Q: You’ve obviously covered many Gershwin standards. Question: Congratulations on being chosen as last year’s recipient of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.Īnswer: It was such a thrill to get the news that they had decided to present to me as a "song interpreter." The first record I ever made in 1949 was “Fascinating Rhythm” when I was just starting out and using the stage name Joe Bari, so to receive the Gershwin Prize at the age of 91 was an exceptional honor. We caught up with Bennett by email to talk about his life in music and the tour that brings him and his daughter, Antonia Bennett to Phoenix four days after he celebrates his 92nd birthday. Given his enduring impact as a masterful interpreter of the great American songbook, it makes sense that last year he became the first-ever recipient of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song to win that honor based not on his having written songs but on the strength of what he brings to other people's songs. He was 88 when "Cheek to Cheek," which takes its name from a 1935 Irving Berlin tune, hit No. Released in 2015, his latest album finds the singer exploring the songs of Jerome Kern a year after topping the charts with "Cheek to Cheek," a well-received collection of duets with Lady Gaga on such standards as "Anything Goes" and "Nature Boy." He excites me when I watch him - he moves me."
No lesser an authority than Frank Sinatra told Life magazine in 1965: "For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business, the best exponent of a song.
It's been 67 years since Tony Bennett topped the charts with his first million-selling hit, "Because of You."īy the time he won his first two Grammys 12 years later for "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," the star had refined his approach and found the voice that would sustain him as one of the most acclaimed song stylists ever. View Gallery: Tony Bennett through the years