Pop & Miscellaneous

Average White Band & Ben E. King - Benny & Us (1977)

2015-05-08T15:37:56Z

Average White Band & Ben E. King - Benny & Us (1977)


1 	Get It Up For Love 	4:33
2 	Fool For You Anyway 	5:38
3 	A Star In The Ghetto 	7:01
4 	The Message 	5:17
5 	What Is Soul 	4:34
6 	Someday We'll All Be Free 	5:13
7 	Imagine 	4:56
8 	Keepin It To Myself 	4:30

Ben E. King – lead vocals
Alan Gorrie, Hamish Stuart, Onnie McIntyre – guitar
Roger Ball – keyboards
Roger Ball – alto saxophone
Malcolm "Molly" Duncan – keyboards, tenor saxophone
Alan Gorrie – bass
Steve Ferrone – drums, percussion
Alan Gorrie, Hamish Stuart, Debra Gray, Luther Vandross, Robin Clark – backing vocals
Lewis Del Gatto – baritone saxophone (tracks: 2, 5, 8)
Michael Brecker – tenor saxophone (tracks: 2, 5, 8)
Marvin Stamm, Randy Brecker – trumpet (tracks: 2, 5, 8)
Barry Rogers – trombone (tracks: 2, 5, 8)

Benny and Us resulted from a chance meeting in Miami between Ben E. King and the Average White Band, who were vacationing there just when King was starting work on a new album. The finished LP yielded two hit singles and became King's best-selling LP, rising to number 33. The sound is soulful and funky, very bright and passionate -- the upbeat, relentlessly catchy "Get It Up for Love" and the soaring, horn and string driven "A Star in the Ghetto" made respectable showings on the R&B charts, and a good portion of the rest ("The Message," "What Is Soul") is pretty powerful stuff as well. "Imagine" is so busy and so self-consciously earnest that it's difficult to enjoy, but King is so good in the moments when he is on target, that it's hard to skip this track, even if it is the weakest number here. The radiant "Keepin' It to Myself" and the poignant cover of Donny Hathaway's "Someday We'll All Be Free," by contrast, are among King's very best records. Benny and Us was a good enough record that it nearly led to a joint tour (as opposed to some joint appearances, which actually happened) between King and the Average White Band -- one can only marvel at what those shows must have sounded like, and lament that fact that no live album was cut. It also marked King's last major appearance on the charts for Atlantic. To date, however, it's only available as an import from Sequel Records. That reissue, apart from excellent sound, also includes alternate edits of "Fool for You Anyway," "The Message," and, especially "Star in the Ghetto," including the 12" single version of the latter -- all are worth hearing. ---Bruce Eder, Rovi

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Ben E. King - Don't Play That Song! (1962)

2015-05-04T15:42:13Z

Ben E. King - Don't Play That Song! (1962)


A1 	Don't Play That Song (You Lied) 	2:38
A2 	Ecstasy 	2:26
A3 	On The Horizon 	2:18
A4 	Show Me The Way 	2:12
A5 	Here Comes The Night 	2:15
A6 	First Taste Of Love 	2:17
B1 	Stand By Me 	2:44
B2 	Yes 	2:55
B3 	Young Boy Blues 	2:24
B4 	The Hermit Of Misty Mountain 	2:18
B5 	I Promise Love 	2:01
B6 	Brace Yourself 	2:03

Arranged By – Klaus Ogermann (tracks: B4), Jimmie Haskell (tracks: A1), 
Stan Applebaum (tracks: A2 To B3, B5, B6)

Ben E. King's third album is a little short in running time but very high in quality, in terms of the dozen songs here. The title track was the selling point, but couldn't help but be seduced by the exquisite production of "Ecstasy" and "On the Horizon," the latter making about as fine use of harps and an ethereal chorus as one imagines possible -- and when the strings come in, violins and cellos alternately, the sheer beauty of the track just overflows. "Show Me the Way to Your Heart" isn't too far behind, and then "Stand by Me" shores up the opening of the second side -- not that anything here needed shoring up, but it's good that they got the single onto a long-player so it didn't go to waste. Even the lesser material, like "Here Comes the Night" and "First Taste of Love" (the latter a Jerry Leiber/Phil Spector song that bears an uncanny resemblance to Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On"), is interesting to hear for the lively production. This album, like its predecessors, dates from a period in which producers and engineers were figuring out what one could do with soul and R&B in terms of engineering, and the sound separation and textures are nothing if not vibrant and alluring in their own right, separate from the music. ---Bruce Eder, Rovi

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Ben E. King - Spanish Harlem (1961)

2015-05-06T15:58:35Z

Ben E. King - Spanish Harlem (1961)


A1 	Amor 	3:05
A2 	Sway 	2:17
A3 	Come Closer To Me 	2:34
A4 	Perfidia 	2:12
A5 	Granada 	2:25
A6 	Sweet And Gentle 	2:24
B1 	Quizas, Quizas, Quizas (Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps) 	2:14
B2 	Frenesi 	3:09
B3 	Souvenir Of Mexico 	2:20
B4 	Besame Mucho 	2:58
B5 	Love Me, Love Me 	2:35
B6 	Spanish Harlem 	2:54

Ben E. King – vocals
Stan Applebaum - arranger
Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller – producer

A close look at this album reveals just how ambitious Atlantic Records could be in the early 1960s, in generating LPs. Technically speaking, Ben E. King's debut long-player is a concept album -- or, at least, a thematic album. Put together in the wake of his first solo hit, "Spanish Harlem," a Latin flavor and beat run all the way through this 12-song platter, which, at times, is really more of a pop record than a soul record. The dense, busy string section that characterized most of King's work of this era is present, and a lot of his singing may recall more the work of Sammy Davis, Jr. than that of any R&B artist one might think of from this period. And apart from the Jerry Leiber/Phil Spector co-authored title hit, most of what is here dates from a decade or more (sometimes several) earlier -- "Frenesi," "Besame Mucho," and "Perfidia" were standards during the big-band era, and most of the rest is of similar or even older vintage. All of which doesn't mean that it is bad -- King's version of "Besame Mucho" is a very successful reinterpretation in a Latin soul vein, and "Perfidia" never sounded better than it does in his hands, even if it and a lot of the rest is a long way from what most of us define as "soul." And for better or worse, the production is first-rate within the context of King's established sound, with a phenomenal string section and a percussion section to die for. ---Bruce Eder, Rovi

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