I've Gotta Be Me (Tony Bennett album) explained

I've Gotta Be Me is an album by American singer Tony Bennett,^[2] originally released in 1969 on Columbia as CS 9882.

The album debuted on the Billboard Top LPs chart in the issue dated September 6, 1969, and remained on the album chart for 5 weeks, peaking at No. 137^[3]

The album was released on compact disc for the first time by Beat Goes On on June 30, 2009 as tracks 11 through 13 on a pairing of two albums on one CD with tracks 1 through 10 consisting of Bennett's studio album from December 1967, For Once in My Life.^[4]

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.^[5]

Reception

In A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, Will Friedwald described the album as "Terrific Album."^[6]

Track listing

1. "I've Gotta Be Me" (Walter Marks) – 2:54
2. "Over the Sun" (Jamie Moran Aguirre, Arturo Castro) – 2:50
3. "Play It Again, Sam" (Hal Hackady, Larry Grossman) – 3:43
4. "Alfie" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) – 3:21
5. "What the World Needs Now Is Love" (Bacharach, David) – 2:44
6. "Baby Don't You Quit Now" (Johnny Mercer, Jimmy Rowles) – 2:50
7. "That Night" (Norman Gimbel, Lalo Schifrin) – 3:17
8. "They All Laughed" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) – 2:44
9. "A Lonely Place" (Johnny Mandel, Paul Francis Webster) – 3:50
10. "Whoever You Are, I Love You" (Bacharach, David) – 4:20
11. "(Theme from) Valley of the Dolls" (André Previn, Dory Previn) – 3:37

Personnel

• Tony Bennett – vocals
• Peter Matz, Torrie Zito – conductor, arranger
• Don Ashworth, Phil Bodner, Wally Kane, Romeo Penque, Pete Fanelli, Sol Schlinger, Joe Soldo, Bobby Tricarico – reeds
• Marky Markowitz, John Bello, Al De Risi, Joe Ferrante, Joe Wilder, Ernie Royal, Marvin Stamm, Snooky Young – trumpet
• Wayne Andre, John Messner, Tony Studd, Chauncey Welsch, Paul Faulise, J. J. Johnson, Fred Zito – trombone
• Joseph De Angelis, Paul Ingraham, Joseph Singer, Jim Buffington, Ray Alonge – French horn
• John Bunch – piano
• Gene Bertocini, Jim Mitchell, Bucky Pizzarelli – guitar
• Margaret Ross – harp
• Richard Davis, Milt Hinton, Homer Mensch, George Duvivier, Jack Lesberg – bass
• Mel Lewis, Sol Gubin, Louis Bellson – drums
• Jack Jennings, Dave Carey, Phil Kraus – percussion

Strings

• Charles McCraken, George Ricci, Alan Shulman, Harvey Shapiro, Tony Sophos – violoncello
• Lamar Alsop, Max Cahn, Paul Gershman, Emanuel Green, Joe Malin, Marvin Morgenstern, George Ockner, Gene Orloff, John Pintavalle, Matthew Raimondi, Julius Schachter, Gerald Tarack, Raoul Polikian, Max Polikoff, Fred Buldrini, Sylvan Shulman – violin
• Julien Barber, Al Brown, Theodore Israel, Richard Dickler, Harold Furmansky, Harry Zaratzian, Harold Colletta, Harold Furmansky, David Schwartz, Emanuel Vardi – viola

Notes and References

1. https://books.google.com/books?id=rykEAAAAMBAJ&dq=bennett+Gotta+Be+Me+9882&pg=RA1-PA66 Billboard Aug 23, 1969
2. http://www.discogs.com/Tony-Bennett-Ive-Gotta-Be-Me/release/1638772 At Discogs
3. Book: Whitburn, Joel . Joel Whitburn's top pop albums : 1955-1996 : compiled from Billboard magazine's pop album charts, 1955-1996 . 1996 . Record Research . 978-0-8982-0117-8 . Menomonee Falls, Wis. . 74.
4. Web site: For Once in My Life/I've Gotta Be Me . 8 October 2024 . AllMusic.
5. Web site: The Complete Collection - Tony Bennett . 8 October 2024 . allmusic.com .
6. Book: Friedwald, Will . A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers . 2010 . Pantheon Books . 9780375421495 . 45 . en.