Dionne Warwick | SOLID GOLD | "Message To Michael” (3/7/1981)

Introduced by Roberta Flack, from our 1st Season of Paramount's hit 80s TV series, "SOLID GOLD", enjoy our host, DIONNE WARWICK singing her Bacharach/David hit, "MESSAGE TO MICHAEL". This recording was produced by myself (Solid Gold's musical director and theme composer, Michael Miller - aka "Mickle") and it aired on March 7th, 1981.
00:00 - Intro by Roberta Flack
00:17 - Dionne Warwick - “Message to Michael”
03:30 - Solid Gold Theme
The members of my band for this clip were:
Joe Kloess - keyboards
Stewart Levin - keyboards
Leaky Valentine - guitar
Harold Alexander - percussion
Wade Short - bass
Greg Warner - drums
Background singers:
Dionne Warwick
Darlene Love
Eunice Peterson
Recorded at United Western Studios, engineered by Paul Dobbe

[@user-fu2sl9nw9p]

The modulations of music and vocals really touched me.

[@user-fu2sl9nw9p]

Beatitude come home.Come home that’s all just it takes. It is enough for me that you will be here.

[@jasonburger3533]

This song, "-Message To Michael", was orihinally released by her in March 1966. The irony is that she had to retitle an already existing song that was a Burt Bacharach-Hal David song. The song had originally been called "Message To Martha". That song had been for Jerry Butler, who had been the same singer who got "Make It Easy On Yourself" released first, even though Dionne had a version recorded and she thought that Burt Bacharach and Hal David would release that as her first song. When she found out thst Jerry Butler had his version playing on the radio, she told Burt and Hal "Don't Make Me Over!".. They used that as the basis for a new song for her and her version of -"Don't Make Me Over".
Dionne heard "Message To Martha" and knew it was Jerry Butler. There were other versions out as covers of that already, but done as "Kentucky Bluebird", by Lou Johnson in 1964 and Adam Faith, a British singer, whose real name was much longer than his stage name.
Marlene Dietrich recorded a German version in 1964.
In 1966, Dionne thought that Sacha Distel, a French singer with whom she had sung together in French on some songs at the Olympia Theatre in Paris, France, to record the song, presumably as "Message To Martha". Since he turned thst down, Dionne decided to record it herself and use the instrunental track that already was in existence.
Both Burt Bacharach and Hal David were opposed, as they thought it to be "a man's song". Hal had gone even further, sorry Michael, but the story from reliable sources os that Hal had said that the "only male name that could be used was Michael, a name that he did not like."
Dionne Warwick went on without Burt and Hal and recorded in a Paris studio,"Message To Michael", but a surprise issue arose; the French background singers had a hard time being able to pronounce "Michael".
Steve Tyrell, more recently a singer of classic songs, but then the A&R, artist & repertoire man, at Scepter Records, Dionne's first record label, got into an elevator and ran after Burt and Hal into Times Square, New York City and begged them to approve of "Message To Michael" by Dionne.
Florence Greenberg, the owner of Scepter Records, had no issues with thst, so it was done and it was a very large hit for Dionne, as you know. They used the name Blue Jac Productions, which was what all 3 of them, Burt, Hal, and Dionne used from the beginning, on the record label credits for the song.
In his 1968 book "What The World Needs Now And Other Love Lyrics", Hal admitted that he made a mistake on that one and that they "had subconciously written the song for her (Dionne) even while we thought we were writing it for a man."
There was even an unnamed malevsinger who recorded the song as "Message To Michael".
As a strange twist, the late President George H.W. Bush, when the 1988 Republican National Convention was on and he was being nominated for President, he is quoted to have said "Someone better take a 'message to Michael'." The "Michael" whom he referred to was Michael Dukakis, the then-governor of Massachusetts and who ultimately lost for president to Bush.
So, Hal did not like "Michael" as a name , while George H.W. Bush must have liked the song enough to give his quote and must have liked the name "Michael".
The back story of "Message To Michael" is something else.
I always found it to be a cute song. Dionne recorded the song in France and knew that it would be a hit. She was right.
I am of the belief that a song that is a male or a female type song or vice versa, in most cases, could be either gender, or unisex, with just changing some lyrics.
Dionne Warwick.in 1981 sounded similar to her 1966 rendition.😊

[@paulsonj72]

At least she wasn’t singing about the musical director for Solid Gold. 😁🎶

[@bellantonioabraham6920]

Solid Gold First Season.
On Air Date Saturday March 7th, 1981.
Co-Host Roberta Flack intros Dionne Warwick singing "Message to Michael."