Dionne Warwick & Isaac Hayes | SOLID GOLD | 2/21/1981

From our 1st Season of Paramount Television’s hit 80s TV series, “SOLID GOLD“, Dionne Warwick and Oscar & Grammy-winning songwriter Isaac Hayes chat it up! 
I was Solid Gold's musical director and theme composer (Michael Miller - "Mickle").

[@jasonburger3533]

I have to write that the first time I had become aware of Isaac Hayes had been through the 1979 Dionne Warwick album entitled "Dionne", which was her first on the Arista Records label and includes the song that she had referenced in this chat, "Deja Vu". Isaac Hayes had been involved in its origins and Barry Manilow had produced the entire album. The bassbeat on "Deja Vu" is hard to beat.
I went into further research about Isaac Hayes and had found many years ago that Dionne Warwick and Isaac Hayes had the highly successful "A Man And A Woman" album and a tour during the pre-1979 late 1970s, which had some unusual arrangements of her previous Burt Bacharach-Hal David hits as well as some others as well, such as her version of the 1970s popular song "Feelings". They were good together on that album and the tour did well as well.
I do want to add a question of clarification as to when this episode had originally aired. The date that is marked as the airdate is February 21, 1981. That would make it the same airdate when Dionne and The Solid Gold Dancers had performed a version of the Kool & The Gang charttopper, "Celebration", and her appearance, including hair style, appears to be the same, which would be part of season 1. The descriptive background information states that the upload is from season 6, which had been the 1985-1986 season, her second season with "Solid Gold", but her hairstyle and general appearance was much different by that era. That leads me to think that the upload is actually from season 1, according to your printed airdate of February 21, 1981. I request some clarification. Otherwise, the upload of a "chat" portion or "interview" portion is an interesting variety of choice amidst the uploads in your collection and I welcome it along all the other musical performance and comedy segment uploads. Thank you, Michael, for your work on "Solid Gold" and your commitment to quality. Happy 40th anniversary to the day, June 4th, for "Solid Gold Hits," the 30-minute version of the hourlong weekly original series, "Solid Gold". I would have liked both the weekly and the "Hits" version to have remained on the air much longer than they were. "Hits" had been very good and, if given more airtime, might have helped keep the weekly series on for longer. Anyway, that "whoosh" sound at the end of the opening of the "Hits" version reminds me of the "whoosh" sound from the opening of the late 1970s animated space series, "Battle Of The Planets" as the Phoenix airship appeared to move right through the television screen, an effect that the "Solid Gold Hits" logo in its opening on-screen credits approves to glisten to the sound. Those of a certain age that were fans of all 3 series might agree.
The production quality of these beloved old television series is hard to beat with the current crop. 1984 seemed so futuristic when it had been actually that year. It seems so strange that it is 40 years ago. It seems stranger that some of the current youth actually think that "Solid Gold" is a manifestation of a fictional character named Soldier Boy. I am glad that many find that "Solid Gold" is the real deal, that it actually existed and that Soldier Boy is the fictional character. Your uploads are helping to communicate that to the youth of the present. I did not know of the Soldier Boy cross-reference to "Solid Gold" until recently. I know of the real "Solid Gold" from having lived through the experience as it occurred and again as an online experience that is much better because of your RUclips channel being in existence. Speaking of which, it is June, so happy 18th anniversary to your RUclips channel in its creation. The actual date is June 26, 2006. However, the June 4, 1984 launch date of "Solid Gold Hits" at 40 years ago today, or what had been today, has me thinking about "Solid Gold" June-related dates. Thank you, Michael, for your RUclips channel and your time machine down memory lane.
That helps to appreciate the "Solid Gold" experience continuously and that is a major help to me, especially at this point in my life existence.

[@bigeyezzzzzzz]

My Solid Gold band and I spent a wonderful day with Isaac Hayes in the recording studio creating the track for this song (to which he sang live when we taped it later that day at the TV studio). Thanks so much, as always, for all of your wonderful research (and for alerting me of my typo), and I’m glad you continue to enjoy all of the ongoing Gold!

[@jasonburger3533]

​@@bigeyezzzzzzzIsaac Hayes was a gifted singer and songwriter and had one of the smoothest voices in the industry, so that had to be something working with him not long after he helped to broaden and change the musical style of Dionne Warwick into a style suited to the late 1970s on the cusp of the 1980s while still paying homage to her 1960s and early 1970s hits and giving the world her often metaphysical-sounding new hit song "Deja Vu" that takes its name from the French expression about being in the present but feeling that occurrences of the present seem to have occurred the same exact way as in the past. That was a very metaphoric song that symbolized a rebirth of the career of Dionne Warwick and a sound that incorporated her original sound fused with a new evolving sound that helped establish new hits and the introduction of her "Solid Gold" era that carried forth her original sound with a contemporary flair and ultimately to the present. Always a versatile performer, Dionne became even more versatile and took on new music through her many renditions of cover songs on "Solid Gold". That occurred even as she delighted the mostly young audience of the "Solid Gold" studio with her hits from the 1960s and early 1970s while being able to sing the new contemporary music that became her new style of sound and was exquisitely presented on "Solid Gold". Isaac Hayes, for his part, had been a master entertainer himself and continued to be through the remainder of his career and life. His name, to me, is most associated with "Deja Vu", a song that is essentially has underlying meaning about being both in the present and feeling as if having been in the current present in the past. It is a phenomenon of human existence that medical science is still studying and trying to understand. So much of life is not known about and understood, but without the performing arts, life would lack a lot of the depth and human emotions that it does have. I think that the interview segments on "Solid Gold" were as enlightening as the musical performances as they helped fill in the blanks to what is more recently referred to as the "back story" and that is always good to know. Those trivia statements often given during the countdown segments on "Solid Gold" helped bring out facts about the artists that were from an era before the Internet could be accessed and presented facts in a fun way about the music and the personalities that performed the music. There is always a story behind the story, so this chat/interview portion with Dionne Warwick and Isaac Hayes was a very good find by you and from so early in the series that I know that I missed it when it aired originally. Thank you for this upload. I appreciate your work in bringing us these blasts from the past.