TONY BENNETT: The Second Album

Original released on LP Columbia CL 938

(US 1957, January 14)

Though unimaginatively titled, Tony Bennett's second 12" LP "Tony" is a more ambitious effort than his first, "Cloud 7". The earlier disc employed a small band, but Tony uses two separate larger ensembles, a jazz big band arranged and conducted by Ray Conniff for all of the first side and "Always" on the second side, and a string orchestra arranged and conducted by Percy Faith for the rest. Bennett may be relying on current songwriters for his hit singles, but this is a collection stocked with standards written by the great interwar songwriters of stage and screen - Irving Berlin, Al Dubin, Vernon Duke, Duke Ellington, Sammy Fain, Dorothy Fields, George & Ira Gershwin, Jimmy McHugh, Harry Warren, Kurt Weill, and Vincent Youmans, among others. Conniff provides punchy neo-swing charts, particularly on the side-ending "I Can't Give You Anything but Love," while Faith's strings provide lush, wistful underpinnings to the often-sad sentiments of the ballads on the second side. Bennett matches the arrangements with his vocal performances, keeping pace with the jazzy horns or soaring above the sweet strings. He tries a retake of his first Columbia Records recording, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," in a slightly less exaggerated but still fruity performance. His "Lost in the Stars" uses only an acoustic guitar accompaniment for much of its length, the better to get across its melancholy message. "Tony" presents Tony Bennett as a timeless balladeer quickly outgrowing his status as belter of hit singles, and not a moment too soon. (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)

TONY BENNETT DEBUT ALBUM

Original released on LP Columbia CL 621 (mono)

(US 1955, February 25)

Released in 1955, when Tony Bennett was only 30 years old, "Cloud 7" was the record he fought and earned the right to make. He'd already had a string of hits for the label and was regarded as a major talent. (In 1951 alone he charted seven times.) Bennett was looking to the then new long-playing 33-rpm format LP to bring a record to the public that showcased his voice in a more intimate, mood-setting environment. The cover says it all: it features a slightly out of focus black-and-white photograph of a woman, eyes closed, head thrown back, snapping her fingers with the words "Cloud 7" cursively written in hot pink to frame her face. Produced by Mitch Miller, Bennett surrounded himself with a smallish jazz group and recorded ten standards. The mood is nocturnal, elegant, amorous, hip. The opener is "I Fall in Love Too Easily." Arranged by Chuck Wayne, it was originally used in the soundtrack to the MGM film Anchors Aweigh. A spare, ghostly guitar ushers in Bennett's hum of the intro before the band enters slowly and when that slippery, smoky tenor enters in full, the entire night opens into oblivion. When he ups it a bit for the swinging "My Baby Just Cares for Me," with its muted yet finger-popping guitar swing, the seduction is complete. There is genuine emotion in Bennett's voice as he sings "My Heart Tells Me (Should I Believe My Heart?)," the sultry "Old Devil Moon," "I Can't Believe That You're in Love With Me," and the incredible closer, "Darn That Dream." His delivery throughout is unhurried, focused, purposeful. The music found here is more akin to that of Sinatra's "In the Wee Small Hours" than it is to lounge mood music - though that may have been the desired intent of the marketing department at Columbia at the time. "Cloud 7" is the album on which Bennett himself realized the full potential of his gift; the album elevated him from being a great pop singer to a bona fide artist. This disc - part of The Tony Bennett Master Series on Legacy - may be short, but it is devastatingly beautiful and loses none of its effect more than 60 years after its original issue. (Thom Jurek in AllMusic)