George Benson |
In 1975, Benson released the song "Supership". It became a hit in Europe. It is uplifting danceable R&B with great vocals and horns in which Benson is accompanied by female singers and a ship's sound effects.
Benson's ventures into disco were classy and memorable. His album "Give Me the Night" sold over a million copies, driven by a strong title track. A year earlier, his instrumentals "Nassau Day", "Before You Go", and "Soulful Strut" showed how well jazz could merge with a disco rhythm and with strings, and his first actual disco song, "Love Ballad", a nice cover of the 1976 L.T.D. ballad that had been sung by Jeffrey Osborne, reached #18 Pop in the USA and #29 Pop in the U.K. in the spring of 1979. Benson's last disco song was 1981's "Never Give Up on a Good Thing", which appeared on Warner Brothers' compilation The George Benson Collection, though "Turn Your Love Around" (on the same compilation) is a dance/pop song that some might also call disco.
Classic Songs:
1971: White Rabbit
1975: Supership
1976: This Masquerade, Everything Must Change, Breezin'
1977: The Greatest Love of All
1978: On Broadway, Inside Love (So Personal)
1979: Love Ballad, Soulful Strut, Nassau Day
1980: Give Me the Night, Love X Love, Off Broadway
1981: Never Give Up On A Good Thing, Turn Your Love Around
1983: Lady Love Me (One More Time), In Your Eyes
1985: 20/20, Beyond the Sea (La Mer)
1989: Tenderly
2000: El Barrio, The Ghetto
Albums:
Give
Me the Night (1980)
"Give Me the Night" is such a magnificent record that it won 4 Grammy awards for 1980. Benson won "Best Jazz Vocal Performance" for "Moody's Mood" and "Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male" for the album as a whole. Jerry Hey and Quincy Jones won "Best Instrumental Arrangement" for "Dinorah, Dinorah". "Best R&B Instrumental Performance" was won for "Off Broadway" by Benson and fellow musicians Lee Ritenour (guitarist), Louis Johnson (bassist), Greg Phillinganes (keyboardist), Jerry Hey (trumpetist), Kim Hutchcroft (saxophonist and flautist), Larry Williams (saxophonist and flautist), John Robinson (drummer), and Paulinho DaCosta (percussionist).
The music video for "Give Me the Night" is very cool, showing Benson in concert singing with his guitar, and also including a scene where he roller-skates down the sidewalk with many others skating behind him, and concluding with his black car driving down the boulevard at night.
Covers of George Benson Songs:
Benson-Influenced Songs:
| CD TITLE | Merchant 1 | Merchant 2 | Merchant 3 | Merchant 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Give Me the Night | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | WOW HD Sverige |
| Livin' Inside Your Love | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | WOW HD Sverige |
| George Benson - The Greatest Hits of All | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | The Nile AU |
| The Best of George Benson | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | iTunes |
| George Benson: Les Incontournables | Amazon.com | Amazon.it | Amazon.fr |
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