 Tony Bennett's career has enjoyed three distinct phases, each
of them very successful. In the early '50s, he scored a series of major hits
that made him one of the most popular recording artists of the time. In the
early '60s, he mounted a comeback as more of an adult-album seller. And from the
mid-'80s on, he achieved renewed popularity with generations of listeners who
hadn't been born when he first appeared. This, however, defines Tony Bennett
more in terms of marketing than music. He himself probably would say that, in
each phase of his career, he has remained largely constant to his goals of
singing the best available songs the best way he knows how. Popular taste may
have caused his level of recognition to increase or decrease, but he continued
to sing popular standards in a warm, husky tenor, varying his timing and
phrasing with a jazz fan's sense of spontaneity to bring out the melodies and
lyrics of the songs effectively. By the start of the 21st century, Tony Bennett
seemed like the last of a breed, but he remained as popular as ever.
Tony Bennett's first hit, "Because of You," topped the charts
in September 1951, succeeded at number one by his cover of Hank Williams' "Cold,
Cold Heart." Following another five chart entries over the next two years, he
returned to number one in November 1953 with "Rags to Riches." Its follow-up,
"Stranger in Paradise" from the Broadway musical Kismet, was another
chart-topper, and in 1954 Bennett also reached the Top Ten with Williams'
"There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight" and "Cinnamon Sinner." The rise of rock &
roll in the mid-'50s made it more difficult for Tony Bennett to score big hits,
but he continued to place singles in the charts regularly through 1960, and even
returned to the Top Ten with "In the Middle of an Island" in 1957. Meanwhile, he
was developing a nightclub act that leaned more heavily on standards and was
exploring album projects that allowed him to indulge his interest in jazz;
notably 1957's The Beat of My Heart, on which he was accompanied mainly by jazz
percussionists, and 1959's In Person With Count Basie and His Orchestra. By the
early '60s, although he had faded as a singles artist, he had built a successful
career making personal appearances and recording albums of well-known songs in
the manner of Frank Sinatra.
In 1962, Tony Bennett introduced "I Left My Heart in San
Francisco," a ballad written by two unknown songwriters, George Cory and
Douglass Cross, who had pitched it to his pianist, Ralph Sharon. Released as a
single by Columbia, the song took time to catch on, and although it peaked only
in the Top 20, it remained on one or the other of the national charts for almost
nine months. It became Tony Bennett's signature song and pushed his career to a
higher level. The I Left My Heart in San Francisco album reached the Top Five
and went gold, and the single won Tony Bennett Grammy Awards for Record of the
Year and Best Solo Vocal Performance, Male. Bennett's next studio album, 1963's
I Wanna Be Around, also made the Top Five, and its title track was another Top
20 hit, as was Bennett's next single, "The Good Life," also featured on the
album. For the next three years, Tony Bennett's albums consistently placed in
the Top 100, along with a series of charting singles that included the Top 40
hits "Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)" (from the Broadway musical The
Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd) and "If I Ruled the World"
(from the Broadway musical Pickwick).
By the late '60s, Tony Bennett's record sales had cooled off
as major-record labels like Columbia turned their attention to the lucrative
rock market. Just as Mitch Miller had encouraged Tony Bennett to record novelty
songs over his objections in the 1950s, Clive Davis, head of Columbia parent CBS
Records, encouraged him to record contemporary pop/rock material. He acquiesced
on albums such as Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today!, but his sales did not
improve. In 1972, he left Columbia for MGM Records, but by the mid-'70s he was
without a label affiliation, and he decided to found his own record company,
Improv, to record the way he wanted to. He made several albums for Improv,
including a duet record with jazz pianist Bill Evans, but the label foundered in
1977.
By the late '70s, however, Tony Bennett did not need hit
records to sustain his career, and he worked regularly in concert halls around
the world. By the mid-'80s, there was a growing appreciation of traditional pop
music, as performers such as Linda Ronstadt recorded albums of standards. In
1986, Tony Bennett re-signed to Columbia Records and released The Art of
Excellence, his first chart album in 14 years. Now managed by his son Danny,
Tony Bennett shrewdly found ways to attract the attention of the MTV generation
without changing his basic style of singing songs from the Great American
Songbook while wearing a tuxedo. By the early '90s, he was as popular as he had
ever been. The albums Perfectly Frank (1992, a tribute to Frank Sinatra) and
Steppin' Out (1993, a tribute to Fred Astaire) went gold and won Bennett
back-to-back Grammys for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance. But his
comeback was sealed by 1994's MTV Unplugged, featuring guest stars Elvis
Costello and k.d. lang, which went platinum and won the Grammy for Album of the
Year. Tony Bennett became a Grammy perennial, also taking home Best Traditional
Pop Vocal Performance awards for Here's to the Ladies (1995) and On Holiday: A
Tribute to Billie Holiday (1997). In 2001, he released Playin' With My Friends:
Tony Bennett Sings the Blues, an album of duets. One year later, he expanded the
concept to a full disc, recording A Wonderful World co-billed with k.d. lang.
The Art of Romance followed in 2004. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Contact Grabow for more information or to book Tony Bennett
for your next corporate or private event.
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