The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: The Best is Yet To Come

About The Best Is Yet To Come

The Best is Yet to Come is by the great songwriting team of Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh and was written in 1959. Though this team is best known for their Broadway songs, this song was not written for a show. Tony Bennett was the first artist to record the song, in 1962 for I Left My Heart in San Francisco.

About This Version

Today’s version is the duet with Chayanne from Viva Duets. We choose this song as Mr. Bennett is performing live in concert in Puerto Rico tonight, the home of the Puerto Rican superstar.

The Best is Yet To Come, as well as the full Viva Duets album, is available on iTunes.

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Review: Viva Duets

In the documentary film The Zen of Bennett, Tony Bennett says “I like what I do. And my ambition is to get better as I get older. That’s what I’m about really.”

In Viva Duets, Tony Bennett makes good on that. At 86, he sounds as good as ever on this album. After a series of several very successful duets albums with British and American singers, he now collaborates with the greats of Latin music, representing artists from Europe, South America, Central America, Puerto Rico, and the United States.

If I had to just use one word for this album, that word would be joy. The relationships between Tony Bennett, most of whom he had never worked with, are a joy to hear and I suspect that sense of joy in the music was present in the recording studio. Nothing on this album is forced; it sounds as fresh as new, as if Tony Bennett were recording it for the first time.

Apart from one song, each of the songs on this album are standards that Mr. Bennett has recorded and performed for most of his career. The album starts with The Best Is Yet To Come, sung with Chayanne, shines the light on the swinging arrangements to come.

While all of the songs are wonderful, there are a few that deserve special mention.

The Way You Look Tonight, with Thaliá, with its sensitive and evocative guitar work by Gray Sargent, is one of my favorite songs on the album. Thaliá and Mr. Bennett sing this song as if they’ve been singing it together forever; both singers sing with a light, easy touch that serves the song well. Sung in both English and Spanish, this song is a hit.

Tony Bennett first recorded Cold, Cold, Heart in 1951. Sixty years later, this time sung with Vicentico, this song still touches the heart. The arrangement features, again, lovely guitar work by Mr. Sargent and wonderful harmonies between the singers.

Regresa A Mi (Return To Me) is my candidate for the best song on this album. The arrangement of this popular standard, made famous by Dean Martin, is quite exceptional and the singing with Vicente Fernández is even greater. If one didn’t know the original, you would have to assume that the album included this lovely old Ranchero-style song on an album of standards. These two great singers are each legendary throughout the world and this performance of these two great men is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The Year of Tony Bennett highly recommends this album highly.

Tracks:

  1. The Best is Yet To Come, with Chayanne
  2. The Way You Look Tonight, with Thaliá
  3. Steppin’ Out With My Baby, with Christina Aguilera
  4. For Once In My Life, with Marc Anthony
  5. Are You Havin’ Any Fun? with Dani Martín
  6. The Good Life, with Franco De Vito
  7. Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me), with Gloria Estefan
  8. Just In Time, with Juan Luis Guerro
  9. Cold, Cold Heart, with Vicentico
  10. I Wanna Be Around, with Ricardo Arjona
  11. Rags to Riches, with Romeo Santos
  12. Return To Me (Regresa A Mi), with Vicente Fernández

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Preparing for Viva Duets – Part One

I’m feeling very provincial as I was not familiar with most of the artists that are featured on the upcoming Viva Duets album. Sure I knew who Gloria Estefan is (having spent some time in my wayward youth dancing to Conga) and who doesn’t know Marc Anthony.  So, for any of you who may be in the same boat as me, I thought it would be great to get to know them a bit before the album is released on October 23.

Marc Anthony

Born: September 16, 1968 in New York City and grew up in East Harlem. Both his parents are of Puerto Rican descent.
Website: www.marcanthonyonline.com
Twitter: @marcanthony

Originally named Marco Antonio Muñiz after the famous Mexican singer, he took the stage name Marc Anthony. He started his career singing in New York in the 1908s and was initially associated with  Freestyle, a form of Latin electronic dance music and also made his name as a Freestyle songwriter. In the early 1990s, he gradually began to move to the salsa style and recorded his first salsa album in Spanish, Otra Nota, in 1993. He also began acting in the mid-nineties with great success, including a role in the Paul Simon musical The Capeman and films including Bringing Out the Dead and In the Time of Butterflies with Salma Hayek. He has won the Grammy award multiple times.

He and Tony will be singing For Once in My Life on Viva Duets.

We feature his duet with Jennifer Lopez, Escapémonos, from Amar Sin Mentiras, which won the 2005 Grammy for best Latin Pop Album.

Miguel Bosé

Born: April 3, 1956 in Panama City, Panama. His mother, Lucia Bosé, was a famous Italian actress and his father, Luis Miguel Dominguín, a legendary bullfighter.
Website: www.miguelbose.com
Twitter: @boseofficial

Miguel Bosé grew up surrounded by many of the great artists and writers of the 20th century; Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway were both close friends of the family. His godfather was Luchino Visconti, director of Death in Venice, among many other Italian classic films.

Bosé started his career as an actor in 1971 and then branched out to singing in 1975 to great success. His 1985 song, Amante Bandido, became a hit in Spain and in Latin America, and secured his place as a superstar.

He and Tony will be singing Don’t Get Around Much Anymore on Viva Duets.

We feature another of his songs: Nena.

Roberto Carlos

Born: April 19, 1941 Brazil.
Website: www.robertocarlos.com
Twitter: @siteoficialrc

Known as The King of Latin Music, or often simply The King, Roberto Carlos is a Brazilian superstar. He has been performing since the  1950s and was instrumental in the Jovem Guarda (or Young Guard) movement, which created the birth of Brazilian popular music.  Since that beginning, he has composed and performed steadily up to today.  He has also acted in Brazilian cinema.  He won a Latin Grammy in 1989 for his album Roberto Carlos / Toto. A recent revival of the Jovem Guarda movement by young Brazilian artists has introduced his music and influence to a new generation.

We present El Gato Que Está Triste y Azul as introduction to his wonderful voice. This is live performance from his album En Vivo.

Chayanne

Born: June 28, 1968 in Rio Peiedras, Puerto Rico.
Twitter: @CHAYANNEMUSIC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CHAYANNE

Born Elmer Figueroa Arce, Chayanne is Puerto Rican singer and actor. He currently lives in Miami, Florida, with his wife (attorney and former Venezuelan beauty queen) Marilisa Maronesse and their children.

After being told he was too young to join the group Menudo (who I actually remember), he joined another group called Los Chicos and never looked back. After the group separated in 1984, he began his career as a solo artist. He has recorded steadily and produced hit after hit. He is known as a dynamic and energetic performer and is a pop music icon throughout Latin America. I have to say that I can’t stop listening to his music.

Update: The official Tony Bennett website has posted a sample of their duet The Best is Yet To Come.

We feature Me Enamoré de Ti from 2009:

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