The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: All The Things You Are

The song of the day for Friday, April 12, 2013, is All The Things You Are.

About This Song

Written for the 1939 Broadway music Very Warm for May, All The Things You Are was written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II. In American Popular Song, Alec Wilder notes that Very Warm For May must have had a terrible book “since otherwise the show’s failure is incomprehensible. For it had one of Kern’s best scores. Indeed there are five songs worth considering, the greatest of them being All The Things You Are“.

The song has lent itself to numerous jazz interpretations by some of America’s finest jazz musicians, including Artie Shaw, Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie and Dave Brubeck. In his book The Jazz Standards, Al Gioia relates that “I recall talking to saxophonist Bud Shank a few months before his death at age 82, when he noted that he never felt he had exhausted the possibilities of this specific son, which he had first recorded almost 60 years earlier.”

About This Version

I was listening to Bennett’s Carnegie Hall concert today at the office; when All The Things You Are started I had to stop working and just listen because I was overcome not only with the beauty of the song itself, but Tony Bennett’s exquisite rendering of the song. When he sings “you are the angel glow that lights the stars” so gently, touching the notes so lightly as if they are sacred, the beauty of the song is fully revealed. While most of the praise for this song goes to the wonderful composition by Jerome Kern, Tony Bennett’s treatment of the song lyrics are a tribute to the greatness of Oscar Hammerstein.

http://open.spotify.com/track/4XohhDSDnbIMP8kIbESsuv
All The Things You Are, as well the complete Tony Bennett At Carnegie Hall album, is available from iTunes.

And yes, if you check the new Reader Poll, I was the first “reader” to choose the Carnegie Hall Concert as my desert island album.

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Song of the Day: The Rules of The Road

The song of the day for Friday, March 15, 2013 is The Rules Of The Road.

About This Song

While this song is not from a musical, it was written by great Broadway and songwriting team of Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh in 1961.

About This Version

This version of Rules Of The Road is from Bennett’s wonderful 1962 Carnegie Hall concert. I am also a fan of the version from the 1964 Live At The Sahara show; while available on iTunes, this recording is not available on Spotify.

Mr. Bennett has recorded many of Cy Coleman’s songs. As Coleman was a jazz performer as well as a composer, I think his music speaks well to Bennett’s musical tastes.

The Rules Of The Road - Live at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY - June 1962

Listen to The Rules Of The Road - Live at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY - June 1962 on Spotify. Song · Tony Bennett, Ralph Sharon & His Orchestra · 1962

Rules Of The Road, as well as the full 1962 Carnegie Hall Concert album, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Solitude

The song of the day for Monday, March 11, 2013 is Solitude.

About This Song

(In My) Solitude was written in 1934 by Duke Ellington, with lyrics by Eddie DeLange and Irving Mills. The song was, literally, written at the recording session the day it was first recorded. It is one of his most beloved songs; Ellington recorded it many more times and played it in most of his concerts.

One of Ellington’s most beloved songs, it’s been recorded by many significant artists including Paul Robeson, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Nina Simone.

About This Version

I have been listening to a lot of Tony Bennett live recordings the past few days and this song from his 1962 Carnegie Hall concert is a favorite. It comes about half-way through the second part of the performance, though he shows no tiredness throughout this incredible 44 song concert. But it does come after a group of up-tempo songs and you can feel the audience hanging, rapt, on each word of the song. It’s really quite wonderful. The audience loved it and so do I.

http://open.spotify.com/track/66xcBH2f8VNVIcwP0HRFPe
Solitude, as well as the full Tony Bennett at Carnegie Hall album, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: I Left My Heart in San Francisco

The Year of Tony Bennett closes out our live performances week with I Left My Heart in San Francisco, our song of the day for Saturday, January 26, 2013.

About I Left My Heart in San Francisco

This song was written 1954 by two somewhat homesick songwriters from San Francisco: George Cory and Douglass Cross.

Knowing that Ralph Sharon played with Tony Bennett, the songwriters gave a copy of the music to Mr. Sharon, who promptly put it in a drawer and forgot about it. Some time later, as he was packing for a tour with Mr. Bennett that would take them to San Francisco, he came across the song and put it in his suitcase, thinking that the locals in San Francisco might enjoy hearing it. After a performance at a nightclub in Hot Springs, Arkansas (a concert where underage saxophone player and future President Bill Clinton famously stood outside the club and watched the entire performance through the window), Bennett and Sharon found a piano in the bar at their hotel and started to work on the song. The first fan of the song was the bartender, who said “If you guys record that song, I’ll buy the first copy.”  (Tony Bennett, The Good Life, page 164).

They sang the song at the Fairmont Hotel on opening night, at Mr. Bennett’s first appearance in San Francisco.  Local representatives from Columbia Records heard the song at rehearsal and encouraged Bennett to record it.

About This Version

I absolutely love this version of what is now Tony Bennett’s most-requested song. Hearing it introduced at the Carnegie Hall concert as a new song is delightful. His first recording of the song was in January 1962 and release in February, with this concert in June of the same year. And, of course, Mr. Bennett won the Grammy for Best Male Solo Performance and the song won for Record of the Year. Pretty good for a song that was rescued from a  drawer.

Readers know that I think Tony Bennett at Carnegie Hall is one the best live recordings ever released. This particular version of I Left My Heart in San Francisco is sweet, light and beautifully sung. And he sings the verse; one of the reasons I love Tony Bennett as a singer is that he so often sings the verse, when many singers never do.

http://open.spotify.com/track/4pZraXJ3VTorWFtlS1S0Bs
I Left My Heart in San Francisco, as well as the full Carnegie Hall album, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Lost In The Stars

This week, we’re featuring our favorites from Tony Bennett’s live recordings. For Sunday, January 20, 2013, our choice is Lost In The Stars.

About Lost In The Stars

This song was composed by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Maxwell Anderson, for the musical of the same name. Lost in the Stars was based on the 1948 Alan Paton novel Cry, The Beloved Country, which takes place in apartheid South Africa.

About This Version

Tony Bennett first recorded Lost in the Stars in 1958 with the Count Basie Orchestra, where it appears on In Person! This live version is from Bennett’s legendary 1962 Carnegie Hall concert.

Lost In The Stars (From "Lost In The Stars") - Live at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY - June 1962

Listen to Lost In The Stars (From "Lost In The Stars") - Live at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY - June 1962 on Spotify. Song · Tony Bennett, Ralph Sharon & His Orchestra · 1962

Lost in the Stars, as well as the full Tony Bennett at Carnegie Hall album, is available from iTunes.