I agree about Atlantic-era Brook Benton. Mercury-era is a bit sappy for my tastes, but I am going to 
give those albums a new listen and re-evaluate. At Mercury, Brook Benton mostly worked with Clyde 
Otis, so that meant strings and more strings. Many of those Clyde Otis sessions were done at Fine 
Recording because of the ability to fit a full band, strings and a singer together in the Ballroom 
studio. But, that said, Benton had hits at Mercury and more hits at Atlantic and hits before 
Mercury. He was a guy who was willing to be flexible about his material and his delivery, and worked 
successfully in several different eras of soul music. I keep hoping Universal and Warner Music 
(Hip-O and Rhino) will make a deal and do a 2-3 CD Brook Benton career-spanning box set.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "MATSUBAYASHI 'Shaolin' Kohji" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 10:37 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Possibly the greatest video on YouTube


> Thanks Tom-san for sharing this
> - just so glad to see the recording session of Brook Benton (one of my
> favorites) !
>
> Kohji
>
> On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 5:56 AM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?**v=amo2PQKHmq4&feature=player_**embedded<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amo2PQKHmq4&feature=player_embedded>
>>
>> Muscle Shoals -- that's Brook Benton recording for Atlantic, produced by
>> Arif Marden
>>
>> Stax -- not sure of the tune for which Isaac Hayes and the Mar-Keys are
>> working out horn arrangements in the conference room; Booker T and the MG's
>> appear to be recording one of their all-time great songs, "Time Is Tight,"
>> in the main studio.
>>
>> My profound thanks to the Ampex List member who posted this link today. In
>> years of surfing YouTube for music-recording videos, I never found this
>> one. What a great time and place, RIP all those in this video who have
>> passed on.
>>
>> -- Tom Fine
>