George Benson - Give Me The Night

George Benson came from a jazz background and honed his craft from the 60's on until he broke big with his 1976 LP "Breezin'" that went triple platinum that same year. His fusion of jazz with a variety of genres like R&B, Soul and pop became his signature style, recording instrumentals until he sang "This Masquerade". He was then asked to sing "The Greatest Love Of All" for the Muhammed Ali bio-pic "The Greatest", which became a huge hit for Whitney Houston in the 80's. He began working with Quincy Jones who again tapped Rod Temperton,("Rock With You" for Michael Jackson and "Do You Love What You Feel" for Rufus) who gave him "Give Me The Night". Benson was not comfortable with his singing on his recordings, so Jones spoke to him about finding his roots and Benson replied that he was inspired by Nat King Cole, Ray Charles and Donny Hathaway. Those vocal stylists gave Benson the confidence he needed and "Give Me The Night" became an across the board smash, #4 Pop, #1 R&B (for three weeks), #2 Disco/Dance and the LP was #1 Soul and Jazz, #3 Pop.