Welcome to this renewed site that I made in honor to this great singer BROOK BENTON. Today on January 22, 2008, just we entered a new year. 2008 will be and is already a very special year.

On January 8 Clyde Otis died. Brook Benton and Clyde Otis had formed a life-time team and made together a lot of hits. Twenty years ago Brook passed away (April 9, 1988), but we are still enjoying his music.

Since I made this webpage in 2000 I’ve had thousands of visitors. With two of them, Hans Maitner and Dr. Herwig Gradischnig from Austria, I became good friends. They both worked on a book, a biography and discography


BROOK BENTON

THERE GOES THAT SONG AGAIN

ATTEMPT AT A PORTRAIT





The biography was written by Herwig Gradischnig, who visited Brook’s family in New York

that authorized the portrait. The big scientific discography is the work of Hans Maitner. They both discovered a lot of unknown material. The disco contains more than 600 recordings. Thus, it by far exceeds the current discographies which usually amount roughly 250 recordings. The book should be very attractive for serious fans of Brook Benton, it should be published in 2008, this special year.

As soon I know more, we will publish it on this site

enjoy, and now follows my text I published in 2000 on this site.

Welcome to this site that I made as a tribute to my favorite singer, BROOK BENTON. However, first a very short introduction of myself. I was born in Amsterdam 54 years ago, and the last 21 years we are living near Alicante in Spain. It was in 1965 that I met a girlfriend, "she was only sixteen". And indeed I fell in love but we were too young. (Do you remember this Sam Cooke song?)
It was she, who brought me to the 'Soul Music World' and beside Brook Benton there were a lot of others on the scene. In the Amsterdam Concert Building, the most beautiful place to see a Soul show, just for an audience of a maximum of 2000 persons, we saw (separated) artists like, Joe Tex, Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Ike and Tina Turner, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Lee Dorsey, among others.
In that time also I liked very much the music of Otis Redding, but also he did left to early.
After a couple of years, I looked again for my first girlfriend, phoned her, and brought some pictures from the concerts we saw (separated) in the last years. This time we were not too young to fall in love, it was just a matter of time, and 1971 we married, and still we are, almost for 30 years!
Always we enjoyed the music of Brook, He's very special. If you can't say it, he will sing it for you! That's the reason I think, that we both liked it so much, and still do. I collected al his records, and still I have them but of course with a lot of scratches. But the time went over to the CD-era, and this invention brought all Brook's music for a second time in my house. Also on CD they edited songs from Brook we never heard before, but still we missed a lot of all he produced.
35 Years ago, I heard Brook for the first time. We never saw him in concert, however he went a lot of times to the U.S. Forces based in W. Germany. (In 1988 after his death, the Super Channel brought a TV show of a concert Brook did in Sheffield, U.K. dated 1984.)
'Endlessly' I made this site for Brook Benton, so that his music continues. Always there will be an audience for Brook; cause 'Love' is a never-ending story. Brook without Clyde Otis, I can't imagine it. Clyde Otis is a very special co-writer and more, as producer. If you listen to the early songs from Aretha Franklin, the almost crying Timi Yuro, the Dinah Washington with 'What a difference a day makes' you know why.
Brook made a lot of songs very special with a little smile between the letter....He was more acting than singing in 'The Boll Weevil Song' and the story of 'Frankie and Johnny' Do you feel the sadness when he sings 'The Child of the Engineer' and what about the humor in 'Hit Record'. His Mercury time was one chain of golden records.
Brook could sing all, on his way, better than else. If you like, love songs, soul, blues, gospel, country, ballads, classics, then listen to the music of Brook Benton, and you will like it forever! It's just a matter of time.
Frans Andree (july 2000)