ABBA

Multi-reed musician whose earliest recording credit seems to be as a flautist on Tony Bennett’s 1957 release, The Beat of My Heart. In 1960, he appeared on Tito Puente’s Revolving Bandstand album, this time multi-tasking on flute and saxophone. He re-united with Tony Bennett in 1968 on Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album. Other Tony Bennett albums on which he made the cut are 40 Years: The Artistry of Tony Bennett and 16 Most Requested Songs.

He opened up the 1970s with another one of Tony Bennett’s collaborators, Bill Evans, on From Left to Right. The two of them hooked up again in 1974 for the Bill Evans/Claus Ogerman album, Symbiosis. He appeared on the following Van McCoy albums: Disco Baby, The Disco Kid, and Rhythms of the World.

The bicentennial year was a busy one for William: He appeared on Randy Crawford’s Everything Must Change, Deodato’s Very Together, and Bette Midler’s Songs for the New Depression. In 1978, he was one of the multitude of musicians on the soundtrack of The Wiz. He entered the new decade on Broadway in the pit orchestra for The First and with Aretha Franklin on Love All the Hurt Away. Frank Sinatra conducted him on the 1982 album, Syms by Sinatra.

The CD era is rife with Slapin recordings: Tony Bennett’s Jazz, Deodato’s Do It Again, Fennell Conducts Porter & Gershwin, and Neil Sedaka’s Oh Carol: The Capitol Recordings 1956-1966.

Van McCoy recordings

The Shuffle (Van McCoy)

That’s the Joint (Richard Harris/Van McCoy)

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