GEORGE BENSON
SMOOTH OPERATOR
EVER SINCE SOUL AND DISCO CLASSICS LIKE NEVER GIVE UP ON A GOOD THING AND GIVE ME THE NIGHT, GEORGE BENSON HAS EPITOMISED LATE-NIGHT SOPHISTICATED LISTENING. OVER AN INCREDIBLE CAREER SPANNING ALMOST 70 YEARS, HE’S BEEN A MASTER CRAFTSMAN IN EVERY GENRE, PLAYING WITH MILES DAVIS, MINNIE RIPERTON AND STEVIE WONDER. NO WONDER CLASSIC POP FOUND IT HARD TO KEEP UP WITH A MASTER WHO HAS NO INTENTION OF SLOWING DOWN…
JOHN EARLS
At 77, George Benson is still a man in a hurry. When Classic Pop phones him at his home in Arizona, he makes it clear we’d better get down to business. “Go ahead, but keep it short, my friend,” he instructs, his voice far deeper and more rumbling than you’d expect from the smooth radio staple who crooned Lady Love Me (One More Time) and Never Give Up On A Good Thing.
Benson has made 45 albums since 1964’s The New Boss Guitar Of George Benson. Naturally, the week of our interview, he’d just finished mixing the 46th – a live album recorded at legendary London jazz club Ronnie Scott’s – and was heading off to the studio to plan No.47.
“I’m running in and out of the studio to hang with my boys,” he explains. “The Ronnie Scott’s record is finally done and it’s sounding good, with a nice club atmosphere.”
We’d been scheduled to talk for 40 minutes, but our interviews end up taking place over two 10-minute calls a week apart – even George’s manager can’t track him down in between. If Benson is busy working, he’s not to be interrupted. George is funny and friendly, but interviews aren’t real work. As he states at the start of the first call: “People are calling me every moment, so what you got to ask me, brother?”
Well, where to start? He began busking with a ukulele outside his local chemist in Pittsburgh aged seven and performed in clubs at eight before cutting his first single She Makes Me Mad in 1953 as 10-year-old “Little“ George. He’d begun falling into a bad crowd, so his mother Emma temporarily put a stop to his music career. “My mother did right – she taught me how to be a better human being,” reflects George. “Both my records back then sold terribly, so I had no comeback anyway!”