{"id":827289,"date":"2026-03-15T11:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T11:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/827289\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T11:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T11:23:14","slug":"the-jefferson-airplane-song-written-just-to-meet-tony-bennett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/827289\/","title":{"rendered":"The Jefferson Airplane song written just to meet Tony Bennett"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jefferson<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ RCA Records \/ Herb Greene \/ Anefo \/ Nationaal Archief)<\/p>\n

Sun 15 March 2026 3:00, UK <\/p>\n

\u201cTo be living for you is all I want to do,\u201d the Jefferson Airplane<\/a> proclaims on their song \u2018Today\u2019, a folk-rooted love ballad from their era-defining album, 1967\u2019s Surrealistic Pillow. \u201cTo be loving you, it\u2019ll all be there when my dreams come true\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

While not achieving quite the same prominence on the charts as their two best-known top ten singles from the album, their chilling retelling of Alice\u2019s Adventures In Wonderland on \u2018White Rabbit\u2019 and their antithesis to the \u201cfree love\u201d movement on \u2018Somebody to Love\u2019, \u2018Today\u2019 hears a gentler rendition of their folk-psychedelia that came to surmise their generation\u2019s music, told through a story of complete devotion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Surrealistic Pillow<\/a> released to the world just before the Summer of Love, the Jefferson Airplane was soon synonymous with their countercultural enclave in San Francisco, and \u2018Today\u2019 can very well be considered their most beautiful offering.<\/p>\n

Two weeks after frontwoman Grace Slick<\/a> joined the band in 1966, the Jefferson Airplane ventured to Hollywood\u2019s RCA Victor studios on Halloween to begin recording what would become Surrealistic Pillow. On November 2nd, they would record \u2018Today\u2019, alongside their credited \u201cSpiritual Advisor\u201d on the record, the Grateful Dead\u2019s Jerry Garcia, who they brought along with them to Los Angeles. <\/p>\n

Whether or not Garcia contributed<\/a>\u00a0any guitars to\u00a0Surrealistic Pillow\u00a0is contested: he is listed in RCA\u2019s paperwork for the album as a player, and the band have claimed that he did contribute, as did their road manager, Bill Thompson, in the album\u2019s liner notes in 2003. But, RCA\u2019s Rick Jarrard and Pat \u2018Maurice\u2019 Ieraci both asserted that they never saw Garcia during production. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf Jerry Garcia was there, he was certainly in his spirit form,\u201d Jarrad claimed, quoted in the liner notes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One undisputed contribution from Garcia, however, is his naming of the album itself. A comment to Balin of the music being \u201cas surrealistic as a pillow\u201d was adopted by the band and transformed into the album\u2019s moniker. <\/p>\n

Garcia is believed to have lent his guitar to \u2018Today\u2019, the unforgettable opening riff. The song was co-written by guitarist\/vocalist Marty Balin and lead guitarist Paul Kantner, and Balin found an unlikely muse in none other than the legendary singer, Tony Bennett<\/a>. \u201cI wrote it to try to meet Tony Bennett,\u201d Balin revealed in the album\u2019s liner notes. \u201cHe was recording in the next studio. I admired him, so I thought I\u2019d write him a song. I never got to meet him, but the Airplane ended up doing it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Deciding to sing his ode for Tony Bennett himself, Balin crafted one of his most gorgeous accomplishments. \u2018Today\u2019 is an unabashed love song, with declarations of, \u201cI\u2019m so full of love, I could burst apart and start to cry,\u201d sung by Balin \u2013 with backing harmonies from Slick and Kantner \u2013 with a charming waver in his voice. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith you standing here, I could tell the world what it means to love,\u201d he sings, consumed in a rose-coloured daze, before pleading with his lover for their attention, culminating in the final echo of, \u201cAnd it\u2019s all for you, all for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

While indebted to Tony Bennett, \u2018Today\u2019 found perfection staying in the hands of the Jefferson Airplane, who are perhaps the only musicians who can fully secure the song\u2019s emotion.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ RCA Records \/ Herb Greene \/ Anefo \/ Nationaal Archief) Sun 15 March 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,80485,269,192242,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-827289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-jefferson-airplane","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-tony-bennett","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116232939481046077","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}