History: Dee Dee Warwick
Dee Dee Warwick was born Delia Juanita Warrick in 1942 Newark. She had changed her last name to Warwick because of sister Dionne Warwick’s misspelled name on her debut hit single, “Don’t Make Me Over,” in 1963. Their mom was in the Drinkard Singers, a gospel vocal group that performed regularly at Newark’s New Hope Baptist Church. The group include their aunt, Cissy Houston.
She formed her own vocal group, The Gospelaires, with Dionne, and in 1959 they got their big break during a gig at the Apollo Theater in Harlem when they were asked to provide background vocals for wildman sax honker Sam “The Man” Taylor [1916-1990]. He blew for Scatman Crothers, Cab Callaway, Ray Charles and Big Joe Turner (that’s him on Turner’s groundbreaking “Shake Rattle & Roll”) on his way to becoming star in his own right. The song was “Won’t You Deliver Me.” It was the first time on record for Dee Dee and Dionne Warwick. It led to the sisters becoming—almost overnight—two of the most requested back-up singers in the business, appearing on hundreds of recordings between 1960 and 1965. The Gospelaires morphed into The Sweet Inspirations who sang background for Elvis and Aretha before enjoying hits on their own. Doris Troy (“Just One Look”) was also in the group.
Dee Dee went solo in 1963, enjoying a string of hits including “I Want To Be With You” and “Foolish Fool,” both for major-label Mercury. In the liner notes for a 2012 reissue of I Want To Be With You: The Mercury /Blue Rock Sessions, Dionne wrote of her sister, “without showing bias and I must admit it is very hard not to, whenever I have been asked about Dee Dee and her voice, I have and will continue to give the same answer: her voice was I feel the `special’ voice of the family. She had a way with expressing a lyric unique only to her…”
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When Dionne broke big, Dee Dee continued adding her voice to the artistry of others, including Aretha, “Little” Esther Phillips and Nina Simone. As she said in a 1998 interview, “it took me awhile to get into having a solo career…Having it wasn’t a big deal to me and frankly, I didn’t realize what I was doing. I was still quite young and the idea of having a hit was a fantasy to me.”
But a chance encounter with the producers of Dusty Springfield in England prompted her forward. She recorded “Alfie” a year before Dionne but it went nowhere. So did sessions with numerous name producers. Despite receiving the “Pioneer Award” in 1999 from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, five solo albums, credits on over 500 recordings, sessions that resulted in over 100 solo songs, and two Grammy nominations (losing both to Aretha), Dee Dee Warwick never actually achieved stardom. Still, she was inducted posthumously into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.
Her legacy was tarnished in 2018 in the documentary film Whitney, directed by Kevin MacDonald, that included allegations by longtime Whitney Houston assistant Mary Jones that Dee Dee—one of the first female singers to come out as gay—sexually abused Whitney as a child when Cissy was on tour. (Thus Whitney always took her own daughter on tour with her.) Dionne told People magazine in 2019, “all I can say about Dee Dee is that she was a loving, caring, giving person. What was depicted of her is absolutely untrue and something I will never forgive.”
Dee Dee Warwick died in 2008 at an Essex County nursing home at the age of 66 after suffering a stroke. Her sister was at her side.