Product Details
Artist : Tony Bennett
Binding : Audio CD
EAN : 0828768097922
Label : Sony Music Canada Inc.
Number of Discs : 1
Product Group : Music
Release Date : 2006-09-26
UPC : 828768097922
ASIN : B000H0MKGU
Track Listings for
Disc-1
1. LULLABY OF BROADWAY duet with Dixie Chicks
2. SMILE duet with Barbra Streisand
3. PUT ON A HAPPY FACE duet with James Taylor
4. THE GOOD LIFE duet with Billy Joel
5. THE SHADOW OF YOUR SMILE duet with Juanes
6. RAGS TO RICHES duet with Elton John
7. THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU duet with Paul McCartney
8. COLD, COLD HEART duet with Tim McGraw
9. IF I RULED THE WORLD duet with Celine Dion
10. THE BEST IS YET TO COME duet with Diana Krall
11. FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE duet with Stevie Wonder
12. ARE YOU HAVIN ANY FUN? duet with Elvis Costello
13. BECAUSE OF YOU duet with k.d. lang
14. JUST IN TIME duet with Michael Bublé
15. THE BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS duet with Sting
16. I WANNA BE AROUND - duet with Bono
17. SING, YOU SINNERS duet with John Legend
18. I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO
19. HOW DO YOU KEEP THE MUSIC PLAYING? duet with George Michael
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Customer Reviews
When faded stars see double . (2006-11-12)  Tony Bennett is the latest vocalist to turn to younger singing partners to bolster his declining years. The octogenarian crooner has won Grammys for this sort of thing before - the likeable 2003 album he did with k.d. lang. And she's back - though much further down the guest list - on this 20-track all-star cosmopolitan effort. But what a slog it is. Sure, Bennett's voice is still good in his 80th year whether he's doing his trademark matter-of-fact delivery or belting out the occasional lung-blasting high-note on the closing "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" with George Michael. But so many of the tracks seem oddly off-kilter with the various singing partners simply not up to the task (The Dixie Chicks doing the Andrews Sisters on "Lullaby of Broadway", James Taylor sounding less than cheerful on "Put On a Happy Face"), affected and incongruous (Sting) or overdoing it (Stevie Wonder and the ubiquitous screaming Selline from Canada). Some of that who's who manage to locate their inner swinger (Elton John, Paul McCartney, Bono, Elvis Costello). Otherwise, "Just in Time" with Michael Buble proves the difference between the genuine article and the young pretender. While having Barbra Streisand and George Michael and Delta Goodrem on one album together is surely a moment in pop history never to be repeated. Please?
Old master runs crooning school for celebrity wannabes. (2006-11-09) The star-studded duets album has become a rite of passage, though often, as in Ray Charles's case, an emptily sentimental one, if not a mere Christmas marketed cash-in project. Alas, Tony Bennett isn't the first to travel down the rocky duets path and he certainly won't be the last. Of course, there's nothing wrong with like-minded artists getting together and indulging in an extracurricular jam sessions, but that doesn't mean that the results should be inflicted on the world at large. Rare is the occasion when such pairings are based on any consideration of style or legacy. Frank Sinatra's 1993 "Duets" album, featuring collaborations with Gloria Estefan, Bono and Kenny G, was one of the low points of his career, made particularly excruciating by the ultra-slick production and the fact that the guest singers sang along to tapes of existing Sinatra performances. Ray Charles's final album, "Genius Loves Company", featuring, among others, Norah Jones,the ubiquitous Elton John, Natalie Cole, Diana Krall and and Willie Nelson, may have flown off the shelves in the wake of the great man's death but it was hardly the elegant swansong that critics and long-standing fans had in mind. Tony Bennett is too seasoned to make that mistake. Though he rounds up the usual suspects ( Elton John, Sting, Bono, Elvis Costello, Diana Krall ), Old Big Tony remains in charge. At 80, his chords aren't so nimble, but his phrasing and reading of the orchestra are effortless. Surprisingly, it's George Michael who comes closest to matching him here. For his signature song " I Left My Heart In San Francisco" : the piano becomes Bennett's partner for a wintry but eloquent swansong.
It looks good, it sounds good but I do not feel it ! (2006-10-24)  There's little more dispiriting than the sound of ageing stars frantically chasing after their lost youth. This autumn sees the release of Tony Bennett's "Duets: An American Classic", in which the octogenarian crooner revisits his signature hits alongside a raft of younger artists, from Bono ("I Wanna Be Around") and Sting ("Boulevard of Broken Dreams") to John Legend ("Sing You Sinners") and the Dixie Chicks ("Lullaby of Broadway"). There's no disputing that Bennett, whose career spans five decades, boasts a fine body of work. It's also fair to say that his golden years are now behind him, which makes it all the more distressing that, to mark his 80th birthday, he should see fit to pair up with a series of young pups and bask in their leather-clad glory. Surely a party and a birthday cake would have been more than adequate. This isn't the first time that Bennett has played the duets card. His last release, "A Wonderful World", a collection of songs associated with Louis Armstrong, was recorded with kd lang. Given that lang and Bennett are both gifted interpreters with pseudo-operatic voices, it made perfect sense and was widely praised. By contrast, "Duets: An American Classic" smacks of an artist who longs to stay musically relevant. On paper, at least, it's an album that belongs to that dubious Grammy-grabbing genre in which pop and rock royalty put on a glitzy show of mateyness while conspicuously failing to push the envelope. At 80, Bennett justly qualifies as "An American Classic." And he sounds like one on this starry duets set on which he's teamed with the so called SERIAL COLLABORATORS... a new generation of musicians, who have all but abandoned their own musical endeavours in favour of hitching a ride on those of older musicians..from Barbra Streisand, Diana Krall and Celine Dion to Bono, Chris Botti,Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Elton John and Sting...Actually, no "tribute" album, no duets album is complete these days without appearances from them... It's not just the poor quality of these duets that is depressing for listeners. In many cases you suspect that they are simply a gimmick cooked up by record companies at a loss with what to do with their ageing stars. Stuck with a crumbling icon too old and out of touch to scale the charts by themselves and there can be only one solution: squeeze them into a shell-suit, bring in a hip-hop producer and force them to hang with the kids. I like Tony Bennett and this allbum looks good, it sounds good, but I just do not feel it.
A few Grammys for...another merely commercial exercise. (2006-10-19) If you make it to 80, some companies give you a gold watch. Record companies prod you into recording a ''duets'' album with pop stars young enough to call you "grandpa". Tony Bennett's old-age pension CD is much less embarrassing than Frank Sinatra's post-70 Duets projects a decade ago. For starters, the ever-classy Bennett insisted on recording in the same studio with his "partners", even if it meant traveling to wherever they were across the globe. This makes "Duets: An American Classic" better than similar projects even though it's no ''American Classic.'' (No problem -- Bennett's catalog is graced with plenty of American classics: "Cloud 7", "Perfectly Frank" and "Hot & Cool: Bennett Sings Ellington", to name just three). On "Duets", there is noticeable interplay between the guests and Bennett -- sounding a bit huskier but still a singer's singer and endlessly charismatic. He and Barbra Streisand sound comfy and flirtatious on the oft-recorded "Smile" and Bennett and James Taylor get into the playful spirit of "Put on a Happy Face". Country star Tim McGraw is the big surprise -- not only that he's here, but that he sounds unrecognizable (and not half-bad) crooning Hank Williams' ballad "Cold, Cold Heart". Naturally, a lot of this feels awkward. Paul McCartney sounds stiff and self-conscious on "The Very Thought of You". Juanes doesn't sound right on "The Shadow of Your Smile", either.The Dixie Chicks are largely wasted on "Lullaby of Broadway".And Ms. Dion is over-the-top, as always, on "If I Ruled The World". Perhaps if the arrangements and song selection weren't so slavishly locked into the Great American Songbook way of doing things, "Duets" would be of more interest.3 *** just for my huge respect for Mr. Bennett.
2 thumbs up (2006-10-10) The sound is simple, fun, classy and classical. The CD sounds great! The perfect mix of music and vocals. The band is basically the piano, bass, drums and guitar (Because of You features Chris Botti on the trumpet with k.d. lang). The music is never overpowering, thus allowing the singers to exhibit their vocal talents. The music is crisp & clean and the voices are clean and crystal clear. This cd is remenicent of the great American Oldies with a twist of present day fun with present day artists (some may like it and others may not). Style may not be suitable for the masses. Listening to the CD in peace and quiet with your eyes closed can teleport you to a state of levitation. I can actually picture myself dancing amongst the clouds. My favorite song would have to be Lullaby of Broadway with Dixie Chicks. The voices of Barbra Steisand, Stevie Wonder and Michael Buble are outstanding.
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