Episode 57: Guitarist George Benson on what makes Beatles’ songs so special: “They had great stories”

Everything Fab Four

On today’s episode, American jazz fusion guitarist and singer-songwriter George Benson drops by to discuss what gave the Beatles “prestige” and how the band helped Black musicians succeed.

Benson recorded his first album The New Boss Guitar, at 21, and followed it up with It’s Uptown with the George Benson Quartet. In 1969, he recorded his homage to the Beatles’ album Abbey Road, entitled The Other Side of Abbey Road.

Things really took off for Benson in the mid-1970s, beginning with the LP Bad Benson, which topped the Billboard jazz charts in 1974. Benson scored a triple-platinum hit with his 1976 album Breezin’, and in 1978, he earned a Grammy award for his live rendition of “On Broadway.”

In 1980, Benson took the pop charts by storm with his studio album Give Me the Night. Produced by Quincy Jones, the LP yielded several hit singles including the upbeat, jazz-infused title track.

Benson’s latest LP Dreams Do Come True features orchestrations that had been lost for 35 years, and were recently unearthed from his archive. The collection includes Benson’s takes on such standards as “Autumn Leaves,” “At Last,” “My Romance,” “A Song for You,” and the Beatles’ “Yesterday.”

Over the years, Benson has earned 10 Grammy Awards, while seeing his career memorialized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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