The Ultimate Collection (Deluxe)

CD1

1. Give Me The Night (Long Version)
2. Lady Love Me (One More Time)
3. Never Give Up On A Good Thing
4. Love X Love
5. Love Ballad
6. Nature Boy (International Single Version)
7. This Masquerade (Single Version)
8. On Broadway (Single Version)
9. White Rabbit
10. Breezin’
11. Welcome To My World
12. What’s On Your Mind
13. Mimosa feat. Jimmy Smith
14. Off Broadway
15. Gonna Love You More
16. Unchained Melody (Single Version)
17. The Greatest Love Of All (Single Version)

CD2

1. Turn Your Love Around
2. In Your Eyes
3. Shiver (Single Version)
4. Inside Love (So Personal)
5. 20/20
6. Love All The Hurt Away feat. Aretha Franklin
7. Feel Like Making Love
8. Let’s Do It Again (Single Version)
9. The One For Me
10. Kisses In The Moonlight (Single Version)
11. Love Will Come Again (Long Version) feat. Chaka Khan
12. Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You
13. Being With You
14. Moody’s Mood feat. Patti Austin
15. God Bless The Child ft. Al Jarreau & Jill Scott
16. I Only Have Eyes For You
17. Beyond The Sea (La Mer)
18. When I Fall In Love ft. Idina Menzel
19. When Love Comes Calling

10 time Grammy award winner George Benson releases, ‘The Ultimate Collection’ featuring his most successful hits from his nearly 50 years in the music business. This new best of, his first for 10 years, also features a bonus disc of rare material as a separate deluxe edition. George is widely acknowledged to be one of the foremost soul, R&B and jazz musicians today. His career and talents excels any convenient pigeon hole or tag however as his list of credits and successes over the years covers a wide variety of different musical genres. Originally from Pittsburgh, Benson was a child prodigy and was soon playing a soulful mix of jazz with Atlantic recordings artist Jack McDuff in 1964.  By the time the 1960’s had finished Benson had an impressive CV. He had released his own albums, ‘New Boss Guitar’, and ‘It’s Uptown With The George Benson Quartet’ and had recorded with Miles Davis on his ‘Miles In The Sky’ LP. A series of innovative albums were released on the CTi label. His version of Jefferson Airplane’s ‘White Rabbit’ from this period is included in this collection. Eventually he was signed to Warner Brothers Records and his first huge selling album was called ‘Breezin’. ‘Breezin’ introduced Benson to a whole new audience and he bagged a Grammy award for Record Of The Year for the single, ‘This Masquerade’. ‘Breezin’ went on to sell over a million copies- the first jazz album to do so. A further Grammy was awarded to Benson for ‘On Broadway’ from the double live album, ‘A Weekend in LA’ (1978).

It was this album that neatly bookended this part of Benson’s career as his next album, ‘Give Me The Night’ (1980) saw massive mainstream success with Quincy Jones as producer. The pop charts loved the title tune as it charted high into the top 10. Further hits gave Benson the success in both R&B and pop charts proving that his talents weren’t just as a ‘jazz guitarist’. The single, ‘Love Ballad’ (included in this collection) showed off a unique range of styles as the track encompassed soul, R&B, jazz and scat singing...! ‘Turn Your Love Around’ was another top 10 hit in 1982 and won George another Grammy.  In 1983 the legendary producer Arif Mardin produced George’s next album , ‘In Your Eyes’. The single, ‘Shiver’ spent 9 weeks in the UK singles chart in 1986 and in 1988 George recorded a version of Curtis Mayfield’s ‘Let’s Do It Again’ originally recorded by the Staple Singers.

The 1990’s were a rewarding time as a series of collaborations and duets with artists such as Roberta Flack and Aretha Franklin (‘Love All the Hurt Away’) were released. Prestigious live appearances at various live concert events cemented George’s prominence as one the world’s most recognised and successful musicians.

In 2009 George was recognised by The National Endowment Of The Arts as a Jazz Master. In 2014 George wrote his autobiography, ‘Benson: The Autobiography’.

This album contains all the massive hits including The Greatest Love Of All, 20/20, Love X Love, Lady Love me (One More Time) and the previously mentioned Give Me The Night and Never Give Up On A Good Thing. The 2 disc deluxe version of the album also contains various in demand duets including Love Will Come Again FEATURING CHAKA KHAN, When I Fall In Love FEATURING IDINA MENZEL and Moody’s Mood FEATURING PATTI AUSTIN.