The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: Cold, Cold Heart

In honor of Mr. Bennett’s appearance tonight in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the song of the day for Thursday, December 6, 2012, is Cold, Cold Heart, sung with Argentine superstar Vincentico on the recently released Viva Duets.

About Cold, Cold Heart

Cold, Cold Heart was written in 1951 by Hank Williams. Interestingly, it appeared on the B-side of single release, with Dear John on the A-side. In spite of being on the B-side, the song became a favorite of disk jockeys and jukebox listeners. Tony Bennett famously recorded the song in the same year, with an arrangement by Percy Faith. Cold, Cold Heart was one of the first country-western songs that crossed over into popular music, thanks to Mr. Bennett’s recording. It’s a heartbreaker of a song, which I’m sure contributes to its popularity 62 years after its release.

In fact, Google used the 1951 Tony Bennett recording of the song for its Valentine’s Day animated doodle  in 2012, shown in this video:

About This Version

For Viva Duets,  the Argentine star Vincentico sang Cold, Cold Heart with Mr. Bennett. This version features very nice guitar work from Gray Sargent.

Cold, Cold Heart, as well as the entire Viva Duets album, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive

We conclude Johnny Mercer Week at the Year of Tony Bennett with one of my favorite songs. The Song of the Day for Saturday, November 24, 2012, is Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive.

We have enjoyed featuring a few of the great Johnny Mercer songs performed by Tony Bennett this week. We hope you have enjoyed it as well.

About Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive

This wonderfully happy song was written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer and was published in 1944. The song immediately became popular and was heavily recorded in the first months after publication by artists including Bing Crosby with The Andrews Sisters, Kay Kyser and Artie Shaw.

I grew up hearing this song. I have memories of my Mom singing this song and have loved it for many decades now. I think it’s one of the happiest songs ever written.

About This Version

This version is from Tony Bennett’s delightful children’s album from 1998, The Playground.  Also featured on this album is Kermit the Frog and Elmo from Sesame Street.  Mr. Bennett recorded this song with the Ralph Sharon Trio, with Gray Sargent (guitar), Paul Langosch (bass) and Clayton Cameron (drums). As always, there is some wonderful guitar work by Gray Sargent.

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Viva Duets Video: The Way You Look Tonight

We’re happy to include the video of the Thalía / Tony Bennett duet of The Way You Look Tonight. We’ve heard Mr. Bennett sing it several times in concert, and it’s always thrilling to hear him sing this song, written by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields.

I cannot praise Gray Sargent’s guitar work on this song enough. It’s breathtaking. The Target version of Viva Duets, which add duets with Maria Gadú, Ana Carolina and Miguel Bosé to the original twelve songs, also includes this song with just the guitar accompaniment.

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Song of the Day: Because Of You

The Song of the Day for October 30, 2012 is Because Of You.

About Because Of You

Because Of You was written in 1940 by Arthur Hammerstein with lyrics by Dudley Wilkinson. The song was used in the 1951 film I Was An American Spy. Tony Bennett recorded this song in 1951 and it was his first major hit record. Mr. Bennett relates this story in his autobiography, The Good Life:

By the spring of 1951, I was told that if I didn’t get a hit soon I’d be dropped from the label. I went into Percy’s (Percy Faith) office and he said, “In this next session you really have to deliver. We have only three songs ready, so we need another song.” I remember that he looked through a bunch of sheet music on his desk, grabbed a song, and said, “Well, let’s do this one.” That song was “Because of You.” I was doing a lot of dramatic singing on my early records like “Sing You Sinners” and “Boulevard,” but Percy said to me, “Just relax. Use your natural voice and sing the song.” I took his advice.

When “Because of You” was released, the record company didn’t have much confidence in me. But then something interesting started happening; the record didn’t get on the radio right away, but people were playing it on jukeboxes so often that it started to build momentum, one nickel at a time. It was unusual for a song to become popular on jukeboxes before it got on the radio, but this one did. Listeners from all around the country began calling their local radio stations and requesting “Because of You,” and it reached number one on Billboard magazine’s pop chart on June 23, 1951. It stayed on the chart for thirty-two weeks-ten weeks at number one. I finally had my first major hit record. It was amazing. Everywhere I went that summer I heard the song blaring from car radios, and record stores set up speakers outside and played the song to attract customers. My family was thrilled, of course, and couldn’t stop telling me how proud they were that I had made it. It was wonderful.

Because Of You is one of Tony Bennett’s most beloved songs.

About This Version

Tony Bennett and k.d. lang recorded this duet for Tony Bennett Duets – An American Classic. It’s really beautiful to hear these two wonderful singers, who are obviously so closely attuned to each other, sing this beautiful love song. The song is exquisitely orchestrated by Jorge Callandrelli and features the quartet of Lee Musiker (p), Gray Sargent (g), Paul Langosch (b) and Harold Jones (d).

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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