Tony Bennett

In his brief assessment of Tony Bennett's career for the New York Times today, critic Jon Pareles asks an interesting question: "Has there ever been a more purely likable pop figure than Tony Bennett?" My guess is that the answer is "Yes - but not many." And I can't think of one offhand.

Bennett's career lasted for seven or eight decades - he was singing in 1940, made his first record in 1949, had his first hit soon thereafter, and was famous to a greater or lesser degree ever since.

Bennett had a lovely voice, powerful but well under control. He could swing, and was an eloquent advocate of the so-called "great American songbook." Yet he also managed to work with everyone from Elvis Costello to Lady Gaga.

Tony recorded a vast number of records, most if not all of which have been reissued. That was not the case when this blog began, and in 2009 I devoted three posts to his early 1950s records - 10-inch LPs, EPs and a single.

Earlier this year, I posted Bennett's first record, made under the name of "Joe Bari" in 1949. It is a significant rarity, so I was excited to find a transfer of it on Internet Archive, which I cleaned up for the singles blog. I'll never find a physical copy - the 78 has auctioned for up to $3,900 - so the transfer will have to do. In researching this post, I was amused to read in the admirable Bennett discography on jazzdiscography.com that, "According to the 1968 profile of Tony Bennett in Billboard, the only known copy of this disc literally disintegrated at some point in the 1960s."

For this tribute, I've redone all my Bennett posts in ambient stereo, added recording information to each and cleaned up the graphics. There are 28 tracks in all. Here are links:

The Complete 'Because of You'. Columbia issued two LPs with the title "Because of You" in the 1950s, with overlapping contents. I combined them for my first Bennett post. This and all the posts below concentrate on the singer's first years as a recording artist.

Two EPs and a Single. Here, too, Columbia issued records with similar contents, and again I put them together in one package, adding a then-unre-released single for good measure. That isn't a particularly good photo of Tony on the cover, but it does capture his joie de vivre.

Alone at Last. One more 10-inch LP that reissued some of Bennett's early singles. I believe that all the posts above were inspired by my friend Scoredaddy, an early supporter of this blog and the greatest Tony Bennett enthusiast I know.

Joe Bari. Tony was not Tony when he first recorded; he was "Joe Bari" for a 1949 single on the tiny Leslie label. At that time, he wasn't the artist he was to become a year or two later, but still, he was recognizably Tony Bennett even under another name.

The links above take you to the original posts. The links will be at the end of the comment sections.

More Tony Bennett

Awhile back, our friend Scoredaddy asked me if I had this Tony Bennett album. I didn't then, but I do now! A copy jumped out at me at a swap meet recently, and here it is. (Scoredaddy owes me a dollar.) 

The cover was worn, but the sound has come up nicely - and doesn't even have as much plastered-on reverb as Columbia usually employed on its reissues back then. 

All the tunes except "Sing You Sinners" have Percy Faith arrangements, which I always enjoy. (The "Sinners" chart is by Marty Manning.) The recordings are from 1950-53.

Note (July 2023): This LP has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

Tony Bennett, Part 2

Here are songs from two Tony Bennett EPs, with an early single thrown in for good measure. 

The EP above is in Columbia's Hall of Fame reprint series from the late 50s. I've only included "Blue Velvet" and "Sing You Sinners," because the other two numbers were in the earlier post on Tony. But the two songs that are here are outstanding. "Blue Velvet" was a good seller for Tony, and predates the Clovers and Bobby Vinton versions. A lovely song. And Bennett really gets into "Sing You Sinners." 

The other EP, a request by Scoredaddy, is presented in full. It's from 1955 and finds Tony working with Sid Feller rather than his usual mate, Percy Faith, who was in charge of the other items herein, save one. That is "Sing You Sinners," which is with Marty Manning. For whatever reason, Bennett does not sound at his best here, in a program of two songs from Damn Yankees, Johnny Mercer's "Something's Gotta Give," and "A Blossom Fell," which was a big hit for Nat Cole. 

More to my taste are the two unfamiliar songs on an early 78 (from 1952) - "You Could Make Me Smile Again" and Irving Berlin's "Roses of Yesterday."

Note (July 2023): These recordings have now been remastered in ambient stereo.

1952 ad

Tony Bennett, Part 1

I had a request from Scoredaddy, a Tony Bennett fancier, for some early sides by the great singer. So here is Tony's first LP, from 1952, featuring his first mega-hit, "Because of You." 

In the time-honored practice of record companies everywhere, in 1956 Columbia released another 10-inch LP with the same name but with almost completely different contents (the cover is below). For this post I have combined the eight songs on the LP above with the four songs on the LP below that aren't redundant. I suppose that makes this the "Complete Because of You." 

In the time between the two LPs, Columbia decided that it made great sense to add even more reverb to the already echoey sound on the original recordings, making the newer LP somewhat boomy sounding. This is a near-universal tendency among reissue engineers that has always baffled me. Today's reissues of the material from this era usually have reverb added, a heightened mid-range, and are cut at a high level. As a result they sound overbearing and are hard to listen to for any length of time. 

Well, enough of the diatribe, which has nothing to do with Bennett, after all. Those of you who have not heard much early Tony will discover that his approach back then was more intense and showy than his later style. By the way, this record includes "While We're Young," which is one of Alec Wilder's best known tunes. I suspect the influence of Columbia A&R chief Mitch Miller, who was a Wilder associate. Columbia's Rosemary Clooney also recorded the tune at about the same time, and it is the the title song of one of her early LPs. 

Note (July 2023): this has not been remastered in ambient stereo.