Alex Henderson

Dionne Warwick
How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye  [Expanded Edition]

The late Luther Vandross was, hands down, the most popular male quiet storm vocalist of the 1980s. Vandross, however, not only made his mark as a singer, but also, as a producer and a songwriter. And some of the artists he produced during the 1980s were major stars he had idolized growing up in New York City, including Aretha Franklin (Vandross produced and co-wrote her 1982 smash “Jump To It”), Diana Ross and Dionne Warwick. It was in 1983 that Vandross produced How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye for Arista Records, helping Warwick deliver an album that had both quiet storm appeal and adult contemporary appeal.

Warwick wasn’t known for recording a lot of uptempo songs in the 1980s. Music industry titan Clive Davis, who signed Warwick to Arista in 1979, generally marketed her as a romantic artist. But How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye contains a few infectious funk-dance grooves, including “I Do It ‘Cause I Like It” and the minor hit “Got a Date” (both of which Vandross wrote with bassist Marcus Miller). Nonetheless, ballads dominate this album, and Warwick lives up to her reputation as a romantic singer on “I Can Let Go Now” (a song by former Doobie Brothers frontman Michael McDonald), “What a Miracle Can Do” (which Vandross wrote with the late pianist/composer Don Grolnick) and “Two Ships Passing in the Night” (a Warwick original) as well as Vandross’ “So Amazing” and the title song (which finds Warwick and Vandross performing a male/female vocal duet).

In 1983, the title song (a single that reached #7 R&B and #4 adult contemporary in Billboard in the United States) also appeared on Vandross’ million-selling Busy Body album. And in 1986, Vandross revisited “So Amazing” when he recorded his own version for his album, Give Me the Reason. This reissue finds Warwick and Vandross joined by a talented group of participants, including Miller on bass, Nat Adderley, Jr. (son of the great jazz cornetist Nat Adderley, Sr. and nephew of alto saxophone legend Cannonball Adderley) on keyboards, rocker Peter Frampton on guitar, Skip Anderson on synthesizers, Sammy Figueroa on percussion, Yogi Horton on drums, and Fonzi Thornton, Cissy Houston (Warwick’s aunt and the late Whitney Houston’s mother), Tawatha Agee (of Mtume fame), Patti Austin and Chic’s Alfa Anderson on background vocals.

Another highlight of this album is an inspired remake of the Carole King/Gerry Goffin gem “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” which had been a major hit for the Shirelles in 1960. There have been numerous covers of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” over the years, but Warwick’s version boasts the Shirelles themselves. Interviewed in September 2014, Fonzi Thornton—who was a close personal friend of Vandross in addition to working with him on a long list of projects—remembered how thrilled Vandross was to bring together Warwick and the Shirelles in 1983.

“A special treat for Luther was getting the Shirelles, his favorite female group before Cissy Houston & the Sweet Inspirations, to sing background on ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,’” Thornton recalls. “They were Dionne’s labelmates on Scepter Records in the 1960s and recorded the original hit with Shirley Alston on lead.”

Thornton remembers that Vandross wasn’t old enough to vote when he first fell in love with Warwick’s singing. “Most people, of course, know that Luther and I were collaborators,” Thornton explains, “but they don’t know that we became best friends in our early teens and grew up like brothers—singing in different groups, rehearsing, laughing and eating dinner at each other’s mother’s house. And I will say that Luther loved Aretha, the Temptations and the Sweet Inspirations, but Dionne Warwick was his original muse. Luther saw her as a teen at the Fox Theatre in Brooklyn singing ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’—which he later recorded—and Luther always said that hearing her that first time was like an old movie where the spotlight was on two people at opposite ends of a darkened room and it felt like there was no one else in the world. Luther was inspired by the elegance and soulfulness of Dionne’s phrasing as well as her statuesque beauty, and he wanted his singing to affect an audience the way Dionne affected him that day. Of course, Luther got his wish.”

Thornton remembers that Warwick and Clive Davis were in complete agreement that Vandross should produce How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye. “When Dionne and Clive approached Luther to do a new album for her, he had already written the classic ‘So Amazing’ with her in mind,” Thornton notes. “It was a perfect fit. And when Luther designed the title song and played it for Dionne, she loved it and invited him to sing it with her. Luther told me he was initially a bit nervous about performing with his hero, but they knocked it out and did a great video. It was one of the crowning achievements for a guy from the projects of the Lower East Side of New York City and then, the tenements of Dawson Street in the Bronx.”

Interviewed separately in September 2014, Skip Anderson also had fond memories of Vandross producing this album. Anderson asserts: “How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye is full of great songwriting and arranging. The combination of Luther and Nat Adderley, Jr. spells excellence on a level seldom achieved in popular music. Much like Burt Bacharach & Hal David, their collaborations will be remembered as some of the best work of their era. Dionne was in good hands once again.”

It was a sad day for R&B when Vandross (who suffered from hypertension and diabetes) died of heart failure on July 1, 2005 at the age of 54. Warwick, however, is now 73 and continues to perform no less than 52 years after the release of “Don’t Make Me Over” (the 1962 single that put her on the map). And 31 years after its initial release, How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye remains an engaging document of Warwick and Vandross’ decision to join forces.

—Alex Henderson, October 2014

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Salon.com, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, AlterNet, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, The New York City Jazz Record, Jazz Inside Magazine and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) also contributed several thousand CD reviews to the popular Allmusic.com website and The All Music Guide’s series of music reference books.