Road Song

Road Song
Studio album by Wes Montgomery
Released	October 1968 [1]
Recorded	May 7 – 9, 1968
Studio	Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Genre	Jazz
Length	29:44
Label	A&M
Producer	Creed Taylor
Wes Montgomery chronology
Down Here on the Ground (1968) Road Song (1968) Willow Weep for Me (1969)

Road Song is an album by the jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, released in 1968. It reached number one on the Billboard Jazz album chart and number 39 on the R&B album chart. It also reached number 94 on the Billboard Top LP's chart. ^[2] It was his final recording before his death of a heart attack on June 15, 1968.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	[4]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[5]

In his AllMusic review, Scott Yanow wrote: "The great guitarist sticks to simple melody statements (with a lot of octaves thrown in) while backed by Don Sebesky's unimaginative arrangements for an orchestra; commercially the combination was a big success… this strictly for-the-money effort can be safely passed by." ^[3]

Track listing

1. "Road Song" (Wes Montgomery) – 3:53
2. "Greensleeves" (Public Domain, Traditional) – 2:04
3. "Fly Me to the Moon" (Bart Howard) – 2:53
4. "Yesterday" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 3:26
5. "I'll Be Back" (Lennon, McCartney) – 2:33
6. "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" (Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Traditional) – 4:55
7. "Green Leaves of Summer" (Dimitri Tiomkin, Paul Francis Webster, Montgomery) – 3:58
8. "Serene" (Montgomery) – 3:10
9. "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" (Pete Seeger) – 3:06

Personnel

Musicians

• Wes Montgomery – guitar
• Herbie Hancock – piano
• Richard Davis – bass
• Grady Tate – drums
• Ed Shaughnessy – drums
• Ray Barretto – percussion
• Jack Jennings – percussion
• Bernie Glow – trumpet
• Marvin Stamm – trumpet
• Wayne Andre – trombone
• Paul Faulise – trombone
• Donald Ashworth – flute, clarinet, oboe, recorder, English horn
• James Buffington – French horn
• Harvey Estrin – flute, recorder
• Stan Webb – flute, clarinet, oboe, recorder
• George Marge – flute, clarinet, oboe
• Don Hammond – flute, recorder
• Hank Jones – harpsichord, piano
• Walter Kane – bassoon
• Bernard Krainis – recorder
• Eric Leber – harpsichord, recorder
• Bernard Eichen – violin
• Charles Libove – violin
• Tosha Samaroff – violin
• Charles McCracken – cello
• George Ricci – cello
• Alan Shulman – cello
• Emanuel Vardi – viola

Production

• Creed Taylor – producer
• Don Sebesky – arranger, conductor
• Rudy Van Gelder – engineer
• Pete Turner – cover photo, photography
• Sam Antupit – design

Charts

Chart (1968)	Peak position
US Billboard Top LP's [2]	94
US Billboard Best-Selling Jazz LP's	1
US Billboard Hot R&B LP's	39
US Cashbox Top 100 Albums [6]	42

References

1. "Billboard". November 9, 1968.
2. Whitburn, Joel (1973). Top LPs, 1955–1972. Record Research. p. 104. Retrieved October 26, 2025.
3. Yanow, Scott. "Road Song > Review". AllMusic . Retrieved December 18, 2010.
4. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 1028. ISBN   978-0-141-03401-0.
5. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 147. ISBN   0-394-72643-X.
6. Hoffmann, Frank W (1988). The Cash box album charts, 1955-1974. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press. p. 259. ISBN   0-8108-2005-6.