Maps of Music

Tony Bennett's 'Something' (1995)

Where the lyrics of Tony Bennett's 'Something' take you, and where it was really made.

The cover shows Bennett holding his infant daughter, yet the album peaked only at No. 193 on the Billboard Top LPs and stayed on the chart for two weeks.

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Album story

Overview

• Tony Bennett's 'Something' is a 1970 studio album by Tony Bennett
• It follows Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today!, with a similar mix of contemporary pop songs
• The album includes 'Something', which had already appeared on the earlier release
• The album has twelve tracks, among them Lennon and McCartney's 'The Long and Winding Road' and 'What a Wonderful World'
• The cover photo shows Bennett embracing his infant daughter, Joanna
• The album's track lengths run from 3:00 for 'Coco' to 4:43 for 'The Long and Winding Road'

Background

• The earlier album left Bennett with a physical disgust for its material
• In making this album he largely avoided that disgust, and the change was tied to its arrangements
• The album's song choices come from the same pool of contemporary pop as the previous record

Recording

• Peter Matz served as arranger and conductor
• Bennett is the only credited vocalist on the album
• Songs by George Harrison, Fred Neil, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and Antonio Carlos Jobim are among the material

Cover

• Bennett embraces his infant daughter, Joanna

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · it.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

• Follows Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today!, which also featured renditions of contemporary pop songs
• 'Something', a George Harrison song, had already appeared on that earlier release
• Bennett largely avoided the physical disgust he had with the previous album
• An AllMusic review credited this change to more tasteful arrangements
• Peter Matz served as arranger and conductor

Reappraisal

• The AllMusic review is the only critical assessment cited here, and it points to the arrangements as the key difference
• Italian Wikipedia gives the same account, describing the arrangements as more restrained and in good taste
• The track list runs twelve songs, from 'Something' to 'What a Wonderful World'

Records

• Peaked at No. 193 on the Billboard Top LPs
• Spent two weeks on that chart
• On November 8, 2011, Sony Music Distribution included the CD in The Complete Collection box set

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · it.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• 'Something' had already appeared on the earlier album Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today!, and Bennett recorded it again here
• The cover photo shows Bennett embracing his infant daughter, Joanna
• The album peaked at No. 193 on the Billboard Top LPs during a two-week run
• Peter Matz is credited with arranging and conducting the album
• The track list opens with George Harrison's 'Something' and ends with 'What a Wonderful World'

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · it.wikipedia.org

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