Maps of Music

For Once in My Life (1967)

Where the lyrics of For Once in My Life take you, and where it was really made.

The title track was Tony Bennett's last Billboard Hot 100 hit for 44 years, a gap that closed only in 2011.

Key places

Recording site for most tracks (1967)

Recording site Record Plant Studios — Tracks 1 to 7, 9 and 10 were recorded at this New York studio. The pin marks the city centre, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recording site for track 8 (1967)

Recording site Motown Recording Studios — Track 8, Baby, Dream Your Dream, was recorded at this Los Angeles studio. The pin marks the city centre, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• For Once in My Life: album by Tony Bennett
• Released December 1967
• Ten tracks on the original album
• Title track written by Ron Miller and Orlando Murden

Background

• Tony Tamburello served as musical director
• Marion Evans, Ralph Burns, and Torrie Zito arranged and conducted their own compositions on the album
• Set list drew on standards, Broadway and Hollywood material, and songwriter favorites
• Opening track They Can't Take That Away From Me, a Gershwin standard
• Other tracks include Something in Your Smile, Out of This World, and Keep Smiling at Trouble

Recording

• Tracks 1 to 7, 9 and 10 recorded at Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York City
• Track 8 recorded at CBS Studio A, Los Angeles
• Corky Hale on harp, John Bunch on piano, Milt Hinton on bass, Sol Gubin on drums
• Engineers Frank Laico, Stan Weiss, and Al Brown
• Unidentified strings also appear on the personnel list
• Later CD release: Beat Goes On, 30 June 2009, paired with Bennett's 1969 album I've Gotta Be Me
• Included in The Complete Collection box set, Sony Music Distribution, 8 November 2011

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Early life

• Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto on August 3, 1926, in Long Island City, Queens, New York City.
• Grew up in poverty after his father, a grocer, became unable to work and died when Tony was ten.
• Sang for money from age 13 as a singing waiter in Italian restaurants in Queens.
• Attended New York's School of Industrial Art but dropped out at 16 to help support his family.

Military service

• Drafted into the U.S. Army in November 1944 and fought as an infantryman in the final stages of World War II.
• Stayed in Germany with the occupying force and sang with an Army Special Services band under the name Joe Bari.

Career

• Studied bel canto at the American Theatre Wing on the GI Bill; Pearl Bailey and Bob Hope helped launch him, and Hope shortened his name to Tony Bennett.
• Signed with Columbia Records in 1950; first number-one hit "Because of You" in 1951.
• Shifted toward jazz singing in the late 1950s; "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" (1962) became his signature song.
• Declined commercially during the rock era and struggled with addiction and debt until a comeback in the late 1980s, managed by his son Danny.
• The 1994 MTV Unplugged album won the Grammy for Album of the Year.

Later career

• Collaborated with Lady Gaga from Cheek to Cheek (2014) through Love for Sale (2021).
• Won 20 Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, and sold more than 50 million records worldwide.
• Received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2005 and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• Co-founded the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens with Susan Crow.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• AllMusic gave the album two stars in a review by William Ruhlmann
• Ruhlmann noted Bennett's usual choices of standards, Broadway and Hollywood material, and songs from favored songwriters such as Leslie Bricusse and Cy Coleman
• Billboard gave a positive review, calling it full of good tunes, both standards and contemporary
• Record World called the album a tasteful, swinging package

Reappraisal

• Will Friedwald, in A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, called the album a terrific one
• Friedwald said it did not measure up to Bennett's earlier long-playing projects, like Bennett's other late-1960s albums

Records

• Single For Once in My Life debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 in the issue dated October 28, 1967, peaking at number 91 over five weeks
• Single reached number 8 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart over 19 weeks
• Single reached number 94 on the Cashbox singles chart over six weeks
• Album debuted on the Billboard Top LPs chart in the issue dated January 13, 1968, peaking at number 178 over six weeks
• Album debuted on the Cashbox albums chart in the issue dated February 3, 1968, peaking at number 91 over four weeks
• Album entered the UK album chart on March 23, 1968, reaching number 15 over five weeks

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The title track was Bennett's last Billboard Hot 100 hit for 44 years, until Body and Soul reached number 85 in 2011.
• The 2009 Beat Goes On CD paired this album with Bennett's 1969 album I've Gotta Be Me, with the 1969 album on tracks 11 through 23.
• The album was included in The Complete Collection box set released on 8 November 2011 by Sony Music Distribution.
• Track 8 is the only track credited to CBS Studio A in Los Angeles, while the other tracks were recorded in New York City.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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