''Give Me the Night'' is a 1980 album by American jazz guitarist and singer

George Benson George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, pla ...

. Producer

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

released the album on his start-up label

Qwest Records Qwest Records is the American record label started by Quincy Jones in 1980 as a joint venture with Warner Bros. Records, and owned by Warner Music Group, although Jones was still under contract with A&M Records through 1981. George Benson's 198 ...

, in conjunction with

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

Reception

''Give Me the Night'' charted at number one on both the Top Soul Albums and Jazz Albums charts, as well as number three on the ''Billboard'' Pop Albums charts, later certified Platinum by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. The album's success was closely associated with its title track lead single, which rose to the top spot on the Soul Singles chart. The album earned Benson three wins at the 1981 Grammy Awards, including

Best Male R&B Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance was awarded between 1968 and 2011. The award has had several minor name changes: *In 1968 it was awarded as Best R&B Solo Vocal Performance, Male *From 1969 to 1994 it was awarded as Best R&B V ...

, while "Moody's Mood" received Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Male and "Off Broadway" received

Best R&B Instrumental Performance The Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by ma ...

. Quincy Jones and Jerry Hey also won the

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement The Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement (and its subsequent name changes) has been awarded since 1963. The award is presented to the arranger(s) of the music. Only songs or tracks are eligible, no longer works (e.g. albums). The perfor ...

for "Dinorah, Dinorah."

Track listing

Side one # "

Love X Love "Love X Love" is a song written by Heatwave's keyboard player Rod Temperton and recorded by American guitarist and singer George Benson. Featured on Benson's '' Give Me the Night'' album, it was also released as a single. In Britain, it entered ...

" (

Rod Temperton Rodney Lynn Temperton (9 October 1949 – 25 September 2016) was an English songwriter, producer and musician. Temperton was the keyboardist and main songwriter for the 1970s pop music, disco and funk band Heatwave, writing songs including "St ...

) – 4:45 # "Off Broadway" (Temperton) – 5:23 # " Moody's Mood" (

Eddie Jefferson Eddie Jefferson (August 3, 1918 – May 9, 1979) was an American jazz vocalist and lyricist. He is credited as an innovator of vocalese, a musical style in which lyrics are set to an instrumental composition or solo. Jefferson himself claims t ...

, James Moody) – 3:24 (featuring

Patti Austin Patti Austin (born August 10, 1950) is an American R&B, pop, and jazz singer and songwriter. Music career Austin was born in Harlem, New York, to Gordon Austin, a jazz trombonist. She was raised in Bay Shore, New York on Long Island. Quincy ...

) # " Give Me the Night" (Temperton) – 5:01 Side two # "What's on Your Mind" (

Glen Ballard Basil Glen Ballard Jr. (born May 1, 1953) is an American songwriter, lyricist, and record producer. He is best known for co-writing and producing Alanis Morissette's 1995 album '' Jagged Little Pill'', which won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Alb ...

, Kerry Chater) – 4:02 # "Dinorah, Dinorah" (

Ivan Lins Ivan Guimarães Lins (born June 16, 1945) is a Latin Grammy-winning Brazilian musician. He has been an active performer and songwriter of Brazilian popular music (MPB) and jazz for over thirty years. His first hit, "Madalena", was recorded by ...

, Vitor Martins) – 3:39 # "Love Dance" (Ivan Lins, Gilson Peranzzetta, Paul Williams) – 3:18 # "Star of a Story (X)" (Temperton) – 4:42 (*) # "Midnight Love Affair" ( David "Hawk" Wolinski) – 3:31 # "Turn Out the Lamplight" (Temperton) – 4:43 (**) (*) Originally recorded in 1978 as "The Star of a Story" by

Heatwave A heat wave, or heatwave, is a period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity, especially in oceanic climate countries. While definitions vary, a heat wave is usually measured relative to the usual climate in th ...

, of which Temperton was a member. (**) Originally recorded in 1976 by Heatwave, of which Temperton was a member.

Personnel

Musicians *

– lead vocals, backing vocals (1, 3–5, 7–10), guitar (1–5, 8–10), lead guitar (6), scat (6) *

Greg Phillinganes Gregory Arthur Phillinganes (born May 12, 1956) is an American keyboardist, singer-songwriter, and musical director based in Los Angeles, California. A prolific session musician, Phillinganes has contributed the role of keyboards to numerous alb ...

– keyboards (1–3, 10), synthesizers (2, 3),

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

(6) *

Michael Boddicker Michael Lehmann Boddicker (born January 19, 1953) is an American film composer and session musician, specializing in electronic music. He is a three times National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (N.A.R.A.S.) Most Valuable Player "Synthesi ...

– synthesizers (4, 5, 8) *

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...

– electric piano (4), synthesizers (6, 7, 9), synthesizer programming (6, 8, 9), Fender Rhodes (7, 8) *

Richard Tee Richard Edward Tee (born Richard Edward Ten Ryk; November 24, 1943 – July 21, 1993) was an American pianist, studio musician, singer and arranger, who had several hundred studio credits and played on such notable hits as "In Your Eyes", " Sl ...

– synthesizer bass (4), electric piano (5), synthesizers (8–10) *

Clare Fischer Douglas Clare Fischer (October 22, 1928 – January 26, 2012) was an American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. After graduating from Michigan State University (from which, five decades later, he would receive an honorary doctorate ...

– Yamaha CS30 (6), acoustic piano (6), Fender Rhodes (6) *

George Duke George M. Duke (January 12, 1946 – August 5, 2013) was an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as a pr ...

– keyboards (9) *

Lee Ritenour Lee Mack Ritenour ( ; born January 11, 1952) is an American jazz guitarist who has been active since the late 1960s. Biography Ritenour was born on January 11, 1952, in Los Angeles, California, United States. At the age of eight he started play ...

– guitar (2, 4, 5, 8, 9), acoustic guitar (7), electric guitar (10) * Louis Johnson – bass guitar (1, 2, 6, 10) *

Abraham Laboriel Abraham Laboriel López Sr. (born July 17, 1947) is a Mexican-American bassist who has played on over 4,000 recordings and soundtracks. ''Guitar Player'' magazine called him "the most widely used session bassist of our time". Laboriel is the f ...

– bass guitar (1, 3–5, 7, 8) * John Robinson – drums (1–6, 8, 10) *

Carlos Vega Carlos Vega (December 7, 1956 – April 7, 1998) was a Cuban-born Los Angeles-based session drummer best known for his performances with James Taylor. As a part of the L.A. studio scene from the late 1970s through the 1990s, Vega contributed to ...

– drums (7, 9) * Paulinho da Costa – percussion (1, 2, 4, 5–8, 10) * Kim Hutchcroft – saxophones (1, 2, 4–6, 9),

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

(1, 2, 4–6, 9) *

Larry Williams Larry Williams (born Lawrence Eugene Williams, a.k.a. Lawrence Edward Williams; May 10, 1935 – January 7, 1980) was an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer, songwriter, producer, and pianist from New Orleans, Louisiana. Williams ...

– saxophones (1, 2, 4–6, 9), flute (1, 2, 4–6, 9) *

Jerry Hey Jerry Hey (born 1950) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, horn arranger, string arranger, orchestrator and session musician who has played on hundreds of commercial recordings, including Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'', '' Rock with You'' ...

– trumpet (1, 2, 4–6, 9) * Sid Sharp – concertmaster (1–6, 8) *

– backing vocals (1, 4, 6, 8, 10), lead vocals (3) *

Tom Bahler Thomas Lee Bahler (also spelled Bähler; born June 1, 1943) is an American singer, composer, songwriter, arranger, producer, and author. He is the younger brother of singer, arranger, conductor and composer John Bahler. Bahler is most known for ...

– backing vocals (1, 4, 8, 10) * Jocelyn Brown – backing vocals (1, 4, 8) * Jim Gilstrap – backing vocals (1, 4, 8) *

Diva Gray Diva Gray is an American singer. She is best known as a background vocalist behind the band Chic, as well as in disco groups, including Change, and Lemon with Lani Groves, Gordon Grody, Luther Vandross, David Lasley David Eldon Lasley (August ...

– backing vocals (1, 4, 8) Technical *

– producer, liner notes, rhythm arrangements (2–10), vocal arrangements (5, 8, 9), synthesizer arrangements (8) * Lee Ritenour – rhythm arrangements (7) *

– horn arrangements (1, 2, 4–6, 9), string arrangements (1, 2, 4–6) *

David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian musician, composer, arranger, record producer and music executive who chaired Verve Records from 2012 to 2016. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His music career spans mor ...

– string arrangements (1, 9) *

– rhythm arrangements (2, 4), vocal arrangements (4) *

Marty Paich Martin Louis Paich (January 23, 1925 – August 12, 1995) was an American pianist, composer, arranger, record producer, music director, and conductor. As a musician and arranger he worked with jazz musicians Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Kento ...

– string arrangements, conductor (3, 8) * Tom Bahler – background vocal arrangements (10) *

Bruce Swedien Bruce Swedien (; April 19, 1934 – November 16, 2020) was an American recording engineer, mixing engineer and record producer. He was widely known for his work with Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney and Barbra Streisand. Swedien fi ...

– engineer, mixing * Sheridan Eldridge – assistant engineer * Ralph Osbourne – assistant engineer * Mark Sackett – assistant engineer * Jim Sintetos – mastering * Kent Duncan – mastering * Richard Seireeni – art direction * Paul Jasmin – illustration *

Norman Seeff Norman Seeff (born March 5, 1939, in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a photographer and filmmaker. Since moving to the United States in 1969, his work has been focused on the exploration of human creativity and the inner dynamics of the creative ...

– cover photography * Peter Brill – sleeve photography * Anderson Typographics – typography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

External links

George Benson-Give Me The Night at Discogs

References

{{Authority control 1980 albums George Benson albums Warner Records albums Albums arranged by Quincy Jones Albums produced by Quincy Jones