Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

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GMTN

Hit!
15
48%
good
3
10%
ok
4
13%
meh
5
16%
Shit!
4
13%
 
Total votes: 31

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fange
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Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby fange » 11 Feb 2018, 02:06



"Give Me the Night" is a song recorded by American jazz musician George Benson, which he released from his 1980 studio album of the same title. It was written and composed by Heatwave's keyboard player Rod Temperton and produced by Quincy Jones. Patti Austin provides the backing and scat vocals that are heard throughout,[1] and one of Benson's fellow jazz guitarists, Lee Ritenour, also performs on the selection.

The song was a commercial success, and was Benson's first single to hit number one on the US Billboard Soul Singles chart. It also peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it his most successful pop entry.[2] It also peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot Disco Singles chart[3] and at number seven in the UK Singles Chart.[4] "Give Me the Night" was one of the last disco singles to become a major success, with the steady decline of the genre in the early 1980s.


Record buyers at the time loved it - but what do YOU think now? Hit or Shit?
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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby Loki » 11 Feb 2018, 02:39

fange wrote:Record buyers at the time loved it

It wasn't my thing when it first came out, but I came to like it later. Now, I find the arrangement dated and not in such a good way.

Not a bad song, tho.
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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby Charlie O. » 11 Feb 2018, 04:17

This record buyer did not love it at the time, or like it at all - and I had liked some of his earlier hits. Listening to it now, I don't mind it so much, except that I find his lead vocal (as opposed to his scat vocal) really unappealing - it sounds like he's imitating someone else rather than being himself, although maybe that approach is just built into the song. There are some neat little touches in the arrangement, the chorus is catchy, and I don't care if I never hear it again but on the other hand I don't care if I do.
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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby Matt Wilson » 11 Feb 2018, 06:06

It's fucking great.

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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby Jimbo » 11 Feb 2018, 07:08

Donald Fagan should be singing.
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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby jimboo » 11 Feb 2018, 11:40

Jimbo wrote:Donald Fagan should be singing.


Isn't it shit enough already?
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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby clive gash » 11 Feb 2018, 12:03

:lol:
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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby Rayge » 11 Feb 2018, 12:41

Music for footballers. Utterly devoid of worth. A stinking ton of shit just landed in my my living room. Where's Bazalgette when you need him?
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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby The Modernist » 11 Feb 2018, 12:55

I've always like it.

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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby fange » 11 Feb 2018, 13:15

Rayge wrote:Music for footballers.


:lol:

Explain youself, Ray. What does "music for footballers" mean and how does it relate to a disco-pop song by a jazz/R&B guitarist?
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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby Rayge » 11 Feb 2018, 13:27

fange wrote:
Rayge wrote:Music for footballers.


:lol:

Explain yourself, Ray. What does "music for footballers" mean and how does it relate to a disco-pop song by a jazz/R&B guitarist?


Sorry fange, it's quite prosaic really. In the 1980s, football mags and indeed programmes for matches often included bland lifestyle interviews with players as filler. One of the questions they always asked was, 'What music do you like' and GB's name was ubiquitous. He became, for me, the poster boy for those who aspired to sophistication but hadn't got a fucking clue, although I never gave him anything other than the most perfunctory of involuntary hearings.
That horror in the Covers Cup was perhaps the first thing of his I ever actually listened to. It was certainly the last.

Edit: K is right about Luther Vandross, but I remember Benson (and indeed Barry White) as being up there with the mentions.
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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby The Modernist » 11 Feb 2018, 13:31

fange wrote:
Rayge wrote:Music for footballers.


:lol:

Explain youself, Ray. What does "music for footballers" mean and how does it relate to a disco-pop song by a jazz/R&B guitarist?


It's just music snobbery Ange, like when Magilla spoke about 'music for hairdressers'.

Mind you I suppose we all have those prejudices; I've never met anyone who works with computers who had decent music taste.

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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby Rayge » 11 Feb 2018, 13:41

The Modernist wrote:
fange wrote:
Rayge wrote:Music for footballers.


:lol:

Explain youself, Ray. What does "music for footballers" mean and how does it relate to a disco-pop song by a jazz/R&B guitarist?


It's just music snobbery Ange, like when Magilla spoke about 'music for hairdressers'.


Not really snobbery, G. at least, not snobbery over footballers. Or hairdressers.
It just struck me that, in the 1980s, everyone assumed young people had to be into some kind of music, and that was used to a degree to define them. People who weren't really interested, who experienced music, if at all mainly as background or mood, or in clubs not particularly designed for dancing, tended to name, when pressed, these mainstream/cross-over black American artists as a way of claiming sophistication of taste, when to me they were (mostly) bland and tasteless versions of much better things that I had genuinely loved when I was the footballers' age. I suppose that is snobbery of a kind, but none of us would be here if we weren't judgmental and opinionated about music.
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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby clive gash » 11 Feb 2018, 13:45

The Modernist wrote:I've never met anyone who works with computers who had decent music taste.


Maths and Sciences too.
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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby BARON CORNY DOG » 11 Feb 2018, 13:46

I like the backing track a lot but the tune doesn’t have much going for it.

Two points of order:
1. Michael McDonald should be singing.
2. Surely it’s music for roller skaters?
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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby fange » 11 Feb 2018, 13:47

Very Stable Baron wrote:2. Surely it’s music for roller skaters?


:D Hell yes!
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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby Ranking Ted » 11 Feb 2018, 13:57

Redolent of Top Of The Pops 1980 - not a prime last days of disco hit such as Yarborough & Peoples, Stacy Lattisaw or Crown Heights Affair, but perfectly serviceable pop to be listened alongside Echo Beach, Games Without Frontiers and I Got You.

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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby fange » 11 Feb 2018, 13:58

Rayge wrote:That horror in the Covers Cup was perhaps the first thing of his I ever actually listened to. It was certainly the last.

Don't let his late 70s-early 80s crossover stuff put you off investigating his earlier stuff though, Ray. Benson made and was part of some very nice records in more straight ahead jazz styles in the '60s.





He even had a "child prodigy" period in the '50s when he cut sides from sizable labels like Groove Records, where he did a fun adolescent take on Ray Charles' 'It Should Have Been Me'...





The man had a hell of a career.
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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby Goat Boy » 11 Feb 2018, 18:13

The Modernist wrote:
fange wrote:
Rayge wrote:Music for footballers.


:lol:

Explain youself, Ray. What does "music for footballers" mean and how does it relate to a disco-pop song by a jazz/R&B guitarist?


It's just music snobbery Ange, like when Magilla spoke about 'music for hairdressers'.

Mind you I suppose we all have those prejudices; I've never met anyone who works with computers who had decent music taste.


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Re: Hit or Shit: George Benson - Give Me The Night

Postby toomanyhatz » 11 Feb 2018, 19:27

It is the very definition of 'OK.'

Sort of puts the lie to Quincy's claims of superiority for his crew. It's very competently played, but not terribly exciting. Needs a lesser player with some feel.
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