Sunday, September 24, 2006

Just in Time

Tony Bennett is one of my favorite singers, so I was very excited to see him on the front of the "Arts and Books" section of the AJC this morning. The article focuses on his new album "Duets: An American Classic," which is set to come out on Tuesday. Check out this list of people he's singing with on the new album:
  • Bono
  • Michael Buble
  • Elvis Costello
  • Celine Dion
  • Dixie Chicks
  • Billy Joel
  • Elton John
  • Juanes
  • Diana Krall
  • k.d. lang
  • John Legend
  • Paul McCartney
  • Tim McGraw
  • George Michael
  • Sting
  • Barbara Streisand
  • James Taylor
  • Stevie Wonder

It's amazing that at 80 years old (his birthday was August 3, the day before mine), he can still sing so well and collaborate with so many famous artists.

My favorite quotes from the article:

"So he comes to the studio prepared, expects his partner to do likewise, and after a little relaxation and rehearsal, the idea is to nail it —- 'three or four takes and you have it.' (You may have heard a song by Bennett about leaving his heart in San Francisco. That version released in 1962? One take.)" Wow. One take. That's amazing.

"'He completely shaped pop music,' singer K.D. Lang once said. 'You hear his influence and his phrasing everywhere.'"

4 comments:

jinx protocol said...

Yeah, Claider, but the flipside is also (potentially) true: when an artist collaborates with a lot of people, it's an attempt to boost otherwise - I don't want to say "bad" - bad sales.

Either that, or it's the Santana philosophy, that adheres to the "I'll just sing crappy songs with popular pop singers and try to sell a million records" philosophy.

Claire Miller said...

pshhh. tony bennett is the man and i'm sure all of those people are really excited about singing with him. just watch the footage of paul mccartney and tony on the borders/amazon webpage for the album and you'll see lol.

Brian said...

Well you have to wonder... he has so many singers on his new cd, how much original stuff of his is actually going on? I mean, half the cd is other people? I know, it's called duets, it makes sense, but it definately seems to me as if Tony didn't have enough to put out another cd all by himself. Even so, props to him; I'd have given up the ghost a long time ago.

jinx protocol said...

Well, tell me the last Paul McCartney album that was anygood and I'll give you a shiny new nickel.