The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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k.d. lang Hits The Big White Way

Tonight, k.d. lang opens in the Broadway smash hit After Midnight, in the role of Special Guest Star. The Year of Tony Bennett is very proud of our fellow Portland resident on her Broadway debut and we feel sure that she’s going to knock everyone’s socks off!

Here’s a short video where she talks about being in After Midnight:

For more information about After Midnight, including ticket information, please visit the After Midnight website.

Break a leg!

News and Interviews

Toronto Star interview
Las Vegas Sun interview
New York Times article by Stephen Holden
Broadway World article with lots of great photographs, including several with Tony
New York Post review

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Song of the Day: It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)

The song of the day for Tuesday, November 5, 2013 is “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).”

About This Song

“It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” was written by Duke Ellington in 1931, with lyrics by Irving Mills. Ellington first recorded the song in 1932 with Ivie Anderson on vocals. It was one of the first songs that used the term “swing” to define what would become the American jazz sound for many years. This song has been widely recorded by both vocal and instrumental jazz performers.

About This Version

The Year of Tony Bennett has been in a Duke Ellington frame of mind all day, due mostly to the Broadway opening of After Midnight, a jazz revue based on the music of the Cotton Club. With a jazz orchestra hand-picked by Wynton Marsalis, a score of some of the best jazz music ever written and, apparently, some breathtaking performances, After Midnight has become an instant hit (you can read Charles Isherwood’s review from the New York Times here). k.d. lang will be featured in the production in February, 2014 as the Special Guest Star. The Year of Tony Bennett regrets the great distance between Portland, Oregon and Manhattan today; we really, really, really want to see this production. Hopefully, there will be an original cast album soon. We’ll keep you posted. You can visit the show’s website here.

After reading the scores of positive reviews of After Midnight, we have been listening to Bennett Sings Ellington: Hot and Cool all day today and chose one of our favorite songs, “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Aint’ Got That Swing),” as the song of the day because it’s too true: it really don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. Duke Ellington told us so 83 years ago and it’s still true. And always will be.

http://open.spotify.com/track/29oWjqHxcY1cezZuylBYdo
“It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” as well as the album Bennett Sings Ellington: Hot and Cool, is available from iTunes and Amazon.

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Song of the Day: Because of You

The song of the day for November 2, 2013 is “Because of You.”

About This Song

“Because Of You” was written in 1940 by Arthur Hammerstein (uncle to Oscar Hammerstein II) and Dudley Wilkinson. It wasn’t really popular or much recorded until after Tony Bennett’s recording in 1951. In that time period, the song was used in a movie called I Was An American Spy.

About This Version

Today’s version is the one-and-only original from 1951; arranged and conducted by Percy Faith. The story of how this song came to be recorded is quite wonderful. Tony Bennett had been singing with Columbia for a year and there was concern that he hadn’t really had a hit, at least since his first song recorded for the label: “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” In fact, he’d been warned by Percy Faith that if he didn’t have a hit soon, he might be released from his contract. Tony Bennett tells this story in his autobiography The Good Life:

I went into Percy’s office and he said, “In this next session you really have to deliver. We only have 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.” The 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.

And what great advice that was. The song got popular not on the radio, but on the jukeboxes, who then called the radio stations and requested the song. It reached #1 on the Billboard charts in June, 1951 and stayed on the chart for a remarkable thirty-two weeks, ten of them at #1. It was most definitely a hit.

I’ll go on the record as thanking Percy Faith for encouraging Tony Bennett to sing in his natural voice. Why mess with perfection? For Tony Bennett’s voice, then and now, is pure perfection.

http://open.spotify.com/track/4DTO96EvOW9JT6OIUNFpZW
“Because of You,” as well as the collected early singles by Tony Bennett on The Columbia Singles, Vol. 1, is available from iTunes.

The Year of Tony Bennett would like to wish k.d. lang a very happy birthday. In honor of her birthday (and because it’s YouTube Saturday), we are pleased to present this video of k.d. and Tony singing their duet of “Because of You” from the album Duets: An American Classic; the video also includes portions of an interview with the duo by the late Phil Ramone.

Happy Birthday, k.d.!

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Song of the Day: La Vie En Rose

The song of the day for Saturday, October 26, 2013 is “La Vie En Rose.”

About This Song

“La Vie en Rose” (or Life Through Rose-Colored Glasses) was written in 1945, with music by Marguerite Monnot and lyrics by Edith Piaf. It is Edith Piaf’s signature song; she first recorded it in 1947. Her recording of the song received a Grammy Hall of Fame award in 1998. Louis Armstrong made a lovely recording of this song in 1947.

About This Version

Today’s version is the duet with Tony Bennett and k.d. lang from their 2002 album A Wonderful World. In this album, they sang songs associated with Louis Armstrong. In fact, as a long-term k.d. lang fan, it was this album where I really began to love the music of Tony Bennett.

http://open.spotify.com/track/1EoAJz7uTyHGbIihfY95yJ
“La Vie en Rose,” as well as the album A Wonderful World, is available from iTunes and Amazon.

Because the album A Wonderful World is about music associated with Louis Armstrong, I thought you might enjoy this too:

Basin Street Blues

Listen to Basin Street Blues on Spotify. Song · Louis Armstrong · 2013

And, because once again it’s YouTube Saturday, we’re happy to share this video of Tony and k.d.

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Song of the Day: I’m Confessin’ That I Love You

The song of the day for Friday, September 6, 2013 is “I’m Confessin’ That I Love You.”

About This Song

Today’s song has a somewhat muddied provenance. The tune, with completely different lyrics and with the title “Lookin’ For Another Sweetie,” was first recorded by Thomas “Fats” Waller in 1929 and credited to Chris Smith and Sterling Grant. In 1930, the same tune was released with the present lyrics, which were written by Al Neiburg. The composition was credited to Doc Daugherty and Ellis Reynolds. Louis Armstrong made the first recording of the reborn song in 1930 and performed it regularly throughout his performing career.

About This Version

Today’s version of this song is from Tony Bennett’s and k.d. lang’s 2002 album A Wonderful World, which features songs that Louis Armstrong was known for.

http://open.spotify.com/track/2YknWOGY15oWL64myyxthP
“I’m Confessin’ That I Love You,” as well as the album A Wonderful World, is available from iTunes.

As an extra treat today, here’s Louis Armstrong in a live recording on The Frank Sinatra Show on CBS from 1952. Just one question: Did everyone, and I mean everyone, smoke in the early 1950s?