The Everyday Magic of Tony Bennett

My appraisal of an irreplaceable singer, and a couple of stories I cherish.

Tony Bennett at the 2002 Newport Jazz Festival. More on that in a moment.

So, which Tony Bennett album did you reach for when you heard the news? Or was it a video? A streaming playlist? Tell me where your compass led.

Me? For personal reasons, I cued up footage from the 2002 Newport Jazz Festival. Bennett had celebrated his 76th birthday precisely one week prior. His set was a typical kaleidoscope of songbook excellence: Ellington, Gershwin, Berlin, Legrand. Also, this: “I Wanna Be Around,” composed by Johnny Mercer with a crucial assist from a Midwestern housewife named Sadie Vimmerstedt. Bennett was in fact the first to record the song, which he released on an album by the same name 60 years ago.

So much of what made Tony Bennett great resides in this two-and-a-half-minute clip. First of all, consider the effortless charm it takes to turn the main stage at Fort Adams into an intimate salon. (“I had a lot of hit songs when I was a young pup, you know,” he banters in the intro. “I had so many hit songs, I was the Britney Spears of my day.”)

Then check out the conversational saunter Bennett brings to the lyric, which was inspired by the romantic history of his pal Frank Sinatra. My old friend Mike Pereira put it this way in a text message tonight: “You could hear Bennett smiling as he sang. I cannot think of another singer for whom this is or was the case — at least as clearly.” Don’t miss the breezy octave leaps in the melodic line, a trademark of Bennett’s that somehow never felt like showboating. (There’s a classic example just after the two-minute mark, when he sings “just like yooouuu broke mine.”)

Bennett was every bit the gentleman his persona would lead you to believe. I’ve covered him a number of times over the years, but my favorite piece is this one for the New York Times in 2014 — “gifted” here, for anyone stymied by the paywall. I think it’s some of the strongest writing I ever did for Arts & Leisure, especially in the lede (my affectionate nod to Gay Talese, and IYKYK). The feature concerns Bennett’s first proper outing with Lady Gaga, and why their Odd Couple pairing made perfect sense. I have a story to tell about reporting the piece, which paid subscribers will find below.

But first: the Bennett-Gaga alliance — which helped him to his first-ever No. 1 album, and then his second — persisted after the Alzheimer’s that curtailed his recording career. A couple of years ago, as Columbia prepared to drop Love For Sale, their second album, I reported a story for NPR’s Morning Edition, speaking with Gaga as well as Bennett’s devoted wife, Susan Benedetto. Here’s the audio, which I still find touching.

Now I hope you’ll keep reading, not only for some backstory on Bennett / Gaga, but also for the bonds forged at Newport in 2002. (I’m biased, but it’s a pretty good tale.)