While We're Young: Original Recordings 1950-1955

by Tony Bennett

Overview

After a successful singing career in the 1950s, Tony Bennett, like many of the jazz-based crooners of his era, had a bit of a commercial falloff with the advent of rock & roll in the early '60s. Bennett, for his part, moved even closer to jazz in his stage shows, and then saw his popularity spike when his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," became a big pop hit in 1962. It was Bennett at his best, working to the pop side of jazz, and it established him as an iconic singer and entertainer, his singing always warm, graceful, and full of an easy and offhand elegance. He picked his material carefully, avoiding novelty and trendy songs, and he built an impressive catalog of classic songs, many of which are firmly established as part of the ever-shifting American Songbook. This set collects some of his earlier tracks, including "Stranger in Paradise" and "Rags to Riches," recorded and released between 1950 and 1955, and while Bennett's signature song had not even been recorded yet, the same elegant and graceful vocal qualities were already on display in these earlier hits. ~ Steve Leggett

Product Details

Release Date:	10/31/2006
Label:	Naxos
UPC:	0636943280324
Rank:	261264

Tracks

1. Sing You Sinners
2. Because of You
3. Boulevard of Broken Dreams
4. While We're Young
5. Please, My Love
6. Since My Love Has Gone
7. Cold, Cold Heart
8. Blue Velvet
9. Have a Good Time
10. Here in My Heart
11. I'm the King of Broken Hearts
12. Rags to Riches
13. Stranger in Paradise
14. There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight
15. Take Me Back Again
16. Cinnamon Singer
17. Not as a Stranger
18. Please Driver (Once Around the Park Again)
19. Funny Thing
20. Come Next Spring

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Tony Bennett   Primary Artist
The Pastels   Featured Artist
Ray Ellis   Choir/Chorus,Orchestra
Ray Conniff   Orchestra
Frank DeVol   Choir/Chorus,Orchestra
Percy Faith   Orchestra
Marty Manning   Orchestra
Ralph Burns   Orchestra
The Ray Charles Singers   Featured Artist
Gil Evans   Orchestra

Technical Credits

Ted Varnick   Composer
Engvick   Composer
Acquaviva   Composer
Robert Nickora   Liner Notes,Concept
Silvers   Composer
Shapiro   Composer
Charles Carpenter   Composer
Eliscu   Composer
Frisch   Composer
Herbert Magidson   Composer
Oscar Hammerstein II   Composer
Berlin   Composer
Berman   Composer
Harold Arlen   Composer
Duke Ellington   Composer
Fetter   Composer
Gallup   Composer
George Gershwin   Composer
Ira Gershwin   Composer
Levinson   Composer
Louis Dunlap   Composer
Sam Coslow   Composer
Morty Palitz   Composer
Earl Hines   Composer
Mort Shuman   Composer
Burt Bacharach   Composer
Harling   Composer
Allie Wrubel   Composer
Bernice Petkere   Composer