Maps of Music

I Wanna Be Around (1963)

Where the lyrics of I Wanna Be Around take you, and where it was really made.

Some tracks were recorded after the album was already released in February 1963, with sessions running as late as April 1963.

Key places

Recording studio for the album (1963)

Recording site Columbia 30th Street Studio — Credits place the recording at the CBS 30th Street Studio in New York City. The tracks were recorded on different dates between March 1962 and April 1963. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• The fourteenth studio album by American singer Tony Bennett
• Released on February 18, 1963 by Columbia Records
• Produced by Ernie Altschuler
• The original LP has twelve tracks; the CD reissue leaves out Let's Face the Music and Dance
• Debuted on the Billboard Top LPs chart in the April 6, 1963 issue, staying 44 weeks with a peak at number five
• Debuted on the Cashbox albums chart in the March 16, 1963 issue, staying 63 weeks with a peak at number two

Background

• Bennett's 1962 breakthrough studio album was I Left My Heart in San Francisco
• In 1995 Columbia released this album on CD, paired with I Left My Heart in San Francisco on one disc
• Seven bonus tracks on the CD reissue come from the album This Is All I Ask
• On November 8, 2011 Sony Music Distribution included the CD in the box set The Complete Collection

Recording

• Recording sessions ran from March 16, 1962 to April 26, 1963, with different tracks recorded on different dates
• Ralph Sharon played piano; Ralph Burns and Marty Manning provided arrangements
• Marty Manning also conducted
• Carlos Lyra played guitar on track 11
• The studio credit names the CBS 30th Street Studio in New York City

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

• Billboard said Bennett sings every song with great heart and warmth
• Cashbox praised expressive, feelingful readings of new and old tunes, with pulsating backing by the Ralph Sharon Trio
• Variety said Bennett gives each song substance with dramatic balladeering, helped by the Ralph Sharon Trio and by orchestral arrangements from Mark Manning

Reappraisal

• William Ruhlmann of AllMusic praised the arrangements, including a percussion-and-flute reading of Let's Face the Music and Dance that echoed the Beat of My Heart album
• Ruhlmann also noted a South American nod with Antonio Carlos Jobim's Quiet Nights (Corcovado)
• The Encyclopedia of Popular Music gave it four stars
• Record Mirror gave it four stars
• AllMusic gave it four and a half stars

Records

• Billboard Top LPs: debut April 6, 1963; 44 weeks; peak number five
• Cashbox albums: debut March 16, 1963; 63 weeks; peak number two
• I Wanna Be Around: Billboard Hot 100 peak number 14 over 16 weeks
• I Wanna Be Around: Easy Listening number five over 16 weeks
• I Wanna Be Around: Cashbox singles number 15 over 16 weeks
• The Good Life: Billboard Hot 100 debut May 11, 1963, peak number 14 over 16 weeks
• The Good Life: Easy Listening number seven over ten weeks
• The Good Life: Cashbox singles number 25 over eleven weeks
• The Good Life: UK number 27 over a 13-week stay

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Let's Face the Music and Dance was left off the CD reissue
• Some tracks were recorded after the February 1963 release, with sessions running to April 26, 1963
• The Good Life reached number 27 in the UK during a 13-week stay
• In 1995 this album and Bennett's 1962 album I Left My Heart in San Francisco shared one CD
• The 2011 box set The Complete Collection included the CD version of this album

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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