George Benson Information

The Electric Guitar: Inventing an American Icon, shares the untold story of the invention of the electric guitar, an instrument that revolutionized music and popular culture forever. The Electric Guitar: Inventing an American Icon, featuring original video of George Benson, will be open until September 15, 2019 at MIM in Phoenix, Arizona. Benson was born and raised in the Hill District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the age of seven, he first played the ukulele in a corner drug store, for which he was paid a few dollars. At the age of eight, he played guitar in an unlicensed nightclub on Friday and Saturday nights, but the police soon closed the club down. At the age of 10, he recorded his first single record, She Makes Me Mad, with RCA-Victor in New York, under the name Little Georgie. At the age of 21, he recorded his first album as leader, The New Boss Guitar, featuring McDuff. Bensons next recording was Its Uptown with the George Benson Quartet, including Lonnie Smith on organ and Ronnie Cuber on baritone saxophone. Benson followed it up with The George Benson Cookbook, also with Lonnie Smith and Ronnie Cuber on baritone and drummer Marion Booker. Miles Davis employed Benson in the mid-1960s, featuring his guitar on Paraphernalia on his 1968 Columbia release, Miles in the Sky before going to Verve Records. Benson then signed with Creed Taylors jazz label CTI Records, where he recorded several albums, with jazz heavyweights guesting, to some success, mainly in the jazz field. His 1974 release, Bad Benson, climbed to the top spot in the Billboard jazz chart. By the mid- to late-1970s, as he recorded for Warner Bros. Records, a whole new audience began to discover Benson. With the 1976 release Breezin, Benson sang a lead vocal on the track This Masquerade, which became a huge pop hit and won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. In 1976, George Benson appeared as a guitarist and backup vocalist on Stevie Wonders song Another Star from Wonders album Songs in the Key of Life. He also recorded the original ...