Editing George Benson (section)

=== 1970s and 1980s ===
[[File:George Benson, New York 1977 - 30.jpg|thumb|George Benson, New York 1977]]
In 1970, Benson released ''[[The Other Side of Abbey Road]]'', featuring renditions of songs from [[the Beatles]]' 1969 album ''[[Abbey Road]]''.
Benson then signed with [[Creed Taylor]]'s jazz label [[CTI Records]], where he recorded several albums, with jazz heavyweights guesting, to some success, mainly in the jazz field. In addition to his own albums and performances, during this time Benson was a core member of the [[CTI All-Stars]] collective both touring and recording.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Story of the CTI All-Stars Live |url=https://www.ctproduced.com/the-story-of-the-cti-all-stars-live/ |access-date=2024-06-17 |website=Ctproduced.com|date=April 3, 2021 }}</ref> As well as the collective's live albums, he also played and recorded on a number of the collective's members' individual albums, including [[Freddie Hubbard]] and [[Stanley Turrentine]], notably on the latter's acclaimed album ''[[Sugar (Stanley Turrentine album)|Sugar]]'' (1970).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stanley Turrentine Catalog |url=https://www.jazzdisco.org/stanley-turrentine/catalog/#cti-cti-6005 |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=Jazzdisco.org}}</ref> Benson played on Hubbard's 1971 album ''[[First Light (Freddie Hubbard album)|First Light]]'', which won a [[Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance by a Group]] at the [[15th Annual Grammy Awards]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Freddie Hubbard Grammy Award and Nominations |url=https://www.grammy.com/artists/freddie-hubbard/9099 |access-date=2024-06-17 |website=Grammy.com}}</ref> as well as five other Hubbard studio albums.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Freed Hubbard Discography Featuring George Benson as a sideman |url=https://www.discogs.com/artist/55745-Freddie-Hubbard?searchParam=George+Benson |access-date=2024-06-17 |website=Discogs.com}}</ref>

Benson released a version of "[[White Rabbit (song)|White Rabbit]]" on the [[White Rabbit (George Benson album)|album of the same name]] in 1972, originally written and recorded by San Francisco rock group [[The Great Society (band)|Great Society]], and made famous by [[Jefferson Airplane]].<ref name="ALLMUSIC" /> His 1974 release, ''[[Bad Benson]]'', climbed to the top spot in the ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' jazz chart, while the 1976 follow-ups, ''[[Good King Bad]]'' (No. 51 Pop album) and ''[[Benson & Farrell]]'' (with Joe Farrell), both reached the jazz top-three sellers.

{{Listen
|filename=George Benson - Breezin.ogg
|title=George Benson "Breezin'" (1976)
|description=Title track sample from George Benson's ''Breezin′'' album
|format=[[Ogg]]}}

By the mid-to-late 1970s, as he recorded for [[Warner Bros. Records]], a whole new audience began to discover Benson. On 1976's ''[[Breezin']]'', Benson sang a lead vocal on the track "[[This Masquerade]]", a song written by [[Leon Russell]]. Benson's version (notable also for the lush, romantic piano intro and solo by [[Jorge Dalto]]), became a huge pop hit and won a [[Grammy Award for Record of the Year]].<ref name="LarkinSM">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Who's Who of Soul Music]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1993|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-733-9|pages=19/20}}</ref> (He had sung vocals infrequently on albums earlier in his career, notably his rendition of "[[Here Comes the Sun]]" on ''[[The Other Side of Abbey Road]]''.<ref name="LarkinSM" />) The rest of the album is instrumental, including his rendition of the 1975 [[José Feliciano]] composition "[[Affirmation (George Benson song)|Affirmation]]".

In 1976, Benson embarked on a tour called George & Minnie Live! with soul singer [[Minnie Riperton]]; she had recently been diagnosed with terminal breast cancer and would die in 1979. In addition, Benson appeared as a guitarist and backup vocalist on [[Stevie Wonder]]'s song "[[Another Star]]" from Wonder's album ''[[Songs in the Key of Life]]'' (1976).

He also recorded the original version of "[[The Greatest Love of All]]" for the 1977 [[Muhammad Ali]] biopic, ''[[The Greatest (1977 film)|The Greatest]]'',<ref name="LarkinSM" /> which was later covered by [[Whitney Houston]] as "Greatest Love of All."<ref name="VH1 – Artists bio" /> During this time Benson recorded with the German conductor [[Claus Ogerman]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bjbear71.com/Ogerman/Claus.html |title=The Work of Claus Ogerman |website=Bjbear71.com |access-date=May 2, 2017 |archive-date=January 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200130203827/http://www.bjbear71.com/Ogerman/Claus.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> The live take of "[[On Broadway (song)|On Broadway]]," recorded a few months later from the 1978 release ''[[Weekend in L.A.]]'', also won a Grammy.<ref name="LarkinSM" />

[[File:George benson 1986 montreux 16 3.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Benson in Montreux 1986]]
The Qwest record label (a subsidiary of Warner Bros., run by [[Quincy Jones]]) released Benson's breakthrough pop album ''[[Give Me the Night (album)|Give Me the Night]]'', produced by Jones.<ref name="LarkinSM" /> Benson made it into the pop and R&B top ten with the song "[[Give Me the Night (George Benson song)|Give Me the Night]]" (written by former [[Heatwave (band)|Heatwave]] keyboardist [[Rod Temperton]]). He had many hit singles such as "Love All the Hurt Away", "[[Turn Your Love Around]]", "Inside Love", "[[Lady Love Me (One More Time)|Lady Love Me]]", "20/20", "[[Shiver (George Benson song)|Shiver]]", and "Kisses in the Moonlight".  More importantly, Jones encouraged Benson to search his roots for further vocal inspiration, and he rediscovered his love for [[Nat King Cole]], [[Ray Charles]] and [[Donny Hathaway]] in the process, influencing a string of further vocal albums into the 1990s. Despite returning to his jazz and guitar playing most recently, this theme was reflected again much later in Benson's 2000 release ''[[Absolute Benson]]'', featuring a cover of one of Hathaway's most notable songs, "[[The Ghetto (Donny Hathaway song)|The Ghetto]]". Benson accumulated three other platinum LPs and two gold albums.<ref name="VH1 – Artists bio">{{cite web |url=http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/benson_george_1/bio.jhtml |title=Digital Videos &#124; Episodes (TV Series) |publisher=VH1 |date=March 14, 2017 |access-date=May 2, 2017 |archive-date=January 28, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070128234335/http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/benson_george_1/bio.jhtml |url-status=dead }}</ref>