I found out late last night that Tony Bennet past away on Friday. At the age of 96 he was one of the longest recorded singer. I always enjoyed hearing his singing and will continue to listen to his records. Please post your favorite song he preformed.
I saw him in concert at Radio City just a few weeks after 9/11/01. Only time for me. K.D. Lang performed with him. Always loved when he did "Fly Me to the Moon" without a mic. I never would have guessed that 20 years later he would perform his last concert. He was great at the concert I saw though. I have a large collection of his albums. Music by Freedie Green; called "Cornet Pocket". Lyrics added later by Donald E. Wolf. One of my favorites also by the Count Basie Orchestra. Am I breaking the rules to post another?
If you haven't already, give a listen to his 1999 album he did for the Duke Ellington Centennial: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennett_Sings_Ellington:_Hot_&_Cool When that one came out, he appeared at J&R Music Hall in the Wall Street area to promote it and sign autographs. I was on my lunch hour and saw him get out of the car to go in. I didn't have time to wait on line to meet him. I remember he gave a big wave to everyone on the street. BTW, his comeback was just as big and as impressive as Sinatra's. Sinatra hit the dumps in the early 50s, Bennett in the mid 70s, though some say earliler. (I go by his album releases, which were stagnant from around 1977 until 1986.) Tony's took more time, though. Both arguably were more popular after their comebacks. According to Jonathan Schwartz, in liner notes to the CLOUD 7 album CD, Tony's favorite of his own albums was THE MOVIE SONG ALBUM. Schwartz's favorite was CLOUD 7. I always thought Sony was remiss in not re-releasing many of his albums on CD until the big box set that included all of his Columbias. When CLOUD 7 was issued on CD about 20 years ago, it was a big deal for me since Schwartz on his radio show always talked about how great it was, and then mentioned the planned CD release, which took longer than expected. Starting in the LP era, so many of Bennett's albums were just random compilations of previously released songs -- not just singles, but songs released on bonafide concept albums. I read somewhere, I think in Will Friedwald's JAZZ SINGING book, that even Bennett had problems keeping track of which songs wound up on which albums. I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO is one such album that is actually a compilation of previously released material and a few unreleased songs from earlier sessions. The title track had debuted, and charted, as a single before the album was put together. I also have a soft spot for his Bossa Nova songs, mostly written by Antonio Carlos Jobim. He never dedicated a whole album to them, but there are a few on IF I RULED THE WORLD: SONGS FOR THE JET SET, and one on SOMETHING.
"I'm sure you recognize this lovely melody as "Stranger in Paradise," but did you know that the original theme is from the Polovetsian Dance No. 2 by Borodin?"
I did not know the name, but knew it originated from another musician. Amazing how often music is borrowed.
I was quoting from this. I wanted to see if anyone remembered it. People of a certain age will be familiar with it. I actually picked up all 4 records at Goodwill a few years ago. They didn't have the piano record, though. The commercial was false advertising. Each track on the record has just a portion of 3 different music pieces. And I'm not sure what "Vista Marketing" was. All the records say "Columbia House" on them. Sorry for the thread-crap.
I told Alexa to play Tony Bennett a few days ago. I'm enamored again! Such a great voice and such wonderful music. He (and others of that genre) ought to be required listening for everyone! RIP to such a great talent!
More recommendations: His albums with Basie -- one on Columbia, the other on Roulette. The latter was originally called STIKE UP THE BAND aka BASIE SWINGS/BENNETT SINGS. The Columbia one is called IN PERSON, and is one of those fake "live" albums that was actually recorded in a studio, with an "applause track" added. The Roulette one apparently fell into the public domin awhile ago, so there are many different re-issues of it on CD under various names, but the official release was on a Capitol CD. Another must listen is THE BEAT OF MY HEART, with many guest drummers appearing, including the great Art Blakey!
