Excerpt
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): A classic from the 1930s, popularized by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the kind of song you might still expect from one of the greatest ever crooners of American standards, Tony Bennett,
(SINGING)
JEFFREY BROWN: But not so much from his duet partner, Lady Gaga, one of today’s mega pop stars. She is known for her shape-shifting persona and over-the-top performances. Her millions of devout followers call themselves Little Monsters, and for hits like “Bad Romance.”
(SINGING)
JEFFREY BROWN: But there they are together, dancing cheek to cheek on a new album that hit number one on the charts, as well as a PBS “Great Performances” special debuting tonight.
The 88-year-old Bennett is one of the last of a bygone era that included Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dean Martin. Later in life, he’s been reaching out to collaborate with artists often well outside his generation or genre, or both.
In 2011, for example, he celebrated his 85th birthday by recording with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Willie Nelson, the late Amy Winehouse, and other stars, including Lady Gaga.
That experience, he told me yesterday in New York, made him want to work with Lady Gaga again.
TONY BENNETT, Singer: I love performing with her and she loves performing with me. And she happens to be a wonderful jazz singer. She improvises beautifully. Funny enough, she started out as a jazz singer, and was kind of turned down. The promoters said, you know, do something more contemporary that the young people like and all that.
And she regretted it. When I listened to her, I said, by the way, you sing so spontaneously and beautiful. Let’s do a jazz album together. And she said, I would love it. And so I put together a tremendous swing, big band, the best jazz artists around.
JEFFREY BROWN: You, 88.
TONY BENNETT: Eighty-eight, right.
JEFFREY BROWN: Why are you still doing this?
TONY BENNETT: I love it.
I had a — I was blessed with a wonderful Italian-American family. My father died when I was 10 years old. And all my relatives, aunt, uncles, nieces, nephews, they would come over every Sunday. And my brother, my sister and myself would entertain them. They would make a circle around us.
And it was just at the time, being 10 years old, I was saying, what am I going to do in life? Who is — is anybody ever going to know me or anything like that? And my family would say, we like the way you sing and we like the way you paint those flowers. So they created a passion in me of always trying to improve.
And here I am, 88, and I’m still working and trying to get better and better at what I’m doing.
Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett – Cheek to Cheek (Full Album)
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