Oscar Benton (born Ferdinand van Eis; 3 February 1949 – 8 November 2020) was a
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
vocalist
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
. He was also the founder of the ''Oscar Benton Blues Band'' in 1967. The band rose to fame in 1968 by being a runner up in the
Jazz Festival
This is a list of notable jazz festivals around the world.
Historic jazz festivals
Jazz festivals by country
The following is an incomplete list of notable jazz festivals, including both current and defunct festivals of note.
Africa
Angol ...
,
Loosdrecht
Loosdrecht () is a town in the municipality of Wijdemeren, North Holland, the Netherlands, with a population of about 8,600 inhabitants.
Loosdrecht consists of two small villages: Nieuw-Loosdrecht and Oud-Loosdrecht. Nieuw Loosdrecht covers a ...
, the
Netherlands
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, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
.
Personal life
Benton was born on 3 February 1949 in
Haarlem
Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...
.
He studied
mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
and
the violin at the conservatory.
On 8 November 2020, Benton died in
IJmuiden
IJ_(digraph).html" ;"title="n IJ (digraph)">n IJ (digraph) and that should remain the only places where they are used. >
IJmuiden () is a port city in the Netherlands, Dutch province of North Holland. It is the main town in the municipality ...
at the age of 71.
Career
Oscar Benton Blues Band
In 1968, the ''Oscar Benton Blues Band'' released its first album, ''Feel so good''. In 1969, they released the album ''The Blues Is Gonna Wreck My Life''. In 1971, they released ''Benton ‘71''.
Monica and Oscar Benton
He recorded two hit singles with the Dutch singer Monica Verschoor as "Monica and Oscar Benton" in the 1970s.
Blue Eyed Baby Band
In 1974, the band changed members and also the name by becoming ''Blue Eyed Baby''. Oscar himself changed his stage name to Billy Boy Bishop.
The "Blue Eyed Baby" released the LP Blue Eyed Baby.
Solo
Oscar released his 1981
homonym
In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones (equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition, ...
ous album the
Bensonhurst Blues "Bensonhurst Blues" is a song written by Artie Kaplan and Artie Kornfeld. It was originally released in 1971 on Kaplan's album ''Confessions Of A Male Chauvinist Pig''.
Oscar Benton went on to record the song in 1973 for his '' Bensonhurst Blues' ...
, written by
Artie Kaplan
Artie Kaplan is an American recording artist, songwriter and a session musician. He has also been a music contractor where he was hired to musicians for sessions. In the 1960s, he was casting musicians for sessions for Aldon Music. When musicia ...
and
Artie Kornfeld
Arthur Lawrence Kornfeld (born 1942) is an American musician, record producer, and music executive. He is best known as the music promoter for the Woodstock Festival held in 1969. Kornfeld is also known for his collaborations with Artie Kaplan. ...
, and produced by the
EMI Records
EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succ ...
. The Bensonhurst Blues, which is considered to be Oscar’s best hit, was part of the soundtrack of the 1999 movie
La Bûche
''Season's Beatings'' (french: La Bûche) is a French comedy-drama film directed by Danièle Thompson, released in 1999.
Plot
Following the recent death of her second husband, for Christmas, Yvette tries to meet the three daughters from her firs ...
.
Earlier it was on the soundtrack of the film
Pour la peau d'un flic
''Pour la peau d'un flic'' (English: ''For a Cop's Hide'') is a 1981 French crime-thriller film starring and directed by Alain Delon. It was Delon's directorial debut.
It had admissions of 2,377,084 in France.Alain Delon
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon (; born 8 November 1935) is a French actor and filmmaker. He was one of Europe's most prominent actors and screen sex symbols in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, he won the César Award for Best Actor for h ...
. The earliest version of that song is that of Artie Kaplan in his 1973 album ''Confessions Of A Male Chauvinist Pig'' produced by the Hopi Records.
The Italian singer
Adriano Celentano
Adriano Celentano (; born 6 January 1938) is an Italian musician, singer, composer, actor, and filmmaker. He is dubbed "''il Molleggiato''" (the springy one) because of his dancing.
Celentano's many albums frequently enjoyed both commercial and ...
, in his 2004 album ''C’é Sempre un Motivo'', included an
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
version, named ''Vengo del Jazz''. The single became a number one hit in France in December 1981, and the album was certified gold.
A famous Romanian singer,
Margareta Pâslaru
Margareta Pâslaru or Pîslaru (; born July 9, 1943, in Bucharest) is a Romanian-American singer, actress, composer, lyricist, TV producer, and artistic director. Debuting in 1958, Pâslaru celebrated the 50th anniversary of her career at The Roma ...
, sings it in
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
under the title ''Spuneam că nu-mi pasă (Bui bui bui)''. Another Romanian singer
Aurelian Andreescu
Aurelian Andreescu (; 12 May 1942 in Bucharest – 22 July 1986 in Constanța) was a Romanian singer. He is considered by some the greatest voice in Romanian history.
He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture. Initially, he worked in a design ...
also recorded a Romanian language version of this song titled ''Îndrăgostitul''. The song became the musical theme of the TV show Crazy Horse in the early 2000s.
In 2011, he released his CD album, "''Oscar Benton is Still Alive''".
Starting in 2016, guitarist
Johnny Laporte
Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly, females.
Varian ...
and Oscar Benton recorded a new album titled "''I Am Back''". It was released on CD, Vinyl and as a digital album in 2018.
Discography
Albums
Singles & EPs
References
External links
Oscar Bentonof
Last.fm
Last.fm is a music website founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. Using a music recommender system called "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of the tracks the user listens to, e ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benton, Oscar
1949 births
2020 deaths
Blues singers
Dutch male singers
People from Haarlem