A House Is Not a Home (song)

Infobox Song
Name = A House Is Not a Home
Artist = Dionne Warwick
alt Artist = *Brook Benton
*Perry Como
*Dusty Springfield
*Barbra Streisand
*Luther Vandross
*Georgie Fame
*Aretha Franklin
Album = Make Way for Dionne Warwick
Released = 1964
track_no = 1
Recorded = 1964
Genre = Soul
Length = 3:08
Writer = Burt Bacharach, Hal David
Label = Scepter
Producer = Burt Bacharach, Hal David
prev =
prev_no =
next = "People"
next_no = 2

"A House Is Not a Home" is a 1964 song recorded by American singer Dionne Warwick. Written by the team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, the song was a modest hit in the US for Warwick, peaking at #71 on the pop singles chart as the B-side of the top 40 single, "You'll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)". Two weeks earlier, a competing version by Brook Benton had debuted on the Billboard Hot 100. Benton's version split airplay with Warwick's, and ultimately peaked at number seventy-five.

Warwick's version of "A House Is Not a Home" fared better in Canada, where it was a top 40 hit, peaking at #37.The song inspired the joking title of Arthur Lee's song "A House Is Not a Motel" from the Love LP FOREVER CHANGES. The song made the R&B top 10 in Cashbox by both Warwick and Benton, with neither artist specified as best seller.

Cover versions

Dusty Springfield would perform the song with Bacharach on a television special (a performance she was "quite proud of") ["Dusty: Full Circle" - Taragon Video] .

Barbra Streisand recorded a medley of the song with "One Less Bell to Answer" (the Fifth Dimension hit) for her 1971 album "Barbra Joan Streisand".

The song was covered by R&B singer Luther Vandross, whose version became an R&B hit in 1981. His performance of the song at the NAACP Awards telecast would bring Warwick to tears. Vandross' version would be sampled two decades after that by Kanye West on his, Jamie Foxx's and Twista's hit, "Slow Jamz", in 2004.

The song has also been frequently featured on the popular television show "American Idol", with performances by Tamyra Gray, Ruben Studdard, Anwar Robinson, and Elliott Yamin.

Bill Evans and other notable jazz musicians have performed and recorded the song - it has thus acquired the status of a jazz standard.

Stevie Wonder covered the song on his album "Eivets Rednow".

Ronald Isley would record his own version with Bacharach, using essentially the same template as Luther Vandross.

In 2005, Aretha Franklin covered the song for the tribute album "".

References