Maps of Music

Tony Makes It Happen! (1967)

Where the lyrics of Tony Makes It Happen! take you, and where it was really made.

This 1967 Columbia album first charted in the US in spring 1967, then reached the UK album chart in September 1967 and peaked at number 31.

Key places

Recording site: Columbia 30th Street Studio (1967)

Recording site Record Plant Studios — The album is listed as recorded at Columbia 30th Street Studio in New York City. The map point uses the city-center location, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Tony Makes It Happen: album by American singer Tony Bennett
• Originally released in 1967 on Columbia, catalog number CL 2653
• 11 tracks, mostly standards by Duke Ellington, Jimmy McHugh, Jimmy Van Heusen, Burton Lane and others
• Track list: On the Sunny Side of the Street; A Beautiful Friendship; Don't Get Around Much Anymore; What Makes It Happen; The Lady's in Love with You; Can't Get Out of This Mood; I Don't Know Why (I Just Do); I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart; Country Girl; Old Devil Moon; She're Funny That Way
• Written credits include Dorothy Fields, Sammy Cahn, Frank Loesser and E.Y. Harburg

Background

• Bennett credited as vocalist on the album
• Original 1967 release on Columbia
• Later included in the box set The Complete Collection

Recording

• Recording location listed as Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York City
• Marion Evans credited as conductor and arranger
• Credited musicians: Bobby Tricarico (tenor sax), Joe Newman and Joe Wilder (trumpet), Urbie Green (trombone), Joe Soldo (flute), John Bunch (piano), Corky Hale (harp), Milt Hinton (bass), Sol Gubin (drums)
• Strings listed as unidentified

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 Top LPs: debuted in the issue dated May 13, 1967
• Billboard Top LPs: stayed six weeks on the album chart, peak No. 178
• Cash Box albums chart: debuted in the issue dated April 15, 1967
• Cash Box albums chart: stayed seven weeks, peak No. 73
• UK album chart: entered on September 23, 1967
• UK album chart: three weeks on the chart, peak No. 31

Reappraisal

• No critic review is included in the source text
• On November 8, 2011, Sony Music Distribution included the CD in the box set The Complete Collection

Records

• US Billboard Top LPs peak: No. 178
• US Cash Box albums peak: No. 73
• UK album chart peak: No. 31
• Box set reissue: The Complete Collection, 2011

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album reached the UK chart months after its first US chart entry, entering on September 23, 1967.
• Its CD was later placed in a box set, The Complete Collection, released by Sony Music Distribution on November 8, 2011.
• Marion Evans is credited as both conductor and arranger.
• The track list mixes standards from several songwriting teams, including Ellington and Bob Russell, and Lane and Loesser.
• The personnel list includes harpist Corky Hale and bassist Milt Hinton.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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