| Strike Up the Band | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Tony Bennett and the Count Basie Orchestra |
| Cover: | Basie_Swings_Bennett_Sings2.jpg |
| Released: | May 1959[1] |
| Recorded: | January 3 & 5, 1959 |
| Studio: | Capitol (New York) |
| Genre: | Vocal jazz |
| Length: | 27:01 |
| Label: | Roulette SR-25072 SR-25231 |
| Producer: | Teddy Reig |
| Chronology: | Tony Bennett |
| Prev Title: | In Person! |
| Prev Year: | 1959 |
| Next Title: | Hometown, My Town |
| Next Year: | 1959 |
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.
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.[2]
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.""
The 1990 compact disc reissue included the ballad "After Supper"