Song of the Day 7/21: Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”
He was born Anthony Benedetto, but Bob Hope told him that was too long to fit on a marquee and renamed him Tony Bennett. In his 96 years he was known and befriended by a century’s worth of notable musicians and show-biz figures, from Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga. He died Friday, several years after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Bennett had hits throughout the 1950s, first as a crooner and later as a jazz singer, but he soared to stardom in 1963, when he won two Grammy Awards for “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” His career declined as rock came to dominate the charts, but he made a comeback in the ’80s as younger generations began to discover the Great American Songbook and appreciate his jazz-inflected renditions.
His New York Times obituary noted that he didn’t have the greatest set of pipes – back in 1962 their reviewer at Bennett’s breakthrough Carnegie Hall concert wrote, “The voice that is the basic tool of Mr. Bennett’s trade is small, thin and somewhat hoarse, but he uses it shrewdly and with a skillful lack of pretension.”
Frank Sinatra was more generous in his assessment a few years later. “He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He’s the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more.”
Bennett’s comeback never really waned. In recent years he made albums that paired him with singers young enough to be his grandchildren, including two LPs with Lady Gaga. This one was on the second, “Love For Sale,” released in 2021.
Lady Gaga’s vocal performance is as full of pretense as Bennett’s is empty of it. That sounds like a dig, but I actual really like her performance. It works. She is Lady Gaga.
Also righteous swinging arrangement.
Thanks for sharing this one.
That’s a great version of “Body and Soul.” Two great singers, together and separately. I miss Amy, but glad Tony was able to hang in there. Agree she sounds like Billie Holiday here, but I think she’s as good or better when she goes another way. For me, she blows Gaga out of the water.
Agree. But I think she puts Bennett in the shade on that duet, and I didn’t want that in this case.
When I said the version “here,” i meant the one by Tony and Amy that bamboozer referred to. But I guess it’s clear. Using the one with Gaga makes sense in the context.
Looks like bamboozer’s comment is no longer there. Or maybe I just imagined it.
It’s over on El Som’s open thread, along with the video of the duet with Amy.
Tony Bennett performed in Rockford Park on Aug. 12, 1988, to celebrate the City of Wilmington’s 350th birthday, and came back in 1993 to perform at the Grand Gala (NJ story written by an old, and much-missed, pal, the late great Jeff Williams.)
Was that the Jeff Williams who did some local theatre?
Yes.
He was in a play I directed. We had a mutual love of comic books, and bonded over Michael Chabon’s ‘The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier And Klay’.
Jeff did many things. He was also funny as shit. A lot of people were saddened by his early death.