Dee Dee Warwick - She Didn't Know: The Atco Sessions (CD)

All Music Guide

In the early '70s, Warwick recorded for Atco with limited success, reaching the RB Top Ten with "She Didn't Know (She Kept on Talking)," and gaining a couple of smaller RB hits with "Cold Night in Georgia" and a cover of "Suspicious Minds." She did quite a bit of recording for Atco between 1970 and 1972 in a fairly down-home vein, sometimes with backing by the esteemed Dixie Flyers rhythm section, and backup vocals by the Sweet Inspirations, Cissy Houston, and Judy Clay. These sessions sounded something like a poppier variation on the Stax sound, though none of the songs had the arresting qualities necessary to break her to the pop audience. This 22-track compilation of her Atco work is a typically high-class Soul Classics production, including all the hits, non-LP singles, tracks from her 1970 LP Turning Around, and seven unreleased songs that are just as impressive as her official performances from the era. Dee Dee, incidentally, sounds nothing like her famed sister Dionne here, favo...ring far gutsier vocals, material, and arrangements. It's good late-period vintage soul, and more evidence that Warwick was one of the more unjustly neglected soul performers of her time. - Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide Read more Less