Dionne Warwick stole Cher's song "Alfie"

Alfie is one helluva hard song to sing.

Kudos to anyone who can master it.

Dionne's version is the best. She deserved to have a big hit with it.

At least I didn't have to work in the same dozen little tricks in every song to try to distract from my lack of vocal talent.

Her held notes always sounded like the spokes of a bicycle hitting a baseball card.

I preferred to be a little anonymouse on my post to avoid the days of social media attacks.

And Cher did always have the best costumes.

I prefer Cilla Black's version.

Wow - I did not know this.

It's very odd to me in the 1960s how many songs were released by different artists in successive years and still charted. If I heard one song last year - I don't care if a new person sang it this year.

Tons of overlap with British/American singers, but there are lots of other examples too. It doesn't feel like this could or can happen today.

I got your number...Hussie

Cher is in the American cut. Cilla in the Briskish cut, and Dionne for the pop song cut. And by the way Cher is not a great singer-certainly not better than the former ladies- and she would tell you that herself.

I love Joanie Sommer's Italian verison.

WUZZIT ALLABOWWWWWW.... AL-FEEE....

[quote]Cher is not a great singer-certainly not better than the former ladies- and she would tell you that herself.

Doesn't matter, r8, she has a *sound*.

r6 that happened all the time in the 60s and part of the 70s. I Heard It Through the Grapevine, for example, was a huge hit for both Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight.

Cher's version is the weakest. In spite of her early pop hits with Sonny Bono, it was in the 70s when she really hit her stride as a more expressive vocalist.

Warwick's version is still the best if only because she has the best vocal instrument vs. Cher and Black.

I always found Black too shrill at times. There's one point in her version after the first two lines and she then goes up on "What's is ALL about.." and it's like caterwauling.

No love for the recently departed Miss Francis?

R6. Fully agree. Now, we have the endless movie sequels/remakes. No desire to see the Planet of the Apes 10, etc, and I am the biggest POTA fan ever. EVER. Plastic toys and stuff. I watch the original movies once a year because....

Connie sounds great!

Dionne's version was the result of an impromptu recording after she had already laid down tracks for her album "Here Where There is Love" and thought it was complete. But Scepter Records A&R man Steve Tyrell suggested they use the remaining time booked to record "Alfie." Warwick thought it was pointless because there were already over 40 versions recorded at the time, including one done by her sister Dee Dee earlier that spring. But she pressed ahead and took the song to #15 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, higher than Cher's version, which stalled at #32.

Dee Dee Warwick's version.

OP, are you aware that Cher DIDN'T WRITE Alfie? Like all of the other singers, she covered the song. It’s not “her” song.

R18. Link not working for me but found the version on the internet. Never heard this version before. Soooo much talent in that family...and problems.

Cilla Black’s version is the best and I love Joanie Sommers’ version in Italiano as well

Cher's version is wonderful.

People actually LIKE Cilla Black? As a singer? Isn't she considered awful?

Sarah Vaughan's cover

Cilla Black is shrill....her vocal tone is weak...Dionne? Perfect. I have spoken .

love the trumpet intro on Connie's version

But Dionne's is the definitive recording

Dionne is a crazy old bitch now but she was phenomenally talented in her prime, one of the best ever. Dusty Springfield was her only rival in pop music.

Cher's recorded version is very strong. I'm impressed.

Cilla Black - she was never known in the US and she always seem to redo American songs, but not as well.

I've never liked her face - and I've heard she was the OG C.U.N.T.

Patti LuPone would shake in fear of Cilla's cuntitude.

I don't care who is singing it. Ugh.

It's Burt Bacharach - He and Dionne were tight.

Funny how Burt Bacharach was considered simple minded cheese in the 1969s, now he’s a “genius.”

Cher was 19 when she recoded Alfie.

[quote] But she pressed ahead and took the song to #15 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, higher than Cher's version, which stalled at #32.

And it was even a bigger hit on the R&B & Soul chart, reaching #5. I always found that interesting since Alfie is a very traditional pop-sounding song.

I'm no fan of Connie Francis, but her version is not bad at all. It's certainly better than Cilla Black's.

Why did Joanie Sommer's, of all people, record it in Italian? She's singing it phonetically and it's just terrible.

Barbra recorded it too and it sounds tortured to me.

Dionne Warwick did it best. She had this wistful, pensive, melancholy thing in her voice that made you listen.

The songs that charted on R&B could surprise you: Beach Boy songs, Bread, The Carpenters' "Close to You".

Warwick's classical training made her perfect for singing in Bacharach's odd time signatures, with sometimes awkward phrasing Hal David had to write to accommodate them.

That’s what friends are for!

How low Dionne sunk what with that psychic friends stuff.

DL favorite Cynthia Erivo sings for Miss Dionne.

Am I the only one who doesn’t like this song? I saw Barbra Streisand and Patti LuPone both sing it live and I was non-plussed.

Maybe they just didn't understand what it was about.

Dionne Warwick's version is considered the definitive one. It's the only version inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

This performance was a masterclass.

To drop some sacrilege, I really like Naya Rivera’s version too.

Who sang it on the Oscars when it was nominated for Best Song?

[quote] Who sang it on the Oscars when it was nominated for Best Song?

Miss Warwick.

They both have a very unique quality in their voices. I liked Cher’s version a lot. Always loved 🥰 both gals!

R41 It's wonderful, but I'll take her original interpretation over that. See R2. Simple, direct. She belabors it at R41. The song does not need that.

The r41 version is also excellent, just a different interpretation.

R47 She makes it more about what a great singer she is at R41.

The original version is more about Hal David's lyrics and Bacharach's melody.

Yes r48 but the other version is also great. One thing the other video captures is what an expressive singer she is, you can see it on her face. A lot of singers don't have that kind of talent.

That hussy.

Dionne's melancholy version of Make It Easy On Yourself was also a master class.

Who the fuck is Alfie?

Alfie was a movie starring Michael Caine. He played the title character.

When Warwick discussed this in her memoir 15 years ago, she said the reason they wouldn't use her recording for the movie was because she recorded it on the Scepter label, where she was contracted in the 60s. United Artists (the distributor in the US) and Scepter couldn't reach a financial deal, so they commissioned Cher (according to Warwick, rather inexpensively) to do a recording for the film, instead. The film distributor in the UK asked Cilla Black to do the honors.

[quote]Dionne's melancholy version of Make It Easy On Yourself was also a master class.

No it's not.

Loud and brash. Lots of gimmicky vocal acrobatics. She sings a single syllable of text over multiple notes. It's no longer about the song and Bacharach's melody but about the singer. None of that it is in her original, far superior performance of the song.

R55 must be confusing Warwick with her late cousin.

r55 you're talking out of your ass. That performance is sublime. God, I hate music "critics."

[quote]That performance is sublime.

It's showy. And there is an audience that loves that gimmicky stuff.

Warwick needed NONE of that at the height of her career in the 1960s. She didn't need "melisma" to win over an audience.

What you call "showy" others think is a wonderful performance. One thing about Dionne is that you could believe that she lived every song she sang, very emotional.

THIS is greatness. It's as if she's truly talking to someone. The phrasing is obliterated at R41. Here the words and meaning shine through.

[quote] She didn't need "melisma" to win over an audience.

I don’t think you have one fucking clue what “melisma” is and you’re just talking out of your ass.