Whatever Happened To Benny Santini? (song)

Whatever Happened To Benny Santini? is a satirical song penned by Chris in 1978, and is the title track of his first album.

Production details

 * Recorded 1977 (Discarded), 1978
 * Producer Gus Dudgeon
 * Engineer Stuart Epps
 * Label Magnet
 * Released April 1978

Personnel

 * Chris Rea Slide Guitar, Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Synthesiser, Writer
 * Dave Mattacks Drums
 * Gus Dudgeon Tambourine
 * Pat Donaldson Bass
 * Paul Keogh Guitar
 * Rod Argent Electric Piano
 * Steve Gregory Saxophone
 * Stuart Epps Backing Vocals

Available on

 * Whatever Happened To Benny Santini? (album)
 * Era 1 1978-1984

Song synopsis
Benjamin “Benny” Santini is an up-and-coming pop star with his whole life ahead of him; he’s rich, talented, famous, and is rising the ranks of public opinion. Only a teenager, he’s already hitting all the right requirements to be a famous personality. So what happened? Where is he, and why didn’t he get the lifetime of a star? Nobody knows.

Background
Chris’ music career had a rocky start. Chris was signed to Magnet in 1974 whilst still in a band called "The Beautiful Losers", releasing a solo single, So Much Love. It barely made an impact on the charts and vanished before anybody could give it much attention. Magnet’s way of dealing with this was to rebrand Rea and suggested advertising him towards easy-listening audiences and told him to adopt a “croony” stage name. Rea, very much against this idea, sarcastically suggested the name ‘Benjamin Santini’, claiming it would appeal to Italian/Jewish listeners, a big chunk of American listeners. Despite this being a joke, at least one of the executives took this seriously and suggested he go ahead with the idea. Rea obviously rejected the name, poking fun at it by writing a song about Benny Santini and his mysterious disappearance. Some of the lyrics can be construed as Rea making jabs at the executives’ remarks, though this is purely speculation and unconfirmed.

1977
It has been noted that Chris recorded an album’s worth of material in 1977, after the disbanding of The Beautiful Losers. The tapes were burnt as the management felt that it “did not capture his whole talent”, and Chris was ordered to start over. There is a strong likelihood that Santini was a part of the recorded material.

1978
The song was recorded in the 1977/78 Santini Sessions. It is a well-known fact that Rea was unhappy with the recording and production that stemmed from these sessions and that he did not have a good working relationship with producer Gus Dudgeon, but to what extent executive meddling affected this song is unknown. The large ensemble of musicians who perform on this track was not uncommon in solo albums at this time, see examples such as George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, though the inclusion of Stuart Epps, the studio engineer, as a backing vocalist was a brave move.

Single release
Unlike Fool (If You Think It’s Over), Santini was released in full when released as a single. It was backed with Midnight Love and released in early 1978.