album rating: ★★★★☆
Genre: Adult contemporary / smooth soul / pop. Heartbreaker is a studio album by Dionne Warwick (born Marie Dionne Warrick, East Orange, New Jersey, 1940), released by Arista Records on 28 September 1982. It was her fifth album for the label and the biggest-selling international album of her career. Warwick had achieved worldwide fame in the 1960s as the primary interpreter of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's compositions, but the 1970s had been unkind to her, and five albums for Warner Brothers had damaged her career significantly. The turnaround began when label president Clive Davis signed her to Arista and paired her with producer Barry Manilow for the 1979 album Dionne. By 1982, Davis approached Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees — who had just produced the enormously successful Guilty for Barbra Streisand — to write and produce for Warwick. The result was Heartbreaker. Gibb studied Warwick's voice and, working with his longtime production partners Karl Richardson and Albhy Galuten, fashioned a set of songs that matched her vocal range and stylistic versatility. The album was largely written by Barry Gibb together with his brothers Robin and Maurice. Gibb and Galuten also served as musicians on the sessions. Warwick recorded the album during spring 1982. The recording sessions took place at Middle Ear Studio and Mediasound; the album was mastered at Criteria Recording Studios. Session musicians include Tim Renwick (guitar), Steve Gadd (drums), Richard Tee (piano), George 'Chocolate' Perry (bass) and George Bitzer (piano, synthesizer). Albhy Galuten served as conductor and arranger of horns and strings alongside Gibb. The album opens with the title track — a song Warwick initially disliked but recorded on the strength of her trust in Gibb's judgment. Maurice Gibb later recalled: 'I cried my eyes out after we wrote it. I drove home and thought, we should be doing this one.' Regarding its unexpected international success, Warwick herself quipped that she 'cried all the way to the bank.' Other tracks include 'Yours', 'Take the Short Way Home', 'All the Love in the World', 'Just One More Night' and a cover of 'Our Day Will Come' (originally by Ruby and the Romantics).
Label: Arista Records (USA), released 28 September 1982.
Producers: Barry Gibb, Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson (production collective: Gibb-Galuten-Richardson).
Recording studios: Middle Ear Studio; Mediasound. Mastered at Criteria Recording Studios.
Critical reception: AllMusic editor Rob Theakston wrote that 'while it lacks the genius and soulful grit of Dionne Warwick's earlier classic work, the album was polished and painstakingly produced perfectly for adult pop stations.' SoulTracks called Heartbreaker 'arguably the critical high point of Warwick's Arista career', singling out 'Yours' as 'one of the most beautiful ballads by any artist in 1982.' The Soul and Jazz and Funk blog praised 'the emotionally charged Yours, the attitude-laden Take The Short Way Home' and 'All The Love In The World — another top 10 hit.' Rate Your Music reviewers note Barry Gibb's backing vocals as a defining element, especially on the title track.
Commercial success: Heartbreaker sold an estimated three million copies worldwide and ranked as Warwick's highest-charting album in most international territories. The title single reached number 1 in Poland, Portugal, Sweden and on the US Adult Contemporary chart; number 2 in the UK; and number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. It sold an estimated four million singles worldwide. 'All the Love in the World' also entered the UK top ten. The album hit number 1 on the Norwegian Albums Chart and reached the top five in Sweden, the UK and the Netherlands. In the US, it was certified gold by the RIAA. It was ranked as Billboard's 80th-biggest US hit of 1983.
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