“Do You Know the Way to San Jose” (Dionne Warwick)

Continuing our look at girl singers of the ’60s, we come to one of my favorite singers singing one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite songwriting teams. We’re talking about “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and sung by the divine Dionne Warwick.

While “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” sounds timeless to me, it was actually written in 1967 and released in April of 1968. The song peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100, #4 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, #2 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #1 on the Record World Top 100. It also earned Ms. Warwick a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, her first of five Grammys.

For this tune, Burt wrote the music before Hal wrote the words. Hal had always liked San Jose, having been stationed there while he was in the Navy. Dionne apparently didn’t like the song, however, and had to be convinced to sing it. As she noted in a 1983 interview:

“It’s a dumb song and I didn’t want to sing it. But it was a hit… I’m happy these songs were successful, but that still doesn’t change my opinion about them.”

Dumb or not, she agreed to record the song, which proved to be a smart decision. She recorded this one, with Burt arranging, producing, and conducting, at Bell Sound Studios in New York, using Burt’s normal cadre of session musicians. That included ace drummer Gary Chester, with his tasty snare drum brush work and signature bass drum beats leading into each verse.

The song is about a would-be star who’s not making it in L.A.; instead, “all the stars that never were are parking cars and pumping gas.” So the protagonist is contemplating returning home to San Jose, where they were born and raised. In San Jose, after all, there’s lots of open space where they can really breathe. Plus, they have lots of friends there. This was long before San Jose became the hub of Silicon Valley, with stratospheric housing prices and one of the highest costs of living in the country. Back then it was a sleepy little burg that people escaped from, not to, and Hal captured that in his lyrics.

“Do You Know the Way to San Jose” was just one of more than a dozen Top 40 hits that Dionne Warwick had singing Bacharach/David songs. The biggest of those hits included “Anyone Who Had a Heart” (#8 in 1963), “Walk On By” (#6 in 1964), “Reach Out for Me” (#20 in 1964), “Message to Michael” (#8 in 1966), “I Say a Little Prayer” (#4 in 1967), “Promises, Promises” (#19 in 1968), “This Girl’s in Love with You” (#7 in 1969), and “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” (#6 in 1969). That’s an astounding run for both the singer and the songwriters, and doesn’t count all the subsequent hits that Ms. Warwick had with non-Bacharach/David tunes and that Burt and Hal had with songs for other singers.

It’s safe to say that the Warwick-Bacharach-David pairing was one made in pop music heaven; her voice and vocal acumen were perfect for Burt Bacharach’s sophisticated vocally slithery melodies. Nothing sounded quite like a Bacharach/David tune sung by Dionne Warwick, and they all sound just as fresh today as they did when they were first recorded.

Burt Bacharach and Hal David ended their partnership in 1973 after writing the soundtrack for the disastrous film musical, Lost Horizon. Hal David passed away in 2012, aged 91. Burt Bacharach passed away in February of this year, aged 94. Dionne Warwick is still with us today, somewhat of an unwitting Twitter celebrity; she’s 82 years old.

(You can read more about Burt Bacharach and his music in my very first post to this blog, here.)