''Chester & Lester'' is a collaborative album by guitarists

Chet Atkins Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), also known as "Mister Guitar" and "the Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson (musician), Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nash ...

and

Les Paul Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz guitarist, jazz, country guitarist, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid body ...

released by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

in 1976. The album was recorded in the mid-1970s when Atkins was in his fifties and Paul in his sixties. Atkins coaxed Paul out of his decade-long retirement for this recording. The liner notes state there is little

overdubbing Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio Music track, tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto o ...

and the majority of the album was live in the studio. ''Chester & Lester'' peaked at No. 11 on Billboard's Country album chart and No. 172 on the Pop album chart. It peaked at No. 27 on the Country chart again in 1978. At the Grammy Awards of 1976, ''Chester & Lester'' won the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance.

Reissues

* Both ''Chester & Lester'' and ''Guitar Monsters'' were released on CD in 1989 by Pair Records as ''Masters of the Guitar: Together'' with some tracks omitted. * In 1998, ''Chester and Lester'' and the duo's follow-up release '' Guitar Monsters'' were reissued intact on one CD on

One Way Records One Way Records was an independent record label based in Albany, New York that specialized in budget reissues of classic rock albums. In the 1990s, it gained business pressing reissues of those records that had "fallen through the cracks" in the ...

. * ''Chester & Lester'' was reissued in 2007 on RCA Nashville/Legacy with four bonus tracks.

Track listing

Side one

# " It's Been a Long Time" (

Sammy Cahn Samuel Cohen (June 18, 1913 – January 15, 1993), known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premie ...

Jule Styne Jule Styne ( ; born Julius Kerwin Stein; December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994) was an English-American songwriter and composer widely known for a series of Broadway theatre, Broadway musical theatre, musicals, including several famous frequ ...

) – 3:33 # " Medley: Moonglow/Picnic (theme from Picnic)" – 4:44 # " Caravan" (

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...

Irving Mills Irving Harold Mills (born Isadore Minsky; January 18, 1894 Odessa, Ukraine – April 21, 1985) was a music publisher, musician, lyricist, and jazz promoter. He often used the pseudonyms Goody Goodwin and Joe Primrose. Personal life Mills ...

, Juan Tizol) – 3:21 # " It Had to Be You" ( Isham Jones, Gus Kahn) – 3:34 # " Out of Nowhere" ( Johnny Green, Edward Heyman) – 3:14

Side two

# " Avalon" (

Buddy DeSylva George Gard "Buddy" DeSylva (January 27, 1895 – July 11, 1950) was an American songwriter, film producer and record executive. He wrote or co-wrote many popular songs, and along with Johnny Mercer and Glenn Wallichs, he co-founded Capitol R ...

Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson, ; May 26, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-born American singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. Self-billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer," Jolson was one of the United States' most famous and ...

, Vincent Rose) – 6:32 # " Birth of the Blues" (

Lew Brown Lew Brown (born Louis Brownstein; December 10, 1893 – February 5, 1958) was a lyricist for popular songs in the United States. During World War I and the Roaring Twenties, he wrote lyrics for several of the top Tin Pan Alley composers, espec ...

, Buddy G. DeSylva,

Ray Henderson Ray Henderson (born Raymond Brost; December 1, 1896 – December 31, 1970) was an American songwriter. Early life Born in Buffalo, New York, Henderson moved to New York City and became a popular composer in Tin Pan Alley. He was one-third of ...

) – 3:07 # " Someday Sweetheart" ( Spikes, Spikes) – 3:21 # " 'Deed I Do" (Walter Hirsch, Fred Rose) – 2:31 # " Lover Come Back to Me" ( Oscar Hammerstein,

Sigmund Romberg Sigmund Romberg (July 29, 1887 – November 9, 1951) was a Hungarian-born American composer. He is best known for his Musical theatre, musicals and operettas, particularly ''The Student Prince'' (1924), ''The Desert Song'' (1926) and ''The New Moo ...

) – 2:44 Bonus tracks on Columbia Nashville CD re-release: # " The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" (previously unreleased) # " You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" (previously unreleased) # "Caravan" (previously unreleased alternate take) # "Moonglow / Picnic (Theme From 'Picnic')" (previously unreleased rehearsal take)

Personnel

*Chet Atkins –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

*Les Paul – guitar * Ray Edenton – guitar * Randy Goodrum –

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

* Larrie Londin –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Henry Strzelecki –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

* Bob Moore – bass *Kenneth Aronson – album cover design *Kenneth Aronson, Chip DeVilbiss –

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

References

{{Authority control Chet Atkins albums Albums produced by Chet Atkins RCA Records albums Les Paul albums 1976 collaborative albums