The Best covers the years 1969-1970, the years A&M was affiliated with
Creed Taylor's CTI. Often with
Taylor productions, an individual player's style was muted due to the overpowering and often overly orchestrated productions. To make matters even more curious, young
Benson stepped into the production scheme and style that typified
Wes Montgomery's last three recordings. If anything, the differences between
Benson and
Montgomery were clear.
Montgomery was more vivid and swung harder, and the lows were more extreme.
The Best shows that
Benson, in contrast, was all but a blank canvas, with his style evolving on some of these very tracks. That being said, this is hit-or-miss stuff. On "Shapes of Things to Come,"
Benson's quick playing works great in contrast to the song's spacy and oh so "groovy" production. As for mind-blowing concepts,
The Best takes the finest songs from
Benson's surreal but fun 1969 album,
The Other Side of Abbey Road ("You Never Give Me Your Money" fares the best). Other tracks like "My Cherie Amour" and "Footin' It" benefit from stronger production that enlivens his playing. The album's last track, a cover of
Aretha Franklin's "Don't Let Me Lose This Dream," has
Benson making a great impression, despite the ridiculous horn charts. No doubt this 1981 release was designed to piggyback on
Benson's sales and success at Warner Bros. From the perspective of obtaining relatively early work from one of the finest guitar players,
The Best isn't half bad. ~ Jason Elias