Search - Tony Bennett :: Young Tony

Great Set - First Time On CD for several tracks

Bill Anthony | North Texas United States | 10/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This beautifully annotated 4 CD set includes Tony's complete 1950-1954 Columbia recordings, all in one place. This includes the complete CLOUD 7 album.

Then, 10 of the 12 songs from the TONY album (1957) are included. That album has never been on CD. The rather common Roulette album with Count Basie (1959) is included to finish off disc 4. There's also an interesting live version of "In The Middle Of An Island" from the Nat King Cole show, in which Tony sings some special lyrics as a tribute to Nat.



The downside is that through 3 discs, it's a nice complete chronological history, but then it skips numerous singles from 1955/56 that have never been on CD, using up the space with the Roulette album, which has been licensed and released often on budget CD's and doesn't belong here.



A 43-page booklet with complete history, recording data, and numerous vintage pictures is included.



Tony Bennett completists and fans will love it.



Now if only Sony/Columbia would release the 16 or so Tony albums from the 50's and 60's that have never been on CD !"

The beginnings of a legend

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 05/30/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"With eighty tracks, seventy of them recorded between 1950 and 1956, this collection contains all the essential tracks (unless you count as essential two minor British hits that aren't here, Close your eyes and Come next Spring) and many obscurities from the first seven calendar years of Tony Bennett's recording career. Many singers peak at the beginning of their career but not so Tony, who was only really just warming up for what followed despite the quality and success of his early music. Fifty years after the last of these recordings were made, Tony was still performing and recording new material and at the time of writing this review, he was still going strong albeit past his peak by then. The final ten tracks in this box date from 1958.



During those early years, Tony was expected to record singles that would climb high in the American pop charts. Mitch Miller, his boss, wasn't necessarily interested in albums, which didn't sell in anything like the quantities that singles did in those days. Albums started to gain popularity with adult customers but it was only in the seventies that they replaced singles as the main unit of music. Nevertheless, Tony was allowed to record the occasional album even in these early years. Plenty of tracks from those albums are included here, together with all of Tony's American hits from the period.



Although Tony's most famous hit (I left my heart in San Francisco) was actually written in 1954, Tony didn't record it until much later, eventually having a huge international hit with it in the sixties. So you won't find it here but Tony's early hits were of an incredibly high quality. He scored three number one hits among over twenty American hits in total up to 1956. He had several failed singles and was nearly dropped from the label before he had his first hit (Because of you), which made number one and stayed there for over two months, selling over two million copies in the process and thereby securing Tony's future. (As a personal aside, I note that it first made number one on the very day that I was born.) Tony's next single (Cold cold heart, a pop cover of a Hank Williams country classic) became another chart-topper and million-seller.



Many smaller hits followed as well as two more million-sellers, one of which (Rags to riches) became Tony's third Ameroican number one hit. The other (Stranger in Paradise) peaked at number two in America, but if Tony felt any disappointment at this near-miss, he was eventually compensated by seeing it go to number one in Britain, where it became his debut hit more than a year after its run in the American charts. Tony's smaller American hits from this period included Blue velvet, a song that became a much bigger and more famous hit when Bobby Vinton recorded it in the sixties. Following his early success with one Hank Williams song (Cold cold heart), Tony scored a further American top ten hit with another of Hank's songs (There'll be no teardrops tonight). Another notable hit (Here in my heart) had to compete with versions by Al

Martino and Vic Damone, who were both more successful than Tony with this song. (British chart historians know that Al Martino's version was the inaugural number one in the first official British record sales chart and remained number one for several weeks.)



Tony's albums during this period included some compilations that rounded up his singles. Leaving those aside, Tony recorded his cfirst album, Cloud 7, in 1954 although it was actually released in 1955. Whereas Tony's singles were of the easy listening pop variety with jazz influences, this album was more obviously jazz music, both in arrangement and song selection. Tony recorded his second album (Tony) in 1956 and it, too, was jazz, supporting a jazz concert that he was doing at the time. Tony recorded two albums in the late fifties with Count Basie, one for Tony's record label and one for Count Basie's record label. The tracks from the Roulette album (Strike up the band) form the final ten tracks on the last CD here. By including these tracks, Proper breaks with its tradition of only releasing material that is at least fifty years old, thereby making British performance copyright payable for a little while anyway.



Perhaps these early years aren't absolutely the best of Tony's long and distinguished career, but there's a lot of great music here for his fans to enjoy."