An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett
The Year of Tony Bennett would like to recognize the anniversary of the birth of Mitch Miller on July 4, 1911.
I uncovered this video of Tony, Mitch with his oboe, and Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion from 1969. I kid you not. I will state that I don’t think Tony was cut out to smoke a pipe or, as in this video, use it as a prop.
The song of the day for Tuesday, July 4, 2017 is “Don’t Cry Baby.”
“Don’t Cry Baby” was written in 1929 by James P. Johnson, Saul Bernie and Stella Unger. Jimmy Johnson was a composer and pianist who, along with Jelly Roll Morton, came into prominence in the era between ragtime and the stride piano techniques in early jazz. Saul Bernie and Stella Unger were both composers who were active in the 1920s. It was first sung by Bessie Smith in 1929. Erskine Hawkins recorded it in 1943; this version reached #1 on the Harlem Hit Parade in 1943 and #15 on the popular charts. Etta James recorded it in 1961 as well.
Tony Bennett recorded “Don’t Cry Baby” on October 1, 1950. This time, his arranger was Norman Leyden; the recording was produced by Mitch Miller. This early recording has always fascinated me. It’s a great song and you can feel the young Bennett stretching out just a bit for this blues song.
The song of the day for Monday, July 3, 2017 is “Sing You Sinners.”
“Sing You Sinners” was written by W. Franke Harling and Sam Coslow for the 1930 film Honey, starring Lillian Roth. The song was an early hit in 1950 for Tony Bennett. He sings the song regularly in concerts today.
Tony Bennett recorded “Sing You Sinners” on July 20, 1950. It was release as a 78 rpm and on that newer format, the 45 rpm. Marty Manning did the arrangement and Mitch Miller was producer.
The song of the day for Saturday, July 1, 2017 is “.”
Harry Warren and Al Dubin wrote “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” in 1933 for the movie Moulin Rouge, where it was sung by Constance Bennett. Although numerous artists have recorded “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” (including Bing Crosby 1944), this song is very strongly identified with Tony Bennett. In fact, his demo record of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” was heard by Mitch Miller and got Bennett his first recording contract with Columbia Records.
Tony Bennett’s first recording session with Columbia Records was held on April 17, 1950 at the CBS 30th Street Studio. With Mitch Miller as producer, Bennett recorded four songs that day: “Let’s Make Love,” “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” “I Wanna Be Loved,” and our song of the day, “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”
In 2006, Tony Bennett recorded “The Boulevard of Broken Dream” with Sting for Duets: An American Classic. Here’s our duo in the recording studio, introduced by Phil Ramone.
The musical collaborator of the month for July 2017 is producer Mitch Miller.
Mitchell William Miller was born on July 4, 1911 and died at the age of 99 on July 31, 2010.
As a child, I can remember watching Sing Along With Mitch on television and I’m guessing a fair number of the readers of the blog remember that as well. Miller was a classically trained oboist, who started work in the record business in 1940 at Mercury Records in their classical music division. In 1950, he joined Columbia where he hired two new young artists: Rosemary Clooney and Tony Bennett.
I think many of us, myself included, have a love-hate viewpoint towards Mitch. On the one hand, he had the good sense to sign Tony Bennett to the label, sight-unseen, based on Bennett’s demo recording of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” On the other hand, though, he and Bennett had well-known disagreements about the kinds of songs Miller wanted him to record.
This month, we’ll be looking at some of these earl