Tony Bennett - Young Tony - Import 4 CD

Credits:

Tony Bennett

Description:

Twenty-three-year-old Tony Bennett recorded and released his first single for Columbia Records, "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams" (with its B-side, "I Wanna Be Loved"), in April 1950. From then until the end of 1956, he recorded 87 tracks released contemporaneously on 35 Columbia singles and two LPs, Cloud 7 (February 7, 1955) and Tony (January 14, 1957), not counting compilations. On January 1, 2007, Bennett's 1956 recordings joined those from previous years in entering the public domain in Europe, where copyright extends only 50 years. The British label Proper Records took advantage of that to release Young Tony, a four-CD box set largely devoted to Bennett's 1950-1956 recordings, containing 82 selections with a running time of about three hours and 54 minutes, a length that might have been contained (though just barely) on three discs. The collection, arranged chronologically by recording date, includes all of Bennett's Columbia recordings from April 17, 1950, to September 24, 1954, except "Let's Make Love," from that first recording session. But having featured nearly all of Bennett's first 26 singles, the set then excludes most of his 45s from 1955 and 1956, employing only the A-side of the last of them, "Just in Time," the song from the Broadway musical Bells Are Ringing that reached number 46 in the Billboard singles chart. That means other chart entries "Can You Find It in Your Heart," "From the Candy Store on the Corner to the Chapel on the Hill," "Happiness Street (Corner Sunshine Square)," and "The Autumn Waltz" are missing. All the tracks from Cloud 7 and Tony are included, however, as are three tracks, "While the Music Plays On," "Darn That Dream," and "I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me," that were recorded in 1954 but not issued until years later. Proper concludes the set by adding in some non-Columbia material: a low-fidelity version of "In the Middle of an Island" (a Bennett hit in 1957) with special lyrics sung on television on The Nat King Cole Show in December 1956 and the contents of the frequently licensed Roulette Records LP Strike Up the Band, a collaboration with Count Basie & His Orchestra recorded in November 1958. The chronological formatting and the elimination of the mid-'50s singles emphasizes Bennett's musical development during his late twenties. He begins bellowing in a sub-operatic tone on his early records and bowing to producer Mitch Miller's taste for novelty material, working largely with arranger/conductor Percy Faith. While this approach produces hits ("Because of You," "Cold, Cold Heart") and occasional artistic triumphs, such as the big-band swing version of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," there is also plenty of mediocrity. But by the middle of the third disc, as Bennett records tracks for Cloud 7 in August 1954 using only three horns and a rhythm section and covering standards, he has begun to sound like the mature Tony Bennett more familiar to later listeners. He can still rev up to that operatic level for effect, as he does, for instance in "Without a Song," cut in September 1956 and used as the final track on Tony. But he has become a much subtler singer than he was at the start. While it is not a perfect representation of Bennett's early years, Young Tony should be welcomed by Bennett fans seeking material Columbia has been loath to release on CD, especially since it comes at a modest price allowed by the out-of-copyright status of most of the tracks. ~ William Ruhlmann

Tracklisting:

1.The Boulevard of Broken Dreams
2.I Wanna Be Loved
3.I Can't Give You Anything But Love
4.Our Lady of Fatima
5.Just Say I Love Her
6.Sing You Sinners
7.Kiss You
8.One Lie Leads to Another
9.Don't Cry, Baby
10.Once There Lived a Fool
11.Beautiful Madness
12.The Valentino Tango
13.I Won't Cry Anymore
14.Because of You
15.While We're Young
16.Cold, Cold Heart
17.Since My Love Has Gone
18.Please, My Love
19.Blue Velvet
20.Solitaire
1.Silly Dreamer
2.Sleepless
3.Somewhere Along the Way
4.I'm Lost Again
5.Have a Good Time
6.Here in My Heart
7.Roses of Yesterday
8.You Could Make Me Smile Again
9.Congratulations to Someone
10.Anywhere I Wander
11.Stay Where You Are
12.Take Me
13.No One Will Ever Know
14.I'm the King of Broken Hearts
15.I'll Go
16.Rags to Riches
17.Here Comes That Heartache Again
18.Someone Turned the Moon Upside Down
19.Stranger in Paradise
20.Why Does It Have to Be Me?
1.Until Yesterday (Non e la Pioggia)
2.Please Driver, Once Around the Park Again
3.There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight
4.My Heart Won't Say Goodbye
5.Take Me Back Again
6.Madonna, Madonna
7.Not as a Stranger
8.Cinnamon Sinner
9.Old Devil Moon
10.I Fall in Love Too Easily
11.While the Music Plays On
12.Love Letters
13.My Reverie
14.Darn That Dream
15.Funny Thing
16.My Pretty Shoo-Gah
17.Give Me the Simple Life
18.My Baby Just Cares for Me
19.My Heart Tells Me
20.I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me
1.Lost in the Stars
2.Taking a Chance on Love
3.I'm Just a Lucky So and So
4.It Had to Be You
5.You Can Depend on Me
6.Love Walked In
7.These Foolish Things
8.I'll Be Seeing You
9.Without a Song
10.Always
11.Just in Time
12.In the Middle of an Island
13.Life Is a Song
14.Chicago