I've Gotta Be Me

Bennett, whose sales had nosedived in recent years, was coming under pressure from his record label to take a more contemporary approach. This album demonstrated that be was willing to bend, but not break. The title song, a hit earlier in the year for Sammy Davis, Jr., "What The World Needs Now Is Love" (in a ludicrous swing arrangement), and "Alfie" were current pop material, which Bennett covered gamely, but it was songs like the Gershwins' "They All Laughed" that he obviously felt more comfortable with. Bennett's real failure to deal with contemporary pop was most apparent on his version of Andre and Dory Previn's "Theme From Valley of the Dolls," on which he just sang his way through the hesitant, fragmented, uncertain lyric as though it was a dramatic ballad on the scale of "Who Can I Turn To." ~ William Ruhlmann