Strike Up the Band (Tony Bennett and Count Basie album)

Strike Up the Band is a 1959 studio album by Tony Bennett with the Count Basie Orchestra. The album was released at first with the title Basie Swings, Bennett Sings as SR-25072, featuring a different cover and track order.

Strike Up the Band
Studio album by Tony Bennett and the Count Basie Orchestra
Released	May 1959
Recorded	January 3 & 5, 1959
Studio	Capitol (New York)
Genre	Vocal jazz
Length	27:01
Label	Roulette SR-25072 SR-25231
Producer	Teddy Reig
Tony Bennett chronology
In Person! (1959) Strike Up the Band (1959) Hometown, My Town (1959)
Count Basie Orchestra chronology
In Person! (1959) Strike Up the Band (1959) Breakfast Dance and Barbecue (1959)
Alternative cover
Basie Swings, Bennett Sings (SR-25072)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music

Bennett and Basie recorded two albums together in 1959. The other one, In Person!, was released by Bennett's record label, Columbia, while this album was released by Roulette, Basie's label.

Sony Music Distribution included this CD in a box set entitled The Complete Collection, which contains fifty-eight of his studio albums, 4 compilation, three DVDs, six volumes of Bennett’s non-album singles, a previously unreleased CD of his Las Vegas debut from 1964, and two discs of rarities, including Bennett’s first recording, an Army V-Disc of “St. James Infirmary Blues, and was released on November 8, 2011.

Reception

William Ruhlmann of Allmusic wrote "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.""

Track listing

Side one

1. "Strike Up the Band" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) – 1:33
2. "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan" (Howard Dietz, Arthur Schwartz) – 1:44
3. "Chicago" (Fred Fisher) – 2:07
4. "With Plenty of Money and You" (Al Dubin, Harry Warren) – 1:33
5. "Anything Goes" (Cole Porter) – 2:20
6. "Life Is a Song" (Fred E. Ahlert, Joe Young) – 2:49

Side two

1. "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe) – 3:02
2. "Jeepers Creepers" (Johnny Mercer, Warren) – 2:08
3. "Growing Pains" (Dorothy Fields, Schwartz) – 3:33
4. "Poor Little Rich Girl" (Noël Coward) – 3:30
5. "Are You Havin' Any Fun?" (Sammy Fain, Jack Yellen) – 2:42

The 1990 compact disc reissue included the ballad "After Supper"

Personnel

• Tony Bennett – vocals
• Ralph Sharon – piano and arranger

The Count Basie Orchestra:

• Count Basie – piano
• Thad Jones, Snooky Young, Wendell Culley & Joe Newman – trumpet
• Benny Powell, Henry Coker & Al Grey – trombone
• Marshal Royal & Frank Wess – alto saxophone
• Frank Foster & Billy Mitchell – tenor saxophone
• Charlie Fowlkes – baritone saxophone
• Freddie Green – guitar
• Eddie Jones – bass
• Sonny Payne – drums