The song of the day for Tuesday, August 1, 2023, is “It Was Me.”
About This Song
“It Was Me” was written in 1960 by Gilbert Becaud as “C’etait Moi,” with English lyrics by Norman Gimbel. It’s a beautiful love song that brings memories of summers past and, maybe, to come. In 2009, Tony Bennett named this his favorite summer song in an NPR interview, attached below.
About This Version
Tony Bennett recorded “It Was Me” on December 19, 1962, for the album I Wanna Be Around, released in 1963. It was arranged by Marty Manning.
“It Was Me,” as well as I Wanna Be Around is available on Apple Music.
Here’s Tony’s 2009 NPR interview with Melissa Block about his favorite summer song:
What an amazing site about an amazing entertainer! Thank you for sharing this monumental labor of love with the rest of us who also love this great man. I’m still feeling sad about his passing. I was fortunate to see him in concert on September 11, 2002 and again on August 19, 2017. I will never forget him.
Thank you so much for your comments. It is indeed a labor of love as the companion site, discography.bloggingtonybennett.com. I, too, will never forget him and feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to meet him backstage after one of his concerts. Thankfully, we have all of his music to remember him by. Or, as a friend of mine posted: Tony Bennett died on July 21, 2023, but I don’t have to believe it if I don’t want to.
Your friend is absolutely right. In fact, for most of the past 25 years or so, I’ve mostly lived in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, musically-speaking. To me, Frank, Dean, Nat, Sammy, and the other great talents from that Golden Age of Entertainment are still alive and well. Thus, the same will also remain true for our musical icon Mr. Bennett. I’m still waiting for someone to build a time machine, so I can travel back to the 50s and 60s to see him and his colleagues live in old Las Vegas.
As astonished as I was by this site, your “The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography” companion site is equally stunning, if not more so. I’ve never built anything like either website, but when I look at the remarkable amount of information provided, the user-friendly way it’s presented, and the amount of extreme detail (lyrics, composers, lyricists, session/album information, album art, recording release dates, Spotify preview links, and on and on), the time and effort required is truly unimaginable to me. Again, thank you for sharing your talents with the world. You’re incredibly generous.
There’s likely nothing new you could hear or learn about Mr. Bennett, considering these two colossal tributes you’ve built in his honor. However, if it’s of any interest, I just found and began listening to the following tribute:
Tony Bennett – A Collective Tribute
https://www.wbai.org/archive/program/episode/?id=43092
Wishing you health, happiness, and “The Good Life.” : )