Dionne Warwick: The Windows of the World (Scepter, 1967)

At the time, purchasing this 33-minute LP would have been a no-brainer given the four Bacharach-David cuts now familiar to anyone who's owned one of Warwick's myriad 1960s collections - the heart-yanking and eccentrically structured (there's no middle eight!) title track and "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" (both A-plusses), "I Say a Little Prayer" (A), and "Another Night" (high A-minus). Then, in a preview of the early-aughts mashup vogue, there's a version of West Side Story's "Somewhere" sang over "Cool" with 11-pm gusto. Warwick takes the Bert Kaempfert/Milt Gabler chestnut "L-O-V-E" (presented with no dashes here) as a childlike, whispery sex kitten (!) before dropping into her normal register and then ending on a parodic yodel to compliment the jokey wah-wah trumpet. Either the wine was flowing heavily in the studio that day or all involved hated the song (or both). Then we have two movie songs - "What's Good About Goodbye" sung by Tony Martin in the camp classic Casbah (John Berry, 1948) starring Yvonne De Carlo and Dory/André Previn's "You're Gonna Hear From Me" from Inside Daisy Clover (Robert Mulligan, 1965), both shouted with more 11-pm gusto. And then there's filler. Grade assured by the four A-level classics and the aspirational travel agency cover photo. 

Grade: B+