An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett
The Year of Tony Bennett wishes a very happy 87th birthday to the greatest singer ever: Mr. Tony Bennett.
You have brought joy and love and wonderful music to so many people in your stellar career. You bring great happiness into our lives and I hope that we, your fans, return that favor, at least a little bit.
So happy birthday … and here’s to many more to come! We hope you have a wonderful and joyous day full of love and happiness.
The song of the day for Saturday, August 3, 2013 is “It Amazes Me.”
“It Amazes Me” was written by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh in 1958. While Coleman and Leigh composed the scores for a number of very good Broadway musicals, including Sweet Charity, they also wrote many stand-alone songs, including this one.
Tony Bennett first recorded “It Amazes Me” in 1958 for Long Ago and Far Away. However, today’s version is from his 1962 concert at Carnegie Hall.
While I was driving home from the office this evening, I was listening to the Carnegie Hall concert on the car stereo. At a long stop light, “It Amazes Me” began to play and it was as if I was really hearing it for the first time. This happens to us every so often; a song that we listened to and loved suddenly sounds completely new, as we hear things we never heard before. And what I heard this afternoon was a perfect performance of a very fine song.
More and more I am struck by Bennett’s perfect diction and phrasing and this is so evident in “It Amazes Me.” We hear each word perfectly, but it’s not forced, it grows out of the performance and is so natural. (My true test for any singer is “The Man That Got Away” and ‘tomorrow he may turn up.” For too many singers, it comes out “tomorrow he may turnip.” Bennett passes this test with flying colors, even at the emotional dramatic peak of the song.)
Aided by a subtle and lovely arrangement by Ralph Sharon, I hear the amazement and wonder and awe in this delivery. And it speaks to the great versatility of the performer Tony Bennett. He can deliver big, emotional dramatic songs and I love those. But equally I love this side: the precise, quiet delivery where each note, each syllable, each phrase is perfect … and still with that thing that nobody else I’ve ever heard can do: singing a song so perfectly while it sounds as if it’s being written at that moment. Never rote, with all the joy of discovery of wonder in a song.
All I can say is that this song amazes me. Every time. As if it were the first time.
http://open.spotify.com/track/2WxNwCHOfSARBRGpKhFbgW
“It Amazes Me,” as well as the complete Tony Bennett at Carnegie Hall concert album, is available from iTunes.
August 3 is a very special day for those of us at The Year Of Tony Bennett. Not only is it Tony Bennett’s birthday, but it is also the birthday of George Cory, who with Douglass Cross, wrote the song that Tony Bennett completely and totally owns: “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”
Because it’s Saturday, we hope that you may have a little extra viewing and listening time because I cannot pick my favorite version of this song, so I picked two.
The first is the original version … the single … that was recorded on January 23, 1962. In researching this recording for The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography, I have identified (so far) nearly 60 albums, singles and compilations that this recording appears on.
The second version is also from 1962: August 28, 1962 and released this year on Bennett/Brubeck: The White House Sessions, Live 1962. I really love this live version.
And now a couple of video snippets.
The first is from the Judy Garland television show from July 30, 1963:
And finally, this snippet from the Ed Sullivan Show, filmed in 1964. It’s beyond tragic that only part of the song is included in this video, but that part we do see is so lovely:
The song of the day for Friday, August 3, 2013 is “One For My Baby.”
“One For My Baby” is at the top of any list of favorite Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer songs; it certainly is at the top of mine. It was written for the 1943 film The Sky’s The Limit, starring Fred Astaire who introduced the song.
Harold Arlen called this song one of his “tapeworms” as at 48 bars, it was longer than the standard 32- bar popular song. Alec Wilder, in American Popular Song, says:
In One For My Baby, marvelous as is the musical setting, I believe the honor must go to the lyric, I’ve lived this story too many times, in too many towns, with too many long, long roads outside those doors, not to be hooked. Just imagine having the acuity and courage to start a song, as Mercer does, with “It’s a quarter to three”!
As Tony Bennett will be performing live this August evening at the Hollywood Bowl (and may very likely sing this particular song), we chose this version, recorded live on another warm August evening in 1962. Today’s version is from the recently released Bennett/Brubeck: The White House Sessions, Live 1962, with the Ralph Sharon Trio, including Sharon on piano, Hal Gaylord on bass and Billy Exiner on drums.
http://open.spotify.com/track/4OEbmpeKICcKyNapON0vas
“One For My Baby,” as well as the entire Bennett/Brubeck The White House Sessions Live 1962, is available from iTunes.
The song of the day for Thursday, August 1, 2013 is “All My Tomorrows.”
I can’t resist a Jimmy Van Heusen song and so today’s is “All My Tomorrows.” Van Heusen wrote the song with Sammy Cahn for the 1959 Frank Sinatra movie A Hole in the Head, directed by Frank Capra. Van Heusen and Cahn won the Academy Award for Best Song that year, but for another song from the film: “High Hopes.” In any other year, “All My Tomorrows” would certainly have won an award. It’s a singer’s song.
Tony Bennett recorded “All My Tomorrows” in 1965 for If Ruled The World: Songs For The Jet Set. The arrangement is lovely; Bennett sounds wonderful against Ralph Sharon’s piano for this song. If I Ruled The World is, for this author, one of Bennett’s finest albums and this song is certainly one of the many highlights. To be truthful, the album comes very close to being a perfect experience.
http://open.spotify.com/track/77FBZJrodMtpxyM2NxPKc7
“All My Tomorrows,” as well the album If I Ruled the World: Songs For the Jet Set, is available from iTunes.