The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Today We Are Twelve

The Year of Tony Bennett is celebrating our 12th birthday.

Twelve years ago, on June 10, 2012, I started this blog. In December 2011, I took my best friend to Seattle to see Tony Bennett at the Paramount Theatre. She became a fan about five minutes into the show, I think. In February, we had the opportunity to see Mr. Bennett again at one of the casinos in the area. That’s when we started thinking about The Year of Tony Bennett. We hit the jackpot in September 2012, though when we got to see him three times in concert: Bumbershoot in Seattle, Monterey Jazz Festival, and San Diego. There was no turning back after that.

And so on June 10, 2012, I created The Year of Tony Bennett, because that period of seeing Tony Bennett live in concert was indeed The Year of Tony Bennett. For the record, every year since then has been The Year of Tony Bennett. For twelve years, I’ve been posting songs of the day and much more content too. Doing this site has been one of the very great things in my life.

Over the years, I’ve gotten to see many more Tony Bennett concerts. I’ve met members of his quartet and was able to meet Tony backstage. Sometimes, it seems like a dream.

I want to thank everyone who’s ever read this site and our sister site, The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography. The sites are literally a labor of love: my love of Tony Bennett’s music and my love of the readers who visit the site.

So let’s blow out some virtual candles on the virtual cake. See you next year when we offically enter our teens.

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Today We Are 11

On June 10, 2012, I started the Year of Tony Bennett website. Check out this post to see why I started this. Hint: between May 2011 and September 2012, I had the privilege of seeing Tony Bennett live six! times.

So, a few facts:

  • The first post was a discussion of The Good Life, Bennett’s autobiography, written with Jazz journalist Will Friedwald.
  • The first song I wrote about was “The Best Is Yet To Come.”
  • The first official song of the day was “Love Is Here To Stay” which was posted on August 23, 2012.
  • The most search-for song on the blog is “The Right To Love.”
  • The most-searched-for information is a topic I wrote about Duke Ellington and the Harlem Renaissance. As most of the searches for that topic come from school system computer networks, I’m guessing it’s a popular term paper topic.
  • The most often-featured song of the day is “The Rules of the Road.”
  • My favorite feature is The 12 Days of a Tony Bennett Christmas.

A few blog statistics:

  • I have written 3,907 posts for this blog. We’ll hit 4000 posts soon.
  • We have visitors from over the world. Except for Antartica. If you know someone living on the South Pole, please ask them to visit the site, just once.
  • It took me 4 years to create The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography. I did it after work and on weekends; it defines the term ‘a labor of love.’
  • The two sites average around 6000 visits a month. It’s not a lot, but it’s substantial to me, as we do no advertising at all.
  • The discography especially gets what I call ‘bingers.’ When I view my usage stats, I will see visits to the discography over a one or two-day period by an individual viewing hundreds of posts. The last binger was from Belgium and viewed 882 posts. I am humbled and grateful that someone would spend so much time on the site and I only hope that they found what they were looking for.

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Taking a Break

Hello everyone. I just want to let you know that I’ll be taking some time off — about six weeks — for hand surgery and recovery. I promise I’ll be back and look forward to feeling well enough to blog every day.

As Duke Ellington would say

Love You Madly!!

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Happy Birthday to Us!

The Year of Tony Bennett is ten years old today. That’s right: our first post was written on June 10, 2002. A lot has happened in those ten years. I’ve had to take some breaks now and then (with another break coming soon — more on that later), but I’ve always come back because I don’t quite feel like myself if I have written a song of the day.

So, a few blog facts:

  • The first post was a discussion of The Good Life, Bennett’s autobiography, written with Jazz journalist Will Friedwald.
  • The first song I wrote about was “The Best Is Yet To Come.”
  • The first official song of the day was “Love Is Here To Stay” which was posted on August 23, 2012.
  • The most search-for song on the blog is “The Right To Love.”
  • The most-searched-for information is a topic I wrote about Duke Ellington and the Harlem Renaissance. As most of the searches for that topic come from school system computer networks, I’m guessing it’s a popular term paper topic.
  • The most often-featured song of the day is “The Rules of the Road.”
  • My favorite feature is The 12 Days of a Tony Bennett Christmas.

A few blog statistics:

  • I have written 3,606 posts for this blog.
  • We have visitors from over the world. Except for Antartica. If you know someone living on the South Pole, please ask them to visit the site, just once.
  • It took me 4 years to create The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography. I did it after work and on weekends; it defines the term ‘a labor of love.’
  • The two sites average around 6000 visits a month. It’s not a lot, but it’s substantial to me, as we do no advertising at all.
  • The discography especially gets what I call ‘bingers.’ When I view my usage stats, I will see visits to the discography over a one or two-day period by an individual viewing hundreds of posts. The last binger was from Belgium and viewed 882 posts. I am humbled and grateful that someone would spend so much time on the site and I only hope that they found what they were looking for.

I am very grateful for the friends and acquaintances I’ve met because of this blog. I especially want to thank Sylvia in Mr. Bennett’s office for providing me with backstage passes and complimentary seats at concerts.

I also want to thank my good friend Lesley, who has been the closest friend this blog could have. She’s been a huge inspiration and a wonderful listener. Thank you, Lesley.

So, I’m going to have a little cocktail to celebrate the last ten years as I look forward to the next ten.

Thank you all,

Suzanne

 

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We Are Eight

The Year of Tony Bennett is celebrating our eighth birthday! Our first post was made on June 10, 2012. It was soon followed by Why The Year of Tony Bennett?

The first song I wrote about was The Way You Look Tonight. This gradually morphed into the Song of the Day, which I have done most days since and still look forward to doing today.

We’re quite close to 3000 posts to this blog, and I plan to keep going for the very long term.

To quote Duke Ellington … I love you all madly!