Remembering
- 35 Songs
- Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album · 2019
- Winter Wonderland - Single · 2014
- A Swingin' Christmas (feat. Count Basie and His Big Band) · 2008
- The Classic Christmas Album · 1998
- A Swingin' Christmas (feat. Count Basie and His Big Band) · 2008
- Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album · 2019
- Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album · 1900
- A Swingin' Christmas (feat. Count Basie and His Big Band) · 2008
- I Left My Heart In San Francisco · 1962
- Sixty Years: The Artistry of Tony Bennett · 1952
Essential Albums
- As a singer, one might cynically argue, Fred Astaire was a terrific dancer. Yet, like fellow hoofer Gene Kelly, Astaire had a way of personalizing his vocal performances in ways that often soared above his thin vocal gifts. Combine that innate gift with pipes as strong, burnished and studiously exercised as Tony Bennett's on a slate of songs that span the dancer's halcyon days at RKO and MGM, and musical alchemy of the highest order results. Given the stellar songwriters involved (Porter, Berlin, Kern, the Gershwins), the collection also serves double-duty as Bennett's de facto American songbook album, a decade before such conceits became but cynical marketing shtick. Indeed, Bennett's rich career was already undergoing a significant resurgence (thanks largely to the diligent guidance of son/manager Danny) when this 1993 album was released on the heels of the singer's equally accomplished Sinatra tribute, Perfectly Frank. It would go on to become a significant commercial success as well, netting Bennett another deserved Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal.
- After long rebuffing record label pleas to record material more in tune with the rock-pop fashions of the day, Tony Bennett found himself without a recording contract in the '70s. It was a development that only focused the singer more intently on his craft in general — and his life-long love of jazz, in particular — leading directly to this brilliant 1975 collaboration with the singular talents of pianist Bill Evans. The spare, European classicism that made the pianist's work so intriguing gently coaxes Bennett into some of his most introspective, refined, yet undeniably dramatic performances on "Some Other Time" and "The Days of Wine and Roses." Their interplay on "Young and Foolish," "My Foolish Heart" and "But Beautiful" are gorgeous reminders of the almost telepathic bond that can develop between musicians working at the peak of their powers in supportive creative environs. Now including five insightful, previously unreleased alternate takes, it's an album whose influence still seems to waft through Bennett's performances with the Ralph Sharon trio decades later.
- Eleven years after his first chart hit, Tony Bennett found his signature number in a bittersweet ode to a West Coast city penned by George Cory and Douglass Cross. The singer’s recording of “(I Left My Heart) In San Francisco” became an immediate standard, earning him a gold record as well as a pair of GRAMMY Awards. The tune was the centerpiece of Bennett’s 1962 album of the same title, a collection that reflected his newly regained sense of creative direction. Balancing romantic balladry with exuberant upbeat material, Bennett's at the top of his game here. Songs like “Tender Is the Night,” “Have I Told You Lately?,” and “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” are rendered with his distinct blend of suavity and sincerity. With the assistance of producer Ernest Altschuler and arranger/pianist Ralph Sharon, Bennett stretches out stylistically, embracing a bossa nova reworking of “Love for Sale” and veering into country territory for “Candy Kisses.” His smoldering take on “The Best Is Yet to Come” is at once urgent and classy. If there were any doubts that Bennett is a singer for the ages, this knockout album puts them to rest for good.
- 2012
Artist Playlists
- Pop crooning and jazz swing from an icon of American song.
- The master singer visibly shines across duets and standards.
- The most romantic late-night tunes.
- His cool, collected voice flexes its range across collaborations.
Live Albums
- 2013
More To Hear
- The duo host a launch party for their album 'Love For Sale.'
More To See
About Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett cut his teeth singing in front of the toughest of audiences as a teenage army-band performer entertaining hardened troops stationed in Europe during World War II. Ever since, he carried the determination and gusto he learned back then through an epic career as America’s consummate crooner. During his initial star-making streak in the ’50s and ’60s, the New York City-born Bennett displayed both a pop singer’s flair for spotlight-seizing spectacle (listen to that soaring, curtain-closing vocal flourish on “(I Left My Heart) In San Francisco”) and a muso’s ear for jazzy improvisation (which blossomed on his supremely swinging albums with Count Basie). Bennett was always in crowd-pleasing mode—you can practically see his smile as he sashays through the big-band orchestration of “The Best Is Yet to Come.” But the natural grit in his voice could also imbue a ballad like Hank Williams’ “Cold, Cold Heart” with palpable melancholy and regret (the singer’s more artistic impulses were channeled into a parallel career as a painter of impressionistic portraits and landscapes). Always faithful to the standards, Bennett’s staunch refusal to conform to trends made him an unlikely hero to alternative rockers and modern pop firebrands alike, with latter-day duet partners like Elvis Costello and Lady Gaga lining up to bask in the eternal charisma that Bennett always exuded so effortlessly. Bennett died in July 2023 at the age of 96.
- BORN
- August 3, 1926
- GENRE
- Jazz