Here’s a terrific performance of Dionne Warwick singing “Make It Easy On Yourself”–happening eight years later than it should have.

Here’s the story, with thanks to Wikipedia: Back in 1962, when Warwick was still a back-up singer, the songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David asked her to make a demo version of the song. The demo was so good that the record label picked up the song–but they gave it to veteran soul singer Jerry Butler to record–and it was a hit. Three years later, The Walker Brothers, a white pop trio, had a hit with the song as well. It wasn’t until 1970 that a live performance by Dionne Warwick was released and the song became a hit once again.

Click on the video and see if you don’t agree that eight years was too long to wait, and that she owns the song.

The postscript to the story is that Warwick was so angry at Bacharach and David for letting the song go to Jerry Butler, that she told them in anger, “Don’t make me over!” And Bacharach and David wrote a song for her with that title–which she recorded!–and that too became a hit.

Thanks to YouTuber Dionne Warwick Archive