Tony Bennett:The Complete Albums

It could have been added to Tony's Duets album.

 

Along with Cyndi Lauper's "Makin' Whoopee" duet?

 

From another forum:

On another note, I have now listened to both ‘rarities, outtakes, and other delights’ CDs and I have only a few minor complaints. I’ll start with the most minor and that’s only the repeating of the title ‘Something’s Gotta Give’ on the sleeve of disc 1. It is numbered in sequence as follows 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.6.10. I’m just glad the song doesn’t show up as a repeat on the disc. haha! Second, the audio for the 3 tracks from the Live Basie Concert were poorly recorded but I’m glad the recording exists. Sometimes you can’t even tell if Tony is being accompanied by Basie on piano or he’s singing a capella. Now, my biggest complaint is that track 20 is totally pointless. It is ‘Sweet Lorraine’ from the Jet Set album. I checked the book and it is definitely the same recording. It has the same catalog number and recording date. Though it can be considered a delight…give me a break!!!

The only minor complaint I have about disc 2 is the first track ‘Everybody’s talkin’ I find this unnecessary on the disc because the finished track appears on the ‘Something’ album and the finished version is great. This track brings nothing interesting at all. Yet, the rest of the tracks are incredible. Beautiful track after beautiful track.

Found another missing track. Tony recorded more then one version of ‘Sing You Sinners’ The first was ‘less produced’ and it contained ‘hand clapping’ on the beat and then he later re-recorded it with a full band and strings.

Now, ‘Sing You Sinners’ is listed twice in the Singles Volumes, it appears on Disc 3, track 5 and Disc 6, track 8. They are the same track in the box. This is ridiculous but could of been a case of a missing master because the book does not list them as the same recording. There is a five year span between the first recording and the second. Thankfully though the first recording of ‘Sing You Sinners’ is available on CD is more than one place.

 

Yes, please...as you listen to them. Even though I own the LP's and CD's I'd like to see each of these from the box.

I'd also love to hear your thoughts on each as you get into the actual albums. (You'll love "Cloud 7"!!!)

 

The first recording of "Sing You Sinners" is not on any official SONY CD.

The master can't be missing as Time-Life issued it on their Legendary Singers LP/CD series....only there they misidentified it as the 1955 version.

 

I must amend that last sentence: I just noticed that there is a "DISC xx" label in tiny type at the top of each spine. It's a real eye challenge, but it's there, so the disc sleeves CAN be kept in order.

Now, if they'd only placed an index (such as [post=7097466]posted above[/post]) inside the flip-top lid, it would be possible to locate an album more easily.

 

Will do, Paul. There are six volumes of Columbia singles, before we get to the albums, but I'll try to go through those quickly.

 

Yes, please!

 

I'll bet by the time you get through those early singles you'll be ready for an album! What Mitch made Tony do on some of those early 50's singles gets to be a bit much after awhile.

 

Disc 3: The Columbia Singles, Vol. 1

Disc 3: The Columbia Singles, Vol. 1

1. The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
2. I Wanna Be Loved
3. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
4. Just Say I Love Her (Dicitencello vuie)
5. Sing You Sinners
6. One Lie Leads To Another
7. Don't Cry Baby
8. Once There Lived A Fool
9. The Valentino Tango (Noche de amor)
10. I Won't Cry Anymore
11. Because Of You
12. While We're Young
13. Cold, Cold Heart
14. Since My Love Has Gone
15. Please, My Love
16. Blue Velvet
17. Solitaire

 

I see (hear) what you mean. Disc 3 covers 1950–51. Not exactly the Great American Songbook, and Tony's voice is a lot less mature at this stage.

 

So they pulled the wrong (1955) master for Disc 3, and misidentified it as the 1950 version in the book discography? Disappointing.

Add this to the list of quality control problems with this box, beginning with the printing error in the track listing on the [post=7114288]Disc 1 sleeve[/post]. SONY joins other labels unable to produce an important historical retrospective without such unforgivable technical glitches.

(They could have done better by hiring Ron for a pre-production review. I'll bet he'd have done it for a "song.")

 

Here's the autograph "certificate of authenticity" included in the box set for people like me who shelled out an extra $100 just for the autograph:

 

By hardly releasing anything over the past 25 years Tony has not had to deal with "Collector Scrutiny". He is now getting it all at once.

 

Does it have " Tina"

 

There is an an unreleased recording of "When Tina Loved Me".

 

The "In Person" with Basie is presented as it is on the Gold CD without applause and Tony's comments.

 

EXCELLENT! I love that Gold CD for that very reason. The 6 Eye LP has fine sound but that terrible audience chatter overdub is annoying as hell.

 

He is somewhere between Johhny Ray and Frankie Laine on most of these. I can underatsnd this as that is what was selling then. But when he was able to talk Mitch into letting him do albums is where he really became his own singer!

 

He is 100% to blame for this, too. For many years Derek Boulton and others literally begged Tony to release his back catalogue on CD (especially his MGM/Verve recordings) along with some priceless London concert videos. Tony hard-headedly and steadfastly kept refusing to do so.

 

However, they are not mastered identically. Putting on my waveform analysis hat for the moment...

The version of "Sing You Sinners" on Disc 3 is pure mono (as it should be). The one on Disc 6 has a small amount of stereo "crosstalk" between channels. It is also louder than the first version, particularly in a couple of drum parts, and it's somewhat more dynamic.

Obviously, the two tracks were created/mastered independently, and one must wonder if the same source tapes were used in both cases? This raises the question of what differences may exist between other duplicate tracks elsewhere in the box.

...putting the computer aside now and returning to pure listening mode.

 

The 55 "Sing You Sinners" was issued on LP in rechanneled stereo. Still it is a major mistake. At least they got the 3 versions of "Close Your Eyes" right.

Hopefully the taste of the 3 tracks from the actual Latin Casino show may yield a future release of the complete show.

Danny Bennett turned down Bear Family from doing a series of Tony Boxes. They would not made such an error and would have insisted on completeness.

Tony himself thought that Mitch Miller was looking for a cross between Frankie Laine and Mario Lanza.

 

As long as we're starting to touch on audio quality issues, these are the technical credits for The Columbia Singles, Vols. 1–6 (Discs 3–8):

Executive Producer: Danny Bennett
Producer: Didier C. Deutsch
Mastering Engineer: Vic Anesini, Battery Studios, NYC
Tape Research: Mike Kull, Anthony Fountain, Matt Kelly
Disc Transfer: Matt Cavaluzzo, Battery Studios, NYC​

 

Considered the price of the box they should provide a CORRECTED Disc 3.