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The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

September 25, 2020 By Suzanne Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: I Got Rhythm

The song of the day for Saturday, September 26, 2020, is “I Got Rhythm.”

About Today

Today marks the birthday of George Gershwin, who was born on September 26, 1898.

About This Song

“I Got Rhythm” was written by George and Ira Gershwin in 1928. Gershwin originally wrote this song with a slow tempo for the 1928 musical Treasure Girl. In 1930 for Girl Crazy, he decided on a faster rhythm. The song was introduced by Ethel Merman and became wildly popular based on her performance. It has been recorded many times by artists including Miss Merman, Fred Astaire, John Pizzarelli, and Ethel Waters. It’s one of the great jazz standards.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “I Got Rhythm” for his 1995 album Here’s To The Ladies, which featured songs made famous by great women singers on the 20th century. This song is, of course, associated with Ethel Merman. Bennett and Ralph Sharon did the arrangements for the entire album.

“I Got Rhythm,” as well as Here’s To The Ladies, is available from Apple Music.

While you’re here, I hope you’ll take a moment to listen to Ethel Merman’s recording from Girl Crazy. She sure had a set of pipes!

Filed Under: Song of the Day Tagged With: Ethel Merman, George Gershwin, Girl Crazy, Here's To The Ladies, Ira Gershwin, Ralph Sharon, Tony Bennett

October 2, 2017 By Suzanne Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: Anything Goes

The song of the day for Tuesday, October 3, 2017 is “Anything Goes.”

About This Song

In Anything Goes, Cole Porter and book writers Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse created one of the great musical comedy characters of all time: Reno Sweeney, played by Ethel Merman in the original 1934 production. The score contains many of Porter’s most popular songs, including “I Get a Kick Out You,” “You’re The Top,” and “Blow, Gabriel, Blow.”

About This Version

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga chose “Anything Goes” as the first cut on their album Cheek to Cheek. Marion Evans did the big band arrangement.

Anything Goes

Listen to Anything Goes on Spotify. Tony Bennett · Song · 2014.


“Anything Goes,” as well as Cheek to Cheek, is available from iTunes.

Here’s Miss Merman singing today’s song from the film version of Anything Goes!

Ethel Merman, born Ethel Agnes Zimmerman, grew up in Astoria, Queens. She learned secretarial skills in high school and after graduation in 1924, was able to get a job as a stenographer at $28 a week, which was good money in those days. With a pay check to back her up, she sang in clubs evenings and weekends in her goal of making it to Broadway.

In 1934, she was cast as Reno Sweeney in Cole Porter’s Anything Goes. When the script of Anything Goes was re-written during rehearsals, Ethel put her secretarial skills to good use by taking down dialogue in shorthand as the authors improvised. She then typed out the material herself.

Filed Under: Song of the Day Tagged With: Cheek to Cheek, Cole Porter, Ethel Merman, Lady Gaga, Marion Evans, Tony Bennett

September 14, 2016 By Suzanne 2 Comments

Song of the Day: I Got Rhythm

The song of the day for Thursday, September 15, 2016 is “I Got Rhythm.”

About This Song

George Gershwin originally wrote this song with a slow tempo for the 1928 musical Treasure Girl. In 1930 for Girl Crazy, he decided on a faster rhythm. The song was introduced by Ethel Merman and became wildly popular based on her performance. It has been recorded many times by artists including Miss Merman, Fred Astaire, John Pizzarelli and Ethel Waters. It’s one of the great jazz standards.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “I Got Rhythm” in 1995 for his album Here’s To The Ladies, where Bennett sings songs associated with the great female singers of the 20th century. Today’s song is, of course, for Ethel Merman.

I Got Rhythm

Listen to I Got Rhythm on Spotify. Tony Bennett · Song · 1995.


“I Got Rhythm,” as well as Here’s To The Ladies, is available from iTunes.

And here’s Miss Merman! She could really hold those notes!!

I Got Rhythm

Listen to I Got Rhythm on Spotify. Ethel Merman · Song · 2013.

Filed Under: Song of the Day Tagged With: Ethel Merman, George Gershwin, Girl Crazy, Here's To The Ladies, Ira Gershwin

May 30, 2016 By Suzanne Leave a Comment

Songwriter of the Month: Cole Porter

The Year of Tony Bennett is proud to honor Cole Porter as the songwriter of the month for June 2016.

Cole Porter was born on June 9, 1891 to a wealthy family from Peru, Indiana. His mother encouraged him musically, and as a child he studied both piano and violin. While he was quite good with both instruments, he disliked the sound of the violin and concentrated on music. He studied hard and was a proficient pianist in his teens.

Cole Porter - 1913 at Yale
Cole Porter – 1913 at Yale

His grandfather wanted Cole to follow in the family business and wanted the young man to become a lawyer. With the in mind, he sent him to prep school in Massachusetts; Porter brought an upright piano with him. He did well in school, though, and was the class valedictorian. He entered Yale in 1909, majoring in English, minoring in music and also studying French. While at Yale, he wrote several student songs, some of which are still sung today. He wrote scores to several student musicals while at Yale as well. He did enroll in the law school at Harvard, but was encouraged by the dean of the law school to switch to the music school, where he continued his studies in classical music.

Cole Porter and Linda Lee Thomas
Cole Porter and Linda Lee Thomas

By 1916, he had two productions that had made it to Broadway, though they were flops and only ran for a short time. Porter moved to Paris at the beginning of World War I and, some say, volunteered with relief organizations and possibly joined the French Foreign Legion. That said, he lived in Paris, quite lavishly on his share of the family fortune, and was well-known for his scandalous parties. Though Porter’s homosexuality had become more open while a student at Yale, he was completely out as gay during this period. In 1918, he met Linda Lee Thomas, a wealthy divorcee from Louisville, Kentucky and they were married in 1919 and stayed married until Linda’s death in 1954.

In the early 1920s, Cole began to take his music more seriously, mainly due to Linda’s belief in his talent, and began to write.

Cole Porter and Ethel Merman
Cole Porter and Ethel Merman

In 1928, he returned to Broadway with the musical Paris, which was a big hit for him, which contained two of his more famous songs: “Let’s Do It” and “Let’s Misbehave.” In the late 1920s and 1930s, he was continually on Broadway, including Gay Divorce in 1932, Fred Astaire’s last stage show before Hollywood called. One of his early great hits was Anything Goes, starring Ethel Merman.

In 1937, Porter had a terrible riding accident, where his horse rolled over on his and crushed his legs. While the doctors wanted to amputate his right leg, Linda fought adamantly to save it, afraid that he’d never return to writing music again. As soon as possible, he returned to work, but the rest of his life was a series of crippling pain and several dozen surgeries.

In the 1940s, he began writing for Hollywood, which paid well but wasn’t a cultural success. But he returned to Broadway in full force, with a string of hits: Kiss Me Kate, Can-Can and Silk Stockings.

After losing both his mother and Linda over a two-year period, he began to slow down. By 1958, the right leg finally had to amputated; he never wrote another song after that. Porter died in 1964 while in California, due in large part to the doctors not properly understanding the seriousness of his addiction to alcohol.

cole-older-2

The songs he wrote remain popular and are sung today by popular, jazz and cabaret artists. Ella Fitzgerald’s Cole Porter Songbook is a masterpiece, of course. Other major Porter recordings include Frank Sinatra Sings the Select Cole Porter, Anything Goes: Stephane Grappelli and Yo-Yo Ma, and Red Hot + Blue.

For more information about Cole Porter and his body of work, please visit Cole Wide Web.

Filed Under: Songwriter of the Month Tagged With: Ethel Merman, Linda Lee Thomas, songwriter of the month

May 28, 2016 By Suzanne Leave a Comment

Song of the Day: There’s No Business Like Show Business

The song of the day for Saturday, May 28, 2016 is “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”

About This Song

Riving Berlin wrote “There’s No Business Like Show Business” for the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun, which starred Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton.

About This Version

“There’s No Business Like Show Business” is one of my favorite Irving Berlin songs. However, Tony Bennett has never recorded this song. But even Tony Bennett gets to take a night off every now and again and so I’m turning over the singing chores to two great American singing actresses.

Our featured recording of “There’s No Business Like Show Business” is from the 1954 film of same name, which starred Ethel Merman, Donald O’Connor and Marilyn Monroe. The film featured a variety of songs written by Irving Berlin.

There"s No Business Like Show Business

Listen to There"s No Business Like Show Business on Spotify. Irving Berlin · Song · 1954.

About Today

Today being video Saturday, I bring you scenes from Elaine Stritch’s Tony-winning one woman show from 2002: Elaine Stritch At Liberty, directed by George Wolfe. This show features Ms. Stritch, who was 77 at the time this production was originally mounted on Broadway. It was later filmed for television broadcast, where it won an Emmy Award. She opened the show with “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” interspersed with quips about her life in the theatre. Here’s that number:

I’m still in amazement at how fabulous her legs still were at the age of 77. To bring ourselves full circle, I’m featuring another scene from At Liberty, this time about her understudying Ethel Merman in Irving Berlin’s Call Me Madam while simultaneously appearing in a revival of Pal Joey. It’s as funny as funny can be.

This video was posted by the Schubert Theater in New Haven, which opted to bleep out certain words. Still funny. Brilliantly. After all, there’s no business like show business.

Filed Under: Song of the Day Tagged With: Annie Get Your Gun, Call Me Madam, Elaine Stritch, Ethel Merman, Pal Joey, There's No Business Like Show Business

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