Dionne Warwick 1994 Interview: On Whitney, Burt Bacharach & Psychic Friends

In this 1994 broadcast of The Dini Petty Show, Dionne Warwick sits down with Dini Petty to talk about the Burt Bacharach song she turned down, the hit someone else made of it, and what she thought when she heard it on the radio. She opens with Aquarela do Brasil and her son David and first grandbaby, then traces her path from training as a concert pianist to becoming Bacharach’s demo singer.

The story everyone remembers is the one she rejected. She sent the song back as “a cowboy song.” Bacharach reworked it for another singer, and it became a hit. Ask Warwick how that felt, and her answer is one she says she cannot give on television. She names her favorite Bacharach and David song, and sets the record straight on a quote she says was never hers.

Then the studio audience takes over. They ask about Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, and whether the three of them would ever record together, and Warwick explains why nobody in her family was surprised Whitney could sing. She talks about Earth, Wind & Fire, Ella Fitzgerald, Marlene Dietrich and Lena Horne, about the Oscar, the Emmy and the Tony, and, inevitably, about the Psychic Friends Network.

In fall 2026 Warwick releases DWuets, the final album of her career, with Cynthia Erivo and John Legend. Unseen since its original 1994 CTV broadcast, this master tape has been meticulously optimized and preserved via the official archive of The Dini Petty Show.