The Movie Song Album

The Movie Song Album
Studio album by
Tony Bennett
ReleasedJanuary 31, 1966[1]
RecordedSeptember 26, 1965 (#7)
December 14, 1965 (#2, 5, 11)
CBS Studio A, Los Angeles
December 27, 1965 (#1, 8–9)
December 28, 1965 (#3–4, 6)
December 29, 1965 (#10, 12)
CBS 30th Street Studio, New York City
GenreVocal jazz
Length37:04
LabelColumbia
CL 2472
CS 9272
ProducerErnie Altschuler
Tony Bennett chronology
If I Ruled the World: Songs for the Jet Set
(1965) 		The Movie Song Album
(1966) 		A Time for Love
(1966)

The Movie Song Album is a 1966 studio album by Tony Bennett.[2] The album consists of songs from films, opening with the theme from The Oscar, in which Bennett had recently appeared. With this project of such high quality of song material and collaborators, he was to describe the album in his autobiography as his "all time favorite record".[3]

Johnny Mandel was the musical director, and he and Neal Hefti and Quincy Jones arranged and conducted their own compositions on the album. Luiz Bonfá played the guitar on his two songs, "Samba de Orfeu" and "The Gentle Rain". The pianists Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Rowles and Lou Levy all collaborated, each on one song.

Bennett's recording of "The Shadow of Your Smile" won Mandel and Paul Francis Webster the Grammy Award for Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards of 1966, and Bennett performed the song at the 38th Academy Awards, where it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

The album debuted on the Billboard Top LPs chart in the issue dated March 12, 1966, and remained on the album chart for 29 weeks, peaking at No. 18[4] it also debuted on the Cashbox albums chart in the issue dated March 12, 1966, and remained on the chart for in a total of 23 weeks, peaking at No. 26[5]

On November 8, 2011, Sony Music Distribution included the CD in a box set entitled The Complete Collection.[6]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
Record Mirror[7]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[8]

William Ruhlmann of AllMusic wrote "he devoted himself exclusively to movie themes, everything from 'The Trolley Song (Meet Me in St. Louis)' to 'Days of Wine and Roses'. Some of the tunes were not first-rate, but in 'The Shadow of Your Smile' and 'The Second Time Around', Bennett found material worthy of him.[2]

Billboard described the album as "a guaranteed chartbusting LP", saying "Outstanding movie songs are given exceptional Bennett vocals"[9]

Record Mirror said "it's tremendously warm, swinging, sentimental, sensitive".[7]

Track listing

  1. "Maybe September" (from The Oscar) (Ray Evans, Percy Faith, Jay Livingston) – 4:03
  2. "Girl Talk" (from Harlow) (Neal Hefti, Bobby Troup) – 3:14
  3. "The Gentle Rain" (from The Gentle Rain) (Luiz Bonfá, Matt Dubey) – 2:12
  4. "Emily" (from The Americanization of Emily) (Johnny Mandel, Johnny Mercer) – 3:25
  5. "The Pawnbroker" (from The Pawnbroker) (Quincy Jones, Jack Lawrence) – 3:08
  6. "Samba de Orfeu" (from Black Orpheus) (Bonfá) – 2:08
  7. "The Shadow of Your Smile" (from The Sandpiper) (Mandel, Paul Francis Webster) – 3:38
  8. "Smile" (from Modern Times) (Charlie Chaplin, Geoffrey Claremont Parsons, John Turner) – 3:34
  9. "The Second Time Around" (from High Time) (Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Van Heusen) – 2:44
  10. "Days of Wine and Roses" (from Days of Wine and Roses) (Henry Mancini, Mercer) – 2:58
  11. "Never Too Late" (from Never Too Late) (Evans, Livingston, Rose) – 3:25
  12. "The Trolley Song" (from Meet Me in St. Louis) (Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin) – 2:35

Personnel

References

  1. ^ Tony Bennett.com
  2. ^ a b c Ruhlmann, William. "Tony Bennett - The Movie Song Album: Rating & Reviews". AllMusic. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
  3. ^ Bennett, The Good Life, pp. 186–87.
  4. ^ Whitburn, Joel (1996). Joel Whitburn's top pop albums : 1955-1996 : compiled from Billboard magazine's pop album charts, 1955-1996. Menomonee Falls, Wis.: Record Research. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-8982-0117-8.
  5. ^ Hoffmann, Frank W (1988). The Cash box album charts, 1955-1974. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press. p. 28. ISBN 0-8108-2005-6.
  6. ^ "The Complete Collection - Tony Bennett". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  7. ^ a b Jones, Peter; Jopling, Norman (14 May 1966). "Tony Bennett: The Movie Song Album" (PDF). Record Mirror. No. 270. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 April 2022. Retrieved 18 November 2022.
  8. ^ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. p. 148. ISBN 9781846098567. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  9. ^ "Pop Spotlight: The Movie Song Album" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 78, no. 9. February 26, 1966. p. 68.