A Look Back at Barry Manilow and Dionne Warwick’s Collaborations From the Late 1970s Through Mid-’80s

By the late 1970s, Barry Manilow had already become a sought-after producer and arranger after working with Bette Midler and had a small catalog of television theme songs and commercial jingles in his songbook. At the time, Dionne Warwick had released nearly two dozen albums and was working on her next, Dionne (1979), when Clive Davis facilitated a meeting with Manilow to produce it. While working on Dionne, Warwick, and Manilow became quick friends.

“People warned me that Dionne might be difficult to work with,” said Manilow, “and that was the farthest thing from what happened.” 

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Warwick and Manilow continued to collaborate and perform together in the years that followed, with Manilow also contributing two songs and co-produced Warwck’s 1985 Finder of Lost Loves and producing a song on Friends, “No One There (To Sing Me a Love Song),” released the same year.

[RELATED: Remember When Barry Manilow Wrote The TV Jingle That Made America Sing]

“In Your Eyes” (1979)

Written by Barry Manilow, Jack Feldman, and Bruce Sussman

When Warwick was ready to record her album Dionne, Manilow was brought in to produce it, and he also co-wrote two tracks, including “In Your Eyes” with his regular collaborators Jack Feldman and Bruce Sussman.

You still know what to say
You still know what to do
You still know how to make me feel

There’s no one else but you
And you think that things
Adjust the way they used to be
But I can see

It’s in your eyes
I see that you wanna run away
And in your eyes
I don’t see the kind of love you say

Dionne went to No. 12 on the Billboard 200, and Manilow also produced Warwick’s hits “I’ll Never Love This Way Again,” written by Richard Kerr and Will Jennings, and “Déjà Vu,” penned by Isaac Hayes and Adrienne Anderson, from the album, which both won Grammys.

In 1980, Wariwck and Manilow performed a medley of “Deja Vu” and “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” together on the TV special One Voice.

“All the Time” (1979)

Written by Barry Manilow and Mary Panzer

Along with his first songwriting partner, Marty Panzer—who also co-penned Kenny Rogers’ 1981 classic “Through the Years”—Manilow also co-wrote the closing track on Dionne, “All the Time,” centered around finding one’s soulmate after a long bout of loneliness.

All the time I thought there’s only me
Crazy in a way
That no one else could be
I would have given everything I own
If someone would have said
You’re not alone

All the time, I thought that I was wrong
Wanting to be me
But needing to belong
If I had just believed in all I-I had
If someone would have said
You’re not so bad

“We had a ball making that record [‘Dionne’],” said Manilow. “It was a party every afternoon. It’s one of my favorite memories. She [Warwick] was in great voice that entire album, as you might be able to hear. On every song of that album, she was hitting notes in her range that I didn’t know she had.”

Manilow added, “It was a great, wonderful experience. If you talk to her about making that album, she will say the same thing. It was a great creative experience for the two of us.”

“It’s Love” (1985)

Written by Barry Manilow and Adrienne Anderson

By 1985, Warwick contributed to the all-star “We Are the World” and reunited with Manilow, along with longtime collaborator Burt Bacharach, on her album Finder of Lost Loves. The album features two songs written by Stevie Wonder, who also duets with Warwick, along with songs penned by Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager, Robert “Mutt” Lange, and others.

Manilow shares a duet with Warwick on a cover of the Bee Gees’ 1972 hit “Run to Me,” and also co-produced and co-wrote two additional songs on the album, including “It’s Love.”

It’s love, I can tell by the way
That he’s looking at me, it’s love
I can feel when we dance
He doesn’t want to let me go
But he doesn’t really know, oh, it’s love
I can tell by the way
That he’s holding my hand it’s lovе
I can see in his eyes
He doеsn’t really understand
He’s always gonna be my man ‘Cause it’s love
And when we touched for the very first time
Somehow, I knew he was gonna be mine

“Bedroom Eyes” (1985)

Written by Barry Manilow, Jack Feldman, and Bruce Sussman

It hurts too good when I surrender to your eyes, Warwick sings, seduced by someone’s intimate gaze on Manilow’s “Bedroom Eyes.”

Play with fire, and it’s easy to be burned
Sounds so simple, but I guess I never learned
You’re much too hot to handle
So there’s nothing I can do
It hurts too good when I surrender to

Your eyes, those bedroom eyes
You look my way and start the fire
Your eyes, those bedroom eyes
They hypnotize with their desire
You come over here, you do the damage you do
Bedroom eyes easy evil
And it never felt so fine, hold me closer
Feel your heartbeat next to mine
You got me where I want you
And I want you more and more
This heart of mine has no defenses for

“Never Gonna Let You Get Away”

Originally recorded in 1979, released in 2018
Written by Barry Manilow

“Never Gonna Let You Get Away” was first recorded by the trio Lady Flash, made up of backup singers Debra Byrd, Monica Pege, and Reparata Mazzola, in 1976 for the group’s album Beauties in the Night, produced by Manilow. The soulful ballad resurfaced three years later when Manilow sang it as a duet with Warwick, intending to include it on her 1979 album Dionne.

All my life Ive had this dream
Someone like you would come along
Through the darkness and the fears
You would be there, and I was strong
And now you’re here
And now I’m home
And now I’m
Never gonna let you get away
We’ll be fine
See how dreams can come true
I’m never gonna let you get away
Not this time
I won’t stop loving you
No, I’m never gonna let you get away
Now that you’re here

The song never made the cut on Dionne and wasn’t released until 2018, when it appeared on a PBS special documentary, My Music: Dionne Warwick – Then Came You, and the compilation, Dionne Warwick: Hits & Rarities 1974-1999. 

Photo: Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images