Do You Know the Way to San José by Dionne Warwick

Album: Dionne Warwick in Valley of the Dolls (1968)

Charted: 8 10

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Burt Bacharach and Hal David, a prolific songwriting team of the '60s and '70s, wrote this. They discovered Dionne Warwick and wrote many of her hits, starting with her debut solo single, "Don't Make Me Over," in 1962.
The upbeat melody belies the melancholy lyrics about giving up on a dream and going back home. The juxtaposition was a common technique with Hal David. The lyricist told NPR: "The idea of doing a lyric that is essentially kind of sad to a very up and optimistic melody is something I've done a lot, and I've always thought it was an effective way of writing a song. Burt played this melody for me, and music says things to me and should say things to me.

I heard the phrase do you know the way to San Jose, and from that I began to create the storyline that became the person who comes to Los Angeles to make his or her career in the entertainment business and has dreams of being a big star, and for most people it does not turn out to be quite that happy."
Dionne Warwick said: "I thought it was a really silly song. Obviously Hal David had a great affinity for San Jose as I believe he was stationed there during his time in the Navy and he loved the place and he wrote a song about it. I just giggled all the way to the bank, what can I tell you?"
Burt Bacharach (from Record Collector magazine): "Dionne did not want to record that song. She didn't like it. But we talked her into it and she did it. Her mind changed once it was a hit (laughs). I knew it was a pretty special song and I knew it was a different kind of song, too."

Dionne Warwick told The Daily Mail's Weekend magazine why she hated the song. "I was like 'Where is San Jose? How could the person who wrote 'Walk On By' have written a song that goes oh woa woa?'"
The song title is a question famously put without a question mark, indicating it is more rhetorical.
This won a Grammy for Best Contemporary-Pop Vocal Performance, Female. >>
Suggestion credit:
Mike - Mountlake Terrace, WA, for all above
This was used in several movies, including Alive (1993), The Scout (1994), Fargo (1996), My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), Rent (2005), and Coming Up Roses (2011).

It was also featured on the TV shows Helix (pilot episode, 2014) and Last Man on Earth ("Mama's Hideaway," 2016).
At the time she recorded the tune, Warwick had never been to San Jose. Shortly after, she visited the town for the first time - it wasn't yet a leader of the high-tech industry, but a farming community populated with orchards - which helped her gain a slightly better appreciation for the song. In 2014, she was named the city's "global ambassador of goodwill."
When asked by Analog Planet how the song came together, Bacharach replied: "That was a melody I had started. It was uptempo. We didn't cut too many things up like that with Dionne. I played it for Hal, he got an idea, then we kind of steamrolled it together. We finished it and played it for Dionne who wasn't too crazy about the song and when she performed it at the recording session, I think it was the only time during that period we didn't get a vocal from her that was good enough to use. So we had to bring her back into the studio to have her overdub her vocals."

Comments: 12

Berryessa Boy from San FranciscoMs. Warwicke should thank her lucky psychic that Bacharach and David crafted this song for her. It was her biggest international hit (Top Ten in many countries) and won her a Grammy. It’s a buoyant song with an underlying sadness about unrealized dreams in Los Angeles. I’m a San José boy who was fourteen years old in 1968 when the song hit the Billboard Top Ten. We were so thrilled that our modest town became internationally known (the population is now over one million and it is the center of Silicon Valley and the technology industry). Yes, San José had growing pains but it’s a great city with a well educated population and a thriving cosmopolitan culture. Dionne, by the way, went bankrupt (her psychic should have foreseen that) and she is happy to be an ambassador to my hometown.
Christopher from Parsippany, NjIt’s funny that the song lyrics say “I was born and raised in San Jose”. Dionne Warwick was born and raised in East Orange, NJ.
Tony Arioli from Guerneville, CaTo Nicholaus from Tracy: The former San Jose City Manager, "Dutch" Hamann (1950-1969) vowed to make San Jose the "Los Angeles of Northern California" upon assuming the position in 1950. It had pretty much become that by 1965.
Tony Arioli from Guerneville, CaIn 1968 when this song was released, San Jose was already a "great big freeway."
Seventhmist from 7th HeavenI'm sure SJ is a now "great big freeway" as well, with a population topping 1,000,000.
Jennifur Sun from RamonaI do now.
Aiken Nutz from Tahlequah OkWay back in '68 I had graduated college & was working in Kansas City, Mo. when this record was big. I loved Warwick's voice & still do. It was all over the KC radio station back then & I recall seeing her on TV shows like Ed Sullivan & American Bandstand singing various hits. I think it was in the early 2000s when I heard her do a NPR interview for radio & she did admit to disliking this song, but recorded it anyway. I'm glad she did. Even though it peaked at #10 on the Hot 100, she got a gold record award for it anyway. I prefer her later hits, but this one is really catchy. Kind of bouncy & upbeat for that time.
Melissa from London, United KingdomI saw Dionne interviewed on UK TV a few years ago and she professed to absolutely hating this song, and needed to be convinced in order to record it! However, the public loved it - it became one of her biggest hits!!!
Nicholaus from Tracy, CaYes, San Jose has inherited many of L.A.'s difficulties, that this song pans. But, San Jose doesn't have the same feeling of hopelessness and negativity that, L.A. can generate and hit you in the face with! Even though San Jose has lost much of its' "agricultural" open space, just like L.A. did in the Sixties. It still is a much more humane and liveable city than poor L.A. can be. This song still has as much as truth to it, as it did 40 years ago in my opinion!
Howard from St. Louis Park, MnThis was one of Dionne Warwick's biggest hits.
Mike from Santa Barbara, CaThe line "Put a hundred down and buy a car," shows how old this song is. If the song were to be covered in current times, that line would have to be changed.
Bob from San Jose, CaI read in an interview that it was actually Burt Bacharach that was station at Fort Ord, which was an Army Base, now closed, stationed south of Monterey. They would take their leave and head north towards S.F. They would eventually come to party in San Jose (now the Capital of Silicon Valley)which is 50 miles south of S.F. This was around '56,'57. The Irony is now San Jose is alot like L.A. traffic and freeways, but it's still beautiful!........Beto.

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