-up vocals, a beautiful piano part, and a young 20-something Dionne that sounds like a cross between her cousin Cissy Houston, and Cissy's now-infamous daughter Whitney. The witty "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" fits like a gem on any classic Easy Listening AM radio station, which certainly adds to it rather than be a burden. The ultra-60's "Do You Know The Way To San Jose" can't be forgotten either. Of course, most of these are classics, but i have a couple problems with this compilation. First of all, WHY no "Valley Of The Dolls"? It figures that one of her shining moments is overlooked. Also, if they included non-successful songs like "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" (was that even a single?) and "After You", then why not include better lesser-known material, like the 1985 single "Without Your Love", and the 1982 single "Take The Short Way Home", (which nearly made the Top 40)? Well, i guess i'll just have to retreat back to my room and the turntable and let the good times roll. In a nutshell, any Dionne fan should definitely own this. (So maybe i should actually buy it!) It's sort of a shame that Dionne has taken such a back-seat to the music world today, and it's time we start listening again!

First of all, we have yet to have a truly definitive collection of Dionne's best work, which means a cd set that includes all of her 1960s' hits (including "(Theme From) The Valley Of The Dolls" and "This Girl's In Love With You", two top ten hits not on this cd), her 1970s' classics and her '80s' comeback hits. However, "The Definitive Collection" is as close as you can get to a perfect sampler of Dionne's biggest hits.

I'll start by saying that I think "The Windows Of The World" and "After You" could have been cut so they could include "(Theme From) The Valley Of The Dolls" and "This Girl's In Love With You", since those are two of her biggest hits and unless there were publishing problems - which I doubt - they should have definitely been here. Also, "The Windows Of The World" and "After You" are the only weak songs on this cd. Other than that, these songs are true classics. I mean, just look at the selections - "Anyone Who Had A Heart", "Walk On By", "Do You Know The Way To San Jose", "Alfie", "I'll Never Fall In Love Again", "Then Came You", "I'll Never Love This Way Again", "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" and "That's What Friends Are For", to name a few (okay, about half) of the album's classic cuts from nearly 25 years' worth of recording. Her best work was recorded with Burt Bacharach and Hal David at the pen and the helm, although the Barry Manilow - penned "I'll Never Love..." is just as good.

As I said, this isn't exactly definitive, but it's pretty close. In my opinion, the definitive Dionne Warwick collection would be a two disc set that would include all her hits up to today. Here is what the track list should look like:

Disc 1:
"Don't Make Me Over"
"Anyone Who Had A Heart"
"Walk On By"
"A House Is Not A Home"
"You'll Never Get To Haven (If You Break My Heart)"
"Reach Out For Me"
"Are You There
"Message To Michael"
"Trains And Boats And Planes"
"I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself"
"Alfie"
"The Windows Of The World"
"I Say A Little Prayer"
"Valley Of The Dolls"
"Do You Know The Way To San Jose"
"Who Is Gonna Love Me"
"There's Always Something There To Remind Me"
"Promises, Promises"
"This Girl's In Love With You"
"The April Fools"
"Odds And Ends"
"You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"
"I'll Never Fall In Love Again"

Disc Two:
"Then Came You"
"Once You Hit The Road"
"I'll Never Love This Way Again"
"Deja Vu"
"After You"
"No Night So Long"
"Easy Love"
"Some Changes Are For Good"
"Friends In Love"
"Heartbreaker"
"Take The Short Way Home"
"How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye"
"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"
"That's What Friends Are For"
"Whisper In The Dark"
"Love Power"
"Reservations For Two"
"What The World Needs Now Is Love"

Overall, however, this is definitely a great collection for any music fan. Pick this cd up as soon as you can. It won't change your life, but it's excellent msuic.

The problem with this CD is that whoever did the mastering didn't know how to insert track-markings. If you are scanning through the disc, you might think that the introductions of many songs have been cut off. What has happened is that [...] Arista placed most of the track markings AFTER songs have started (You have to back-up and listen to the end of a previous track in order to hear the beginning of the next one).

Naturally, if you play the CD from start to finish, you'll never notice this problem.

This is really sad because the quality of the sound is very good, and the CD is probably the best representation of Warwick's work. But I wouldn't recommend this disc because of the technical flaw.

I bought this collection after hearing Dionne's newest album Dionne Sings Dionne and after hearing Do You Know The Way To San Jose {My Favorite} played constantly on the loudspeaker at Disney's California Adventure and then I fell in love with this collection. I liked hearing the original Walk On By and the love ballad Don't Make Me Over. The Joan Baezish The Windows Of The World sounds very folky and should be played on radio today. A bit of trivia for all you Dionne fans This song was a giant hit part not because of her biggest top hit but it became a anthem for troops during the Vietnam War. The latter part covers Dionne's Hits from 1979-87 and contains the Barry Manilow penned After You and the lovely I'll Never Love This Way Again that is taken from her Arista Debut Dionne. Other Tracks include Reservations for Two and features Jazz singer Kashif {Pronounced KASH-eef} from Dionne's 1987 album of the same name and the fun Heartbreaker. It would be nice if there is a volume II of this definitive collection but until then,
"I'LL BE ON YOUR SIDE FOREVER MORE THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR"
Enjoy,
Regis