Dionne Warwick opens her latest tour at The Arts Center

This year, in place of the biennial Wine Auction and Celebration, the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina is hosting one of the biggest names in the recording industry to help raise funds for its education and outreach programs.

Dionne Warwick, whose discography includes 50-plus top 100 hits -- five of them Grammy winners -- will perform a benefit concert March 29 in the Elizabeth Wallace Theatre. The gala affair will include a pre-concert cocktail reception with Warwick and a live auction featuring vacation packages, private dinner parties with celebrity chefs and unique collections of wine.

making history

The first artist in Grammy history to win Best Female Pop Performance and Best Female R&B Performance in the same year, Warwick first charted in the early '60s after teaming up with legendary composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David.

Picking her voice out from a group singing background on the Drifters' version of his hit "Mexican Divorce," Bacharach offered Dionne a regular gig recording demos for his new songs. When the president of Scepter Records heard her on the demo of "It's Love That Really Counts," he told Bacharach, "Forget the song, get the girl!"Warwick was signed to the label in 1962 with Bacharach and David as producers.

Warwick, who had been studying at the Hartt College of Music, recalled how she wanted her first single to be "Make It Easy on Yourself," a song she had recorded as a demo but had since been given to another artist. In anger, she snapped at her producers, "Don't make me over!" -- a phrase Bacharach would later turn into their first Top 40 hit.

During the next decade, Warwick recorded some 20 best-selling albums with the songwriting duo, hitting the charts 30 times with singles such as "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?," "This Girl's in Love with You," "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" and "Reach Out for Me."

"It was a wonderful time in my life," said Warwick, who started her music career singing gospel. "I guess I had the right sound at the right time."

Unlike much of the pop music of the era, Bacharach's meticulously crafted songs were technically sophisticated compositions with shifting time signatures, unique chord changes and melodies that combined elements of jazz, pop, Brazilian and rock music.

"Having a music education and the ability to read music was and is very important if you want to sing the melodies of Bacharach," said Warwick, who went on to receive a master's degree in music from her alma mater.

Bacharach returned the admiration. "Alfie," a song Bacharach wrote for the Michael Caine film, was covered by 40 different artists. Not satisfied with any of the renditions, he asked Warwick to record the tune the way he wanted it to be. She nailed it in one take. The song peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on both the R&B and Adult Contemporary charts.

"As with all of their compositions, I feel when they wrote, they wrote with me in mind, regardless of who sang it first," Warwick said.

In later years, Warwick scored with "Then Came You," a million-selling duet she cut with the Spinners, "I'll Never Love This Way Again," "Dèjá Vu" and the AIDS benefit song "That's What Friends Are For."

This April, she'll come full circle with the release of the gospel album, "Why We Sing." The next month, Warner Music will release "Dionne Warwick and Friends," recorded last summer in São Paulo with several Brazilian artists.

Still performing regularly, Warwick will start the U.S. leg of her tour with the Arts Center's benefit concert.