George Benson - The George Benson Collection (1981)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a double LP, later replaced by a CD.

George Benson is one of the great jazz guitarists of all-time. The way he sings his guitar solos while he plays them absolutely amazes me. He is one of only a few musicians (who knows? he could be the only musician) that successfully transitioned from instrumental jazz to pop vocals. As Quincy Jones writes in the liner notes: "If George had never sung a note in his life, his guitar could done his singing for him and certainly no one would have thought there was anything lacking. But sing he did, and he showed that he is light years beyond being a guitar player who also sings." The only downside of this CD is the fact that, in order to get 2 LP's on 1 CD, they had to take out a track. That track was the fantastic Cast Your Fate To The Wind. Bummer.

Press of the time:

• CashBox: "attractive to all"
• Stereo Review: "truly moments to remember"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #14
• Billboard Jazz: #1
• Billboard R&B: #5
• CashBox: #17
• CashBox Jazz: #1
• Rolling Stone: #15

Tracks: What a great start. The first 5 tracks are Turn Your Love Around, Love All The Hurt Away (a duet with no less than Aretha Franklin), Give Me The Night, Never Give Up On A Good Thing, and the classic On Broadway. The cover of Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit falls flat in spite of some inspired playing by Benson, but then the CD quickly bounces back with This Masquerade and Love Ballad. Also good are Livin' Inside Your Love and Breezin'. The CD ends with the original version of The Greatest Love Of All which Benson recorded for a 1977 Muhammad Ali biopic. Most people are more familiar with Whitney Houston's 1986 hit version, but I heard this one first so it's the one I think of.

Song	Year	Hot 100	AC	R&B
Turn Your Love Around	1981	5	9	1
Love All The Hurt Away	1981	46	-	6
Give Me The Night	1980	4	26	1
Never Give Up On A Good Thing	1981	52	29	16
On Broadway	1978	7	25	2
White Rabbit	1971	-	-	-
This Masquerade	1976	10	6	3
Love Ballad	1979	18	12	3
Nature Boy	1977	-	-	-
Last Train To Clarksville	1969	-	-	-
Livin' Inside Your Love	1979	-	-	-
Here Comes The Sun	1970	-	-	-
Breezin'	1976	63	13	55
Moody's Mood	1980	-	-	-
We Got The Love	1978	-	-	-
The Greatest Love Of All	1968	24	22	2

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Another "Summer of '85" album. One of the best summers ever. I remember buying the double album set at a Sound Warehouse in Houston across US 59 from Westwood Mall. Sadly, the record store and mall are no longer in existence.

My wife and I saw Benson in concert in Dallas in June 1990. We were somewhere in the first 10 rows and my wife swears she and Benson made eye contact and he sang a song directly to her. She still gets a little swoony whenever she recalls that show.