Friends Can Be Lovers is the twenty-ninth studio album by American singer Dionne Warwick. Her tenth album for Arista Records, it was released on January 20, 1993 in the United States. Warwick garthered material from songwriters and producers such as Barry J. Eastmond, Harvey Mason, Siedah Garrett, Dianne Warren, and Blue Zone lead singer Lisa Stansfield. The album, which Warwick described as "a labor love" and true "family affair," also saw her collaborating with her son David Elliot and cousin Whitney Houston for the first time as well as reuniting with former contributors Burt Bacharach and Hal David on the song "Sunny Weather Love" after more than two decades. The album was released to positive reception from music critics, some of which were her new Bacharach–David record but applauded Warwick's vocals, its production and the overall direction of the album. Commercially, though, Friends Can Be Lovers was a considerable decline from her previous efforts with Arista, becoming her first album since 1977 to not chart on the US Billboard 200 and reaching number 82 on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums only. Of all three singles that were released from the album, only "Where My Lips Have Been" was able to chart, peaking at number 95 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Disappointed by its performance, Warwick later expressed her dislike of the album itself. Background In 1990, Warwick released Dionne Warwick Sings Cole Porter, a tribute album consisting of standards by American songwriter Cole Porter. For her next project, her tenth regular album for Arista Records, Warwick stuck to her regular formula of changing most collaborators from album to album. In hopes of providing current material without changing Warwick's trademark sound, Arista Records head Clive Davis consulted Barry J. Eastmond to produce the majority of the album. With new jack swing and hip hop soul dominating the charts then, Eastmond, along with Warwick's oldest son David Elliott, envisioned to "throw a little hop hop" into what they were planning to record with the singer. Friends Can Be Lovers marked Warwick's first collaboration with both Elliott and her cousin, singer Whitney Houston, who contributed vocals to the duet song "Love Will Find a Way." Davis also arranged for Warwick to record with English singer Lisa Stansfield, who co-wrote the album's title track along with her former band mates from Blue Zone. Warwick herself reached out to composer Burt Bacharach and his former