An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is appearing today at the Starlight Festival in Marbella, Spain. Today’s Song of the Day is Stella by Starlight. The song was originally written in 1944 by Victor Young. Only in 1946 were lyrics written; by Ned Washington. It’s a jazz classic. Mr. Bennett recorded it in 1961 on My Heart Sings.
The Song of the Day is from The Art of Romance, with lyrics by Tony Bennett. The music adapted from Nuages by Django Reinhardt and is arranged by Johnny Mandel. It’s a favorite of us here at The Year of Tony Bennett. In fact, we love the album and recommend it all.
With music from Michel Legrand and lyrics from Alan and Marilyn Bergman, there’s no doubt this a lovely song. Tony regularly sings it in concert and tells a funny story about Frank Sinatra telling him to sing this song. And sing it he does. From The Art of Excellence:
The Song of the Day is from the musical Cabaret and was written by John Kander (music) and Fred Ebb (lyrics). Tony’s first recording was on Here’s To The Ladies in 1995 and was compiled on the fifth CD of Fifty Years of Tony Bennett. Tony has sung this song at every concert of his I’ve attended. My favorite version of this song is from the London 2010 iTunes festival and can be purchased from iTunes. I’ve written about this live set already in The Best $5.99 You’ll Ever Spend.
For today, we have a live version done for the annual Bridge Schools Benefit Concert in 2011. Enjoy!
Nelson Mandela was born on this day in 1918. In honor of his birthday, today’s Song of the Day is Lost in the Stars, from the musical of the same name, with music by Kurt Weill and book and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson. Based on Alan Paton’s book Cry The Beloved Country (written in 1948), the musical was produced on Broadway in 1949 and was Mr. Weill’s last work. Lost in the Stars movingly tells the story of apartheid in South Africa.
Mr. Bennett’s recordings of this song are all wonderful. We feature this song from the album Tony, recorded in 1957. He also sang it beautifully in his 1962 Carnegie Hall concert.