 DEE DEE Warwick has been turning out good records now for half a decade and she really hasn't received the acclaim she warrants. However, her new album, "Turning Around", even tops anything she has ever recorded. It's particularly interesting and pleasing since it is also her first since joining Atlantic: "Working with such a good company as Atlantic is really satisfying," she told me over a somewhat echoing telephone line from her home in New Jersey. "They attack everything so professionally that nothing is left to chance. You can say that I'm very happy and thrilled to be recording for Atlantic."
Hot on the heels of the "Turning Around" album will come another album which Dee Dee completed just last month. Again it was Dave Crawford who produced it but this time it was cut in Muscle Shoals — at Jimmy Johnson's studio — whereas the "Turning Around" album was recorded in Miami. Dee Dee is even happier about the forthcoming set than she was with "Turning Around", so that suggests we have something to look out for in the new year.
On the "Turning Around" album is a track called "She Didn't Know", which was also chosen as her debut single with Atco. It is especially interesting to me since the song was written by Gary Bonds and Jerry Williams Jr., the writers and producers of the classic Doris Duke album. It is even more of interest when one studies the lyric to "She Didn't Know" because it is an obvious follow through on Doris' "To The Other Woman". Dee Dee was kind enough to explain: "Actually, Doris had recorded it before me although I didn't know it. I was just presented with the song, I liked it and recorded it. It was all as simple as that. Then, during the summer, I worked with Doris for a month and she told me then." It turns out that Jerry Williams writes the lyric whilst Gary sets it all to music.
Anyway, back to the new album — the lead track is likely to be "A Cold Night In Georgia", which is, naturally enough, a continuation to "Rainy Night In Georgia", although it's a completely different song with new music and a new story. However, there is a reference to the fact that 'there ain't nothing like a cold night in Georgia', which insinuates that there can be worse things than a rainy night in that fair state. Also on the album is a Valerie Simpson and Nick Ashford song, "Now That There's You" plus an old Baby Washington hit, "I Can't Wait To See My Baby's Face".
It certainly now looks as though Dee Dee Warwick has found her rightful home and she will now make up for lost time. On the strength of her first Atco/Atlantic album, the marriage between the company and the artist is little short of perfection.
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