The Good Life by Tony Bennett

Author:Tony Bennett [Bennett, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1998-03-21T23:00:00+00:00

It was always my dream to perform with Count Basie and Duke Ellington, the greatest bandleaders of all time. I was particularly keen to do an album with Count Basie, and in 1958 I got my chance to make not only one album with him, but two. No star singer had ever recorded an entire album with Basie before, and Basie was all for doing an album with me, but we had to contend with his record label, Roulette Records, and Morris Levy, who ran it. Levy was a classic ruffian who wheeled and dealed any way he could. He was notorious for scamming artists, and unfortunately Bill Basie was a gambler who ended up borrowing a lot of money from Levy. In the typical “owing your soul to the company store” scenario, it was rumored that after a while Basie was simply put on the payroll, like the rest of his band, and never got a cent of the royalties from his compositions or recordings.

Morris Levy agreed to my recording with Basie for Columbia as long as we agreed to make a reciprocal record for Roulette. Basie and I decided that we’d record the Columbia album live and the Roulette album in the studio. But getting Mitch Miller to approve this was another story.

He was totally opposed both to my working with Basie and to my appearing on Roulette Records. He said, “No way. What do you want to be on a junk label like Roulette for?” Mitch’s own career as a recording artist was starting to take off around this time. He had a hit single with “The Yellow Rose of Texas” that was steadily climbing the charts, so I decided to bide my time and wait for the record to reach the top. I got Mitch’s approval the day his song hit number one. Mitch told me that if I made this record, it would ruin my career, but he was feeling so great about reaching number one with “Yellow Rose,” he finally gave in.

We decided to do the live album for Columbia first, and worked out the details with the Latin Casino in Philadelphia. Ralph orchestrated and arranged the entire album. Although I’d talked with him on the telephone I didn’t meet Count Basie until our rehearsals began. It was an amazing experience, the fulfillment of a dream, and I’ll never forget it. We hit it off right away, as though we always knew and understood each other. At one point Basie turned to his band, pointed at me, and said, “Anything this man wants, he gets!” I was floored.

We opened at the Latin Casino in Philadelphia on November 28, 1958, and did tremendous business. There was barely room in that tiny club for Frank Laico to set up his console, and he finally had to rig it up in the basement kitchen. I thought the recording came out wonderfully, but stereo recording had just been discovered and Al Ham, the producer, was unhappy that we had recorded in mono.

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