More of the Music of Tony Bennett
More Vintage Hot Stamper Pressings on Columbia
Top Artists – Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett – I Left My Heart In San Francisco
More Tony Bennett
More 5 Star Albums
- A superb Columbia Black Print “360 Sound” Stereo pressing with Double Plus (A++) sound from the first note to the last
- Rich, smooth, sweet, full of ambience (maybe too much ambience!), dead on correct tonality, and wonderfully breathy vocals – everything that we listen for in a great record is here
- Huge amounts of three-dimensional space and ambience, along with boatloads of Tubey Magic – here’s a 30th Street recording from 1962 that demonstrates just how good Columbia’s engineers were back then
- The title track became a gold-selling Top Ten hit that stayed on the charts for almost three years (!) and earned Bennett two Grammy Awards (Record of the Year and Best Solo Vocal Performance)
- To hear the real Tony Bennett, play “Once Upon a Time” – it’s here and nobody sings it better
- 5 stars: “…Bennett had been searching for a … musical approach beyond his long-gone pop work…. With this album, [he] found the key, not only by happening across a signature song in the title track, but also in the approach to songs like ‘Once Upon a Time’…and Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh’s ‘The Best Is Yet to Come,’ which Bennett helped make a standard.”
Tony Bennett – Frank Laico Knocks Another One Out of the Park
More Recordings by Frank Laico
Reviews and Commentaries for the Recordings of Frank Laico
Amazing vocal reproduction courtesy of the brilliant engineering of Frank Laico at his favorite studio (and ours), Columbia 30th Street studios
We are not big soundstage guys here at Better Records, but we can’t deny the appeal of the space to be found on a record as good as this
Everything that’s good about Vocal Recordings from the ’50s and ’60s is precisely what’s good about the sound of this record.
The huge studio the music was recorded in is captured faithfully here. The height, width and depth of the staging here are extraordinary. We are not big soundstage guys here at Better Records, but we can’t deny the appeal of the space to be found on a record as good as this.
Transparency and Tubey Magic are key to the sound of the orchestra and you will find both in abundance on these two sides.
On this record Mr. Tony Bennett himself will appear to be standing right in your listening room! The space of your stereo room will seem to expand in all directions in order to accommodate them, an illusion of course, but nevertheless a remarkably convincing one. (more…)
Bennett & Evans – More Mistaken MoFi EQ
More of the Music of Bill Evans
More of the Music of Tony Bennett
Sonic Grade: F
That weird boost around 10k that Stan Ricker likes to add to practically every record he masters wreaks havoc on the sound of Tony Bennett’s voice. I would be very surprised if the current in-print Compact Disc doesn’t sound more tonally natural, and for us audiophile record lovers – not lovers of audiophile records, but guys who love records with audiophile sound – that’s simply another nail in the coffin for one of the most laughably inept remastering labels in the history of that sad enterprise.
If you love this album, and you should, the regular early Fantasy pressings are the only game in town.
Tony Bennett & Count Basie – Strike Up The Band
More Tony Bennett
More Count Basie
- You’ll find INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound throughout this Roulette stereo pressing
- So hugely spacious and three-dimensional, yet with a natural sounding Tony – this is the best way to hear it
- The Roulette pressings tend to be gritty, edgy and bright, but we found a good one here, and it won the shootout
- Richness, transparency and Tubey Magic are key to the sound of Basie’s orchestra and you will find all three in abundance on these two sides
- 4 1/2 stars: “The band raves through tunes like ‘With Plenty Of Money And You,’ and Bennett matches them, drawing strength from the bravura arrangements, while band and singer achieve a knowing tenderness on ‘Growing Pains’…This is an album well worth owning.”
Tony Bennett – Who Can I Turn To
More Tony Bennett
More Vintage Columbia Pressings
- This early Columbia 360 label pressing gives Tony the sound he deserves, earning outstanding grades on both of these stereo sides
- Transparency and Tubey Magic are key to the sound of the orchestra and you will find both in abundance here
- Made up mostly of ballads, this is an album for quiet moods – the title track is especially good in that respect, with Bennett’s voice carrying the song, the arrangement understated and well in the background
- “..[T]he match of singer and arranger made for a consistent and effective album.”
- If you’re a fan of Tony’s, this 1964 release belongs in your collection
Everything that’s good about Vocal Recordings from the ’50s and ’60s is precisely what’s good about the sound of this record.
Albums such as this live and die by the quality of their vocal reproduction. On this record Mr. Tony Bennett himself will appear to be standing right in your listening room! The space of your stereo room will seem to expand in all directions in order to accommodate them, an illusion of course, but nevertheless a remarkably convincing one.
Like so many others you may have read about on the site, the right amount of Tubey Magic — and by that we mean a very healthy amount — makes all the difference.
Having done this for so long, we understand and appreciate that rich, full, solid sound is key to the presentation of this primarily vocal music. We rate these qualities higher than others we might be listening for (e.g., bass definition, soundstage, depth, etc.). The music is not so much about the details in the recording, but rather in trying to recreate a solid, palpable, real Tony Bennett singing live in your listening room. The best copies have an uncanny way of doing just that.
If you exclusively play modern repressings of older recordings (this one is now 57 years old), I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it — not often, and certainly not always — but less than one out of 100 new records do, if our experience with the hundreds we’ve played can serve as a guide.
Tony Bennett – I’ve Gotta Be Me
More of the Music of Tony Bennett
More Vintage Columbia Hot Stamper Pressings
- This vintage Columbia 360 label pressing gives Tony the sound he deserves, with Double Plus (A++) grades on both of these early stereo sides
- Brilliant engineering by Frank Laico, the man who recorded I Left My Heart In San Francisco and Sketches of Spain, among others
- Tony Bennett was in fine form and still able to sing the hell out of these songs in 1969 – when you hear the quality of his voice on this very album you will perhaps appreciate the toll this century has taken on him
- Vintage record guys with top quality turntables – like us – get to hear Tony the way he should be heard, with his voice at the peak of its powers
Tony Bennett – If I Ruled The World / Songs For The Jet Set
More Tony Bennett
More Pop and Jazz Vocal Albums
- Bennett’s wonderful 1965 release finally makes its Hot Stamper debut here with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound throughout
- These sides are exceptionally spacious and three-dimensional, as well as relaxed and full-bodied – Tony is right in the room with you on this one
- “Employing Sinatra arranger Don Costa, Tony Bennett put together a concept album similar to Sinatra’s Come Fly with Me.”
Bennett and Evans – The Tony Bennett / Bill Evans Album
More Bill Evans
- A wonderful early pressing of this classic collaboration, with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound from start to here finish and vinyl that is hard to find any quieter
- When heard on our best Hot Stamper pressings, the album clearly belongs near the top of the All Time Great Male Vocal Records
- Waltz for Debby is the best thing here. You want to hear the Bennett-Evans Magic? Go right to that track
- 4 1/2 stars: “… one of the best albums of either’s career… an excellent jazz-pop hybrid in which both musicians were shown off to advantage.”
- A Pop and Jazz Vocal Album that Belongs in Any Audiophile Record Collection
If you like sophisticated vocal jazz I don’t think you can do much better than this record, especially when it sounds like this. Tony Bennett’s voice sounds wonderfully rich, BREATHY, and above all REAL.
The soundstage is open and spacious, the piano full-bodied and clear, and the vocals have the clarity and fullness missing from most pressings. It’s incredible to hear these two top-notch musicians interacting and responding to each other in this kind of huge, open and natural space.
Tony Bennett – For Once In My Life
More Tony Bennett
- This vintage Columbia 360 label pressing gives Tony the sound he deserves, with Double (A++) grades on both of these early stereo sides
- Amazing vocal reproduction courtesy of the brilliant engineering of Frank Laico at his favorite studio (and ours), Columbia 30th Street studios
- We are not big soundstage guys here at Better Records, but we can’t deny the appeal of the space to be found on a record as good as this
Everything that’s good about Vocal Recordings from the ’50s and ’60s is precisely what’s good about the sound of this record.
The huge studio the music was recorded in is captured faithfully here. The height, width and depth of the staging here are extraordinary. We are not big soundstage guys here at Better Records, but we can’t deny the appeal of the space to be found on a record as good as this.
Transparency and Tubey Magic are key to the sound of the orchestra and you will find both in abundance on these two sides.
Albums such as this live and die by the quality of their vocal reproduction. On this record Mr. Tony Bennett himself will appear to be standing right in your listening room! The space of your stereo room will seem to expand in all directions in order to accommodate them, an illusion of course, but nevertheless a remarkably convincing one.
On this record, like so many others you may have read about on the site, the right amount of Tubey Magic — and by that we mean a very healthy amount — makes all the difference. (more…)