Barbi Benton

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Barbi Benton (* 28. January 1950 as Barbara Lynn Klein in New York City ) is an American former model . She was also as a country - singer and actress active. She became known through recordings for Playboy magazine , her relationship with its boss Hugh Hefner and the original version of the song Ain't That Just the Way (That Love Goes Down) .

Career

The beginnings and Hugh Hefner

Barbara Klein grew up in Sacramento, California. She later studied at the University of California at Los Angeles and appeared in commercials. In August 1968, the 18-year-old first met the then 42-year-old Playboy boss Hugh Hefner. Speaking of the first meeting following the television show Playboy After Dark , Benton said, “He wanted to meet me. I said I would never date anyone over 24. 'Neither do I,' he replied. We hit it off right away - for eight years! ”On Hefner's advice, Benton also adopted her stage name. In July 1969, Benton was first seen on the cover of Playboy magazine. Another cover followed in March 1970 and a nine-page photo series inside the magazine. Several other recordings followed by the mid-1970s, but Benton was never “Playmate of the Month”. In 1985 it celebrated under the heading Barbi Benton Is Back! a comeback in the magazine.

The relationship with Hefner, who in the meantime also had relationships with other women, broke up in 1976. "Hef just couldn't keep his fly closed," Benton said of the time. “But if I hadn't had a career, there wouldn't have been so many other women. I was on tour all the time ... He was lonely. ”Benton and Hefner remained friends. In 1992 she was a guest at his wedding to model Kimberley Conrad and said in an interview with People magazine : "I've found a man who is better for me, but I will always love Hef."

music

In 1974 she received the offer for the Playboy record label to record her first LP. Benton chose country music and released her debut Barbi Doll that same year. She also appeared regularly as a guest star on the TV music show Hee Haw . In 1975 she was able to celebrate her greatest success with Brass Buckles , a top 5 hit in the American country charts. This recording comes from her second album Barbi Benton . Other smaller hits from this were Movie Magazine, Stars in Her Eyes and The Reverend Bob . She also celebrated another Top 40 hit in the country charts with her country colleague Mickey Gilley : Roll You Like a Wheel . The following LP Something New (1976) was significantly more poppy, but contained no hit.

In 1976 Benton recorded the song Ain't That Just The Way (That Love Goes Down) , which met with little interest in the USA. In contrast, the single was a huge success in Scandinavia: In Norway, Benton was number 2 in the charts for six weeks, only ABBA's Dancing Queen prevented the top position. It was even more successful in Sweden, where it was number 1 for a full five weeks. The two LPs Barbi Doll and Something New also made their way into the charts here. In 1977 the compilation Playboy Record Artists , with Benton on the cover, made it to first place in the charts. In addition to Mickey Gilley and other Playboy interpreters, the singer was represented with four songs.

In 1977 the LP Barbi Benton also made it into the Swedish hit lists, followed in 1978 by the album Ain't That Just The Way , which was only released in Scandinavia - two years after the single of the same name hit the charts. Benton could no longer build on these successes. It wasn't until 1988 that she recorded a new album with Kinetic Voyage - the new age work was unsuccessful and contained only a few vocal recordings by Benton. In 1997 Lutricia McNeal covered the song Ain't That Just The Way (That Love Goes Down) and landed a big hit across Europe.

Movie and TV

In parallel to her erotic recordings in Playboy , Benton also tried her hand as an actress. In her first film How did such a lovely girl get into this trade? (1969/70), a German production with Klaus Kinski , she also performed as Barbara Benton. In the years that followed, she mainly worked for television. In the two globally successful series Love Boat and Fantasy Island , she was seen in different roles in a total of six and eight episodes between 1978 and 1982. Her cinema career, on the other hand, got off the ground due to insignificant B-movies like X-Ray - The First Murder Happened on Valentine's Day (1982, Hospital Massacre ). "The interspersed sex scenes are on the verge of soft porn," was the verdict of the film-dienst magazine, for example, about The Death Hunter (1983, Deathstalker ). Until the end of the 1980s she continued to appear mainly in smaller television roles.

Private

After her relationship with Hugh Hefner, Barbi Benton married entrepreneur George Gradow in 1979. She has two children with him: Alexander (* 1986) and Ariana (* 1988). They are both practicing Jews.

Discography

Albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
Country Country
1975 Barbi Doll Country17 (23 weeks)
Country
Barbi Benton Country18 (13 weeks)
Country
1976 Something New Country39 (5 weeks)
Country

More albums

  • 1978: Ain't That Just the Way
  • 1988: Kinetic Voyage

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
Country Country
1975 Brass buckles
Barbi Benton 		Country5 (14 weeks)
Country
Movie Magazine, Stars in Her Eyes
Barbi Benton 		Country61 (8 weeks)
Country
Roll You Like a Wheel
 Country32 (9 weeks)
Country
The Reverend Bob
Barbi Benton 		Country74 (5 weeks)
Country

Filmography

  • 1970: How did such a lovely girl get into this trade?
  • 1972: Hee Haw (TV series, episode)
  • 1972: Dr. med. Marcus Welby ( Marcus Welby, MD , TV series, an episode)
  • 1973: The Great American Beauty Contest (TV movie)
  • 1973: We'll Marry Tomorrow ( The Third Girl from the Left , Movie made for TV)
  • 1975: A Sheriff in New York ( McCloud , TV series, an episode)
  • 1977–1978: Sugar Time! (TV series, 13 episodes)
  • 1978–1981: The Love Boat (TV series, five episodes)
  • 1978–1982: Fantasy Island (TV series, eight episodes)
  • 1979: The Dearest Stewardesses ( Flying High , TV series, an episode)
  • 1979: Vegas ( Vega $ , TV series, an episode)
  • 1980: When the Whistle Blows (TV series, episode)
  • 1980: Secret Code Chaos ( For the Love of It , TV movie)
  • 1980: Charlie's Angels ( Charlie's Angels , television series, one episode)
  • 1981: CHiPs (TV series, two episodes)
  • 1981: Sheriff Lobo ( The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo , TV series, an episode)
  • 1981: X-Ray - The first murder happened on Valentine's Day (Hospital Massacre)
  • 1983: Matt Houston (TV series, an episode)
  • 1983: The Deathstalker
  • 1984: Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (TV series, episode)
  • 1984: Mike Hammer (TV series, an episode)
  • 1986: Murder is Her Hobby ( Murder, She Wrote , TV series, an episode)
  • 1986: Trio with Four Fists ( Riptide , TV series, an episode)

Web links

Commons : Barbi Benton  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barbi Benton - Hef's Special Ladies ( Memento from June 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b c Playboy Privat , Evergreen, USA 1998, page 94, ISBN 978-3-82286580-4
  3. ↑ Overview of Barbi Benton's Playboy recordings . imdb.com. Retrieved June 11, 2011.
  4. ↑ Barbie Benton December 12th, 1985, Playboy Magazine . amazon.com. Retrieved June 11, 2011.
  5. ↑ a b Orange Coast Magazine, June 1980, p. 14
  6. ↑ For the two hits in the C&W area, see Whitburn, Joel: The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Hits . 7th revised and expanded edition, New York City, New York: Billboard Books, 2005, p. 44
  7. ↑ film service database on Kabeleins.de
  8. ↑ Entry at filmreference.com
  9. ↑ a b Chart sources: US
personal data
SURNAME Benton, Barbi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Klein, Barbara Lynn (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American model
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York , United States