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George Benson

George Benson (b. March 22 1943, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American musician, whose recording career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist. He is however, better known to the public at large as a Pop and R&B singer, famous for such hits as "Give Me the Night", "Lady Love Me (One More Time)", "Turn Your Love Around","Inside Love(So Personal)", "In Your Eyes", and "This Masquerade", among others.

Biography

Early career

Benson was born and raised in the Hill District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and attended the defunct Connelly High School and dropped out. He now lives in Englewood, New Jersey's Bergen County. Benson started out playing straight-ahead instrumental jazz with organist Jack McDuff. Benson got his first experience playing with his several-year stint with McDuff's group. At the age of 21, Benson recorded his first album as leader, The New Boss Guitar, with Brother Jack McDuff on organ.

Benson's next recording was It's Uptown with the George Benson Quartet with Lonnie Smith on organ and Ronnie Cuber on baritone sax. This album showcases Benson's talent in constructing swinging bebop lines at blistering tempos. Benson followed it up with The George Benson Cookbook, also with Lonnie Smith and Ronnie Cuber.

Miles Davis employed Benson's talents in the mid 1960s; Benson played guitar on "Paraphernalia," which appeared on the trumpeter's 1967 Columbia release, Miles in the Sky. He went to Verve Records for a spell afterwards. Then, Creed Taylor signed him up for his CTI label, where he recorded numerous albums with jazz heavyweights guesting to limited financial success. Benson also did his versions of The Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road which he entitled, The Other Side of Abbey Road (also released in 1969) and "White Rabbit" (originally written and recorded by San Francisco rockgroup Jefferson Airplane) around this time.

1970s and 1980s

By the mid to late 1970s, as he recorded for Warner Bros. Records (he had recently signed with them), a whole new audience began to discover Benson for the first time. With the 1976 release Breezin' (also the name of a memorable instrumental on the album which became an AM Radio staple), Benson began to put his vocal on some tracks, such as "This Masquerade," which was the first song to make #1 on the Billboard pop, jazz and R&B charts (Benson had used his vocals on some songs earlier in his career, notably his rendition of "Here Comes the Sun" on the Other Side of Abbey Road record). He was part of psychedelic soul group Harlem Underground Band during the 1970s, whose much sampled song "Smokin' Cheeba Cheeba" was featured in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

On the strength of "This Masquerade" (it won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year) and the electrifying live take of the classic "On Broadway" recorded two years later (from the 1978 release Weekend in L.A., which also won a Grammy), he was able to crack through via the Pop and R&B Top Ten and as the 1970s wound down, songs such as the aforementioned "Give Me the Night" (which was produced by Quincy Jones), which was his biggest U.S. pop hit, peaking at #4 in 1980, "Turn Your Love Around" and others became big hits for Benson as well. On Warner Bros., Benson accumulated three other platinum LPs and two gold albums.

He also recorded the original version of "Greatest Love of All" for the 1977 Muhammad Ali bio-pic, The Greatest; the song was later recorded successfully as a cover by Whitney Houston.

During this time Benson recorded extensively with Claus Ogerman, a German conductor.

Later and current career

By the mid 1980s, Benson cooled down a bit on the charts and spent the rest of the decade and the 1990s and up till today, continuing to tour and record music.

In 1985 Benson and guitarist Chet Atkins succeeded on the smooth jazz charts with their collaboration "Sunrise," one of two songs from the duo released on Atkins' disc Stay Tuned. Producer Mike Poston states Benson and Atkins recorded an entire album's worth of music, but due to disagreements between lawyers for their record companies, the rest of the material has never been released.

In 1992, Benson appeared on Jack McDuff's Colour Me Blue album.

George Benson toured with Al Jarreau in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand to promote their 2006 album Givin' It Up.

He played during the 2nd Monsoon Cup in Terengganu in 2006 and also Malaysia's 50th Merdeka celebration alongside Al Jarreau in 2007. One of his guitars was sold at a charity auction at the 3rd Monsoon Cup Charity dinner at RM150,000 to an anonymous bidder.

One of his songs, "Affirmation," was used in the anime television series, Samurai Champloo, during the episode, "Gamblers and Gallantry." The track plays as one of the protagonists, named Jin, helps a woman escape from an Edo era Japanese brothel.

In May 2008, and for the first time, Benson took part in Mawazine Festival in Morocco alongside other stars including singer Whitney Houston.

Apart from a few low-profile performances, Benson lives a private life in Southern Florida, where he is an active member as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.