Dionne Warwick will perform Dec. 4 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Courtesy photo

Five-time Grammy winner Dionne Warwick is acclaimed for releasing a remarkable number of memorable songs. Collaborating with composers Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who masterminded all of her hits from 1962 to 1971, Warwick racked up 30 hit singles and close to 20 best-selling albums during her first decade.

Many of her songs are classic show-stoppers, including “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” “Walk On By,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Alfie,” “What the World Needs Now,” “You’ll Never Get To Heaven,” “Anyone Who Had A Heart,” “Then Came You” (a million-selling duet with the Spinners) and “That’s What Friends Are For” (with Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder and Elton John).

Warwick will return to the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Dec. 4 for a concert in the Castle Theater.

This icon’s melodic voice and the sophisticated pop compositions of Bacharach and David has been described as a match made in heaven. “I still describe it the way the industry chose to describe it ages ago, as the triangle marriage that worked,” Warwick said in a previous interview with The Maui News.

Dionne Marie Warwick grew up in a gospel family. Her mother was manager of the Drinkard Singers, a choir that gave the young Warwick experience as an organist and, occasionally, a vocalist. Along with her sister Dee Dee and aunt Cissy (Whitney’s mum), Warwick went on to start her own trio, The Gospelaires.

“It’s always been exceptionally helpful,” she said of her gospel roots. “Gospel music teaches respect of the lyric and how to convey that lyric meaningfully. It centers you and lets you understand what you’re singing about.”

With her sister and friend Doris Troy, Warwick sang backup on numerous recordings by The Coasters, The Drifters, Ben E. King, Solomon Burke, Ray Charles, Dinah Washington and Brook Benton. While recording on the Drifters’ song “Mexican Divorce,” Warwick’s voice and star presence were noticed by the then relatively unknown composer Burt Bacharach. That fortunate meeting marked the ascension to stardom for both singer and songwriter.

A tribute to her gift of interpretation, one of her hits, “Alfie,” from the movie starring Michael Caine, was released by over 40 artists before it landed in the U.S. Top-20. “It was recorded about 42 times before me,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘What was the point of me recording it?’ The lovely thing about it was I was the only one to have a big hit record. It just goes to show when a tailor cuts a suit for you no one but you can wear it.”

A decade later, she recorded one of her most personally rewarding songs, “That’s What Friends are For” with Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder and Elton John. The No. 1 hit earned Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group at the 29th annual Grammy Awards and raised millions of dollars for AIDS charities. The song had been written by Burt Bacharach and his wife Carole Bayer Sager for the movie “Night Shift,” and was sung by Rod Stewart.

“I wanted to include some friends and Gladys, Stevie and Elton were the friends available,” she said. “Elizabeth (Taylor) was at the session and she said it would be a great theme for AIDS foundations. We all agreed because we had all lost friends to the disease.”

After a long absence, Warwick reunited with Bacharach and David in 1993 for the album “Friends Can Be Lovers.” The duo’s contribution with “Sunny Weather Lover” featured their hallmark light melody combined with a tale of lost love. The album also marked Warwick’s teaming with her famous niece Whitney Houston on the ballad “Love Will Find a Way.” “Everyone was always asking when are you going to record together and we kept saying when the right song comes along,” she explained. “We felt this was the right one.”

Most recently, Warwick released the studio albums “She’s Back” and “Dionne Warwick and the Voices of Christmas.” “She’s Back” included new songs and remakes, featuring duets with Kenny Lattimore, Musiq Soulchild, Brian McKnight, as well as Bone Thugs-n-Harmony’s Krayzie Bone. On her Christmas collection she collaborated with Michael McDonald, the Oak Ridge Boys and Johnny Mathis.

A Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner, this 83-year-old legend was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in October.

Among her other accomplishments, her old elementary school was renamed the Dionne Warwick Institute of Economics and Entrepreneurship, and she just had a street renamed after her in her hometown of East Orange, New Jersey.

Dionne Warwick performs in the MACC’s Castle Theater on Dec. 4. at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $35, $55, $75, $95 and $150, plus applicable fees, available at mauiarts.org.