Product Details

• Actors: Tony Bennett, Christina Aguilera, Chris Botti, Michael Buble, Elton John
• Directors: Rob Marshall
• Format: NTSC, Color
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Studio: Sony
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000LLCY2U
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #216,614 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Limited Edition contains exclusive performance and interview footage not available on the standard release. Tracks: 1."Smile" w/ Barbra Streisand 2."Sing You Sinners" w/ John Legend 3."Because Of You" w/ k.d. lang and Chris Botti 4."The Best Is Yet To Come" w/ Diana Krall 5."The Shadow Of Your Smile" w/ Juanes 6."Rags To Riches" w/ Elton John 7."Just In Time" w/ Michael Buble 8."For Once In My Life" w/ Stevie Wonder 9."Steppin' Out With My Baby" w/ Christina Aguilera 10."I Left My Heart In San Francisco" Tony Bennett 11."If I Ruled The World" Product Description: TONY BENNETT: AN AMERICAN CLASSIC is a ground-breaking television event that takes us on a musical journey of this legendary entertainer's life. Re-creating the venues of Tony's career, from the downtown Greenwich Village club where Tony was discovered, to the Columbia recording studios of the early 60's, from rat pack Las Vegas to Carnegie Hall, Tony will be joined for each show-stopping number by the myriad of superstars that appear with him on his Duets album. In a bold re-invention of the form, each set piece was filmed as a small movie by an Academy Award-winning team, lead by director Rob Marshall (Memoirs Of A Geisha, Chicago.) Seamlessly woven throughout the program will be introductions and narrative insights. This event invites us to celebrate the life of who Frank Sinatra called "the greatest singer ever." As the special ends, Tony Bennett will take the empty stage, this time alone, and deliver his signature classic, "I Left My Heart In San Francisco."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rob Marshall's Creative Energy Sparks a Worthy, Ultra-Stylish Celebration of Bennett's Career, November 26, 2006

By 

Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tony Bennett - American Classic (DVD)

To accompany his lustrous "Duets" CD, perennial crooner Tony Bennett recruited some first-rank talent behind and before the cameras to help him produce this remarkable TV special to commemorate his 80th birthday. It is at once a throwback to the network variety specials from the 1960's and 70's (before pay-cable rendered them obsolete) and a reinvention of the format incorporating biographical elements within the context of mini-video performances. The result aired on NBC earlier this week as an hour-long special. Without commercials, the program scarcely runs forty minutes, but it remains a superbly crafted showcase for a timeless singer. Thanks to Rob Marshall's innovative conception and immaculate direction, the show follows a roughly chronological timeline of Bennett's career with nine starry-eyed duets connected by brief snippets of his professional milestones.

Things start on a high note with Bennett in an empty theater singing Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" joined by a mellifluous-sounding Barbra Streisand, his most accomplished partner for the evening. In a jazz nightclub setting, he is surrounded by the acrobatic Tony Bennett Dancers and swings though "Sing, You Sinners" with a confident John Legend. In a recording booth at Columbia Studios, Bennett sings his first hit, "Because of You" accompanied by smoky vocals from k.d. lang and a languorous trumpet solo by Chris Botti. Visually, my favorite part of the program is the black-and-white recreation of the 1960's-style variety show complete with dancers in sailor tops and Capri pants. In this segment, Diana Krall joins Bennett on a finger-snapping "The Best Is Yet to Come" followed by a sonorous version of "The Shadow of Your Smile" given a samba-accented makeover by Columbian rock singer Juanes.

The inevitable Vegas sequence features a bevy of feather-fanned showgirls. In this milieu, Bennett is joined by Elton John on a jaunty "Rags to Riches", by new-jack crooner Michael Bublé on a swinging "Just in Time" (whose Dean Martin-style behavior may rankle the more feminist-minded), and finally by a surprisingly stationary Stevie Wonder leaning heavily on his melisma on his own "For Once in My Life" (which includes his trademark harmonica interlude). To show his popularity with the current crop of chart-toppers, Bennett is joined by a retro-styled Christina Aguilera and the dancers in full Fosse mode on "Steppin' Out". It all ends appropriately with a shimmering solo of Bennett's signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco".

Providing the spoken interludes between the performances are Billy Crystal, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bruce Willis, John Travolta and Robert DeNiro. At about 45 minutes in total, the extras on the DVD actually last longer than the special itself. They start with a 2 1/2-minute trailer and go right into footage of the dancers rehearsing their four production numbers. What follows is an extensive making-of featurette which features interviews with Marshall, choreographer John DeLuca and other key members of the creative staff interspersed with behind-the-scenes footage.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where are the clowns?, November 24, 2006

By 

Bruce London - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tony Bennett - American Classic (DVD)

I've seen Tony 5 times live and have all his records. The dvd was great, what there was of it! PLEASE, what happened to the filming with Sting, Bono, Celine, Mcgraw etc??????If time was a problem then I have no problem with the edited program-a one hour special on TV. BUT, why didn't Sony film the rest and offer it to us on a full length dvd???I would gladly have paid for a complete film. Shame on you Sony!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tony Bennett American Classic, December 24, 2006

By 

R. Stapleford "Rosanne" (Nashua New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tony Bennett - American Classic (DVD)

This DVD was excellent as far as it went. However I saw the show when it was presented on TV. I was very disappointed that when veiwing the DVD at least four maybe more artists were left off . I never would have bought this product had I known that it was not complete. I feel cheated and want others to realize that they are not getting a complete show.