The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: Someone To Love

The song of the day for Thursday, January 3, 2012 is Someone To Love.

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About Someone To Love

Someone To Love was written by song writer and arranger Bobby Warren in 1943.

About This Version

This version is from Tony Bennett’s 1963 album I Wanna Be Around. The album is best known for the first recordings of two of Mr. Bennett’s most popular songs: The Good Life and I Wanna Be Around. There are many other fine songs on the album, though, including this one. Someone To Love was arranged and conducted by Marty Manning and produced by Ernie Altschuler.

Someone To Love

Listen to Someone To Love on Spotify. Song 路 Tony Bennett 路 1963

Someone To Love, as well as the full I Wanna Be Around album, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Fascinatin’ Rhythm

The song of the day for Thursday, December 27, 2012 is Fascinatin’ Rhythm, sung by some guy named Joe Bari; he’s got a great voice. 馃檪

Bennett, Tony, NYC, New York, 1950

About Fascinatin’ Rhythm

Fascinatin’ Rhythm is one of the great songs written by George and Ira Gershwin. It was written in 1924 and was introduced by Fred Astaire, Adele Astaire and Cliff Edwards in the Broadway musical Lady Be Good. The Astaires recorded the song in 1926, accompanied by George Gershwin himself.

About This Version

This version of Fascinatin’ Rhythm was recorded by Mr. Bennett, who was then going by the name Joe Bari, in spring 1949 for Leslie Records. The session was produced by George Simon and arranged and conducted by Marty Manning 聽(with whom Tony Bennett would work with again at Columbia) 聽and was recorded at the New York Decca studios. From this session, a two-sided 78 RPM disc was released. The other song was a novelty song by George Simon, Vieni Qui.

We are very pleased that most of Tony Bennett’s catalogue, including material like this 聽that was formerly only available in the 2011 The聽Complete Collection box set, is now available on both Spotify and iTunes. 聽We look forward to presenting some of 聽Mr. Bennett’s early recordings that are now generally available.

Fascinatin" Rhythm

Tony Bennett 路 Rarities, Outtakes & Other Delights, Vol. 1 路 Song 路 2012

Fascinatin’ Rhythm, as well as the full Rarirites, Outtakes and & Other Delights, Vol. 1, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: I Wanna Be Around

The Song of the Day for Monday, November 19, 2012 is I Wanna Be Around.

About I Wanna Be Around

As part of Johnny Mercer week, we feature I Wanna Be Around as the song of the day. This is one of my favorite Johnny Mercer songs and has been for many years. It’s also one of the few songs that Mercer wrote the music for, with lyrics suggested by one his fans, Sadie Vimmerstedt. 聽The song was released in 1959.

This song has been sung by many fine artists, including Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra, James Brown and Lena Horne. But I believe that Tony Bennett has owned this song from the day he first recorded it. 聽Johnny Mercer stated that Tony Bennett’s recording of I Wanna Be Around was his favorite interpretation of any song he ever wrote; not just this song, but of all the songs he ever wrote. It doesn’t get much better than that. The perfect song from my very favorite singer and one of my most favorite songwriters. It’s hard to beat.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded this version of I Wanna Be Around in October, 1962; it was released on Bennett’s 1963 album, I Wanna Be Around. 聽It was arranged and conducted by Marty Manning and was produced by Ernie Altschuler. Mr. Bennett sings this song 聽frequently in his concerts. It’s a personal favorite of this author.