Today We Are Two

Two years ago today, I sat down at my computer and created a blog on WordPress called The Year of Tony Bennett and wrote my very first post:

Welcome to the Year of Tony Bennett

A few weeks after that, we got our own domain: bloggingtonybennett.com. About then I read that blogs that have frequent posts tend to do well, so I decided to start doing The Song of The Day and include Spotify links to those songs. This job was made a lot easier after Tony Bennett put his entire body of work up on iTunes as well as Spotify, letting me feature practically every song he’s ever released.

And so here we are. Here are a few numbers we’d like to share:

2	The number of people who comprise The Year of Tony Bennett.
1002	The total number of posts I’ve written in the last two years, about 620 of which are songs of the day. And quotes of the day too, which aren’t counted as posts.
379	The total number of comments submitted and approved.
53,535	The total number of page views.
6	The number of continents we’ve had visitors from. We’re still waiting on Antarctica.

And a few questions we’d like to answer:

Why do you call your blog The Year of Tony Bennett?
In December, 2011, I took my best friend to Seattle to see Tony Bennett at the Paramount Theatre. She became a fan about five minutes into the show, I think. In February, we had the opportunity to see Mr. Bennett again at one of the casinos in the area. That’s when we started thinking about The Year of Tony Bennett. We hit the jackpot in September, 2012, though when we got to see him three times in concert: Bumbershoot in Seattle, Monterey Jazz Festival and in San Diego. There was no turning back after that.

But you still call yourselves The Year of Tony Bennett … ?
Every year is the Year of Tony Bennett.

What are some of your favorite search strings that people have used to find your blog?
My favorite is “i just want to hear tony bennett and nobody else right now” followed by “bewiced bewildered”

Any favorite visitors to the blog?
Well, as far as I can tell, Santa Claus visited us last year:


Are you surprised that Santa Claus is a fan?
Absolutely not. Especially as he found what he was looking for: “I’m Coming Virginia.”

What else are you up to?
Ever since I started this blog, I found myself doing as much research as I could on the music of Tony Bennett, but sometimes had trouble finding the information I wanted. So, I decided to create the kind of Tony Bennett discography that I wish I could have found. Creating that site has been a fantastic experience.

What’s it called?
The Interactive Tony Bennett Discography … you can look at it here: discography.bloggingtonybennett.com

What’s in it?
Topics about every song, album and recording session that I can get information on. And it’s all linked together. It also includes lyrics, information about the song itself, and Spotify links for each version of each song.

Is it finished?
Not quite … I’ve got six albums left to do and a group of singles too. But we’ve got a good start and you’re welcome to come and visit us.

A few numbers about the discography:

67	Total number of album topics
209	The number of session topics
701	Song topics. That’s one topic per song, with multiple sections for each recording in that topic.
19,165	The total number of page views.
1,345	The total number of page views since Saturday. Thank you, Belgium. You are my new favorite country in the world.

So, what’s next?
Finish the first phase of the discography, which includes learning how to write code in order to have the kinds of searching options I want to have.

And then?
Start the second phase of the discography, which will catalogue all of the compilations and singles releases of Tony Bennett songs.

What about the blog?
Other than a couple of short vacations to go to the Monterey Jazz Festival, I’ve posted a song of the day and a quote of the day each and every day. Plus a video each Saturday. We have no plans to change that. It’s still a lot of fun to choose a song and write about it each day.

Sounds like you’ll be staying busy …?
Yes, but if I weren’t doing this, I’d be sitting around watching TV. This is definitely better.

And now I have a question for you: Does anyone know anyone stationed in Antarctica?

I’d like to end on a serious note. We are deeply honored by each and every visitor to the blog and the discography and want to thank everyone who has visited us in the last couple of years. Your time is valuable and we are touched each time you choose to spend a little or a lot of that time visiting one of our sites. We thank you very sincerely.

And, of course, there would be no reason in world for any of this if it weren’t for Tony Bennett, the greatest singer in the world. I am grateful each day for the body of work he has given us. Thank you so much for all that you give to all of your fans worldwide.