The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: Rags To Riches

It’s Tony Bennett 1950s Hit Parade Week! And the song of the day for Wednesday, January 9, 2013 is Rags to Riches.

About Rags to Riches

Many readers will remember this song from the opening credits of Martin Scorcese’s Goodfellas, just after Ray Liotta says “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”

The song was written in 1953 by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. Alder and Ross first teamed up in 1950. They had the great fortune to be protégés of noted Broadway composer Frank Loesser. The pair wrote Broadway shows (Pajama Game and Damn Yankees) as well as popular songs during their time together.

Mr. Ross died at the young age of 29 in 1955, ending a partnership that was destined for many more great works. Mr. Adler passed away in June 2012.His obituary can be read at the New York Times.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded Rags to Riches in March 1953; it reached Number One on the Billboard charts that same year. The song has remained a part of Mr. Bennett’s repertoire to this day. It was arranged and conducted by Percy Faith.

Rags to Riches

Listen to Rags to Riches on Spotify. Song · Tony Bennett · 2011

Rags to Riches, as well as the full Columbia Singles: Volume 2, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Rags to Riches

The Song of the Day for  October 14, 2012 is Rags to Riches.

About Rags to Riches

This song was written by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. Tony Bennett’s original recording of the song was made in 1953 and reached #1 on the Billboard charts. Martin Scorsese fans may associate this song with Goodfellas, where it was used at the beginning of the film.

About This Version

We choose this song today in our preparation for Viva Duets, which will include a duet of this song with Romeo Santos. Today’s version is from Tony Bennett’s legendary 1962 Carnegie Hall Concert.

We’ve previously used Tony’s original recording of Rags to Riches as the song of the day. See the link below to view the topic for that version.

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Rags To Riches

I keep seeing Martin Scorsese doing his Siri – iPhone commercial on TV, which made me think of Goodfellas, which leads to me the Song of the Day for August 10, 2012: Rags to Riches. The song was written in 1953 by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross and was recorded by Tony Bennett in that same year.

Tony wrote about the song in the liner notes for Forty Years: The Artistry of Tony Bennett:
“This was one record on which I was way off, because I was way against doing it. Mitch Miller and Percy Faith practically had to tie me down to do it. I was wrong: in two weeks, it sold a half-million records in Pittsburgh alone, and it stayed 25 weeks on the charts, including eight as #1. As Confucius once said, ‘You must learn not only to give advice, but also to take it.'”

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Richard Adler

The Year of Tony Bennett notes the passing of lyricist Richard Adler, who died on June 21, 2012 at the age of 90.

Mr. Adler was best known for his collaboration with composer Jerry Ross. Together they created two major Broadway musicals: The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees. Later in his career, he worked on other musicals as well as classical music compositions.

He, along with Mr. Ross, wrote one of Tony Bennett’s early hits, Rags to Riches.

Obituaries:

The Guardian

Chicago Sun-Times

National Public Radio

The New York Times