Maps of Music

In Person! (1959)

Where the lyrics of In Person! take you, and where it was really made.

The album was meant to be a live record of a Philadelphia club show, but the live mono tapes were set aside and the applause was faked in the studio.

Key places

Where In Person! was recorded (1959)

Recording site Record Plant Studios — The album was recorded at Columbia 30th Street Studio in New York in December 1958. The point is shown at city-center level. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• In Person!: 1959 album by Tony Bennett, accompanied by the Count Basie Orchestra
• Originally intended as a live recording of a November 1958 performance at Philadelphia's Latin Casino
• Released by Bennett's label, Columbia
• Twelve tracks, from 'Just in Time' to 'Ol' Man River'
• Ralph Sharon plays piano and arranges

Background

• Producer Al Ham set aside the mono recording of the concert and wanted the album recorded in stereo
• Bennett and Basie reunited in the studio a month later to recreate the live concert
• Basie and Bennett recorded two albums together in 1959
• The second of those albums, Strike Up the Band, was released by Basie's label, Roulette
• On November 8, 2011, Sony Music Distribution included the CD in the box set The Complete Collection

Recording

• Recorded December 22 & 30, 1958 at Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York
• Fake applause was dubbed onto the original release by Ham and placed in incorrect places
• The fake applause was removed for the 1994 re-issue

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

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 chose In Person! as one of its 'Spotlight Winners of the Week' in March 1959
• Billboard praised the Bennett vocals, paced by the swinging Basie band, and called it an exciting set
• Ralph J. Gleason in HiFi Review, July 1959, called the record 'disappointing'
• Gleason wrote that it brings out all the faults of Bennett
• Gleason also wrote that the performance suffered from poor intonation and poor phrasing
• Record Mirror said the album features an exciting and clever selection of songs

Reappraisal

• Bruce Eder reviewed the 1994 re-issue positively for AllMusic
• Eder praised Bennett's nuanced intonation in the opening of 'Pennies from Heaven' and the tighter band beat in the second half
• Eder noted that Ralph Sharon handled the piano while Basie was credited as leader
• Eder called records like this, properly reconstituted for CD, the absolute golden end of the pop legacy of the late '50s

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• In his autobiography The Good Life, Bennett wrote that he never understood why the live version was not released.
• Bennett called the attempt at fabricating an audience in bad taste.
• Bennett said that because of this experience he had always preferred Strike Up the Band, the second Basie album he recorded that year.
• The fake applause was placed in wrong spots on the original release and was removed for the 1994 re-issue.
• In 2011 Sony Music Distribution put the CD into The Complete Collection box set.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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