Duets: An American Classic

Tony Bennett

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 26, 2006)
• Original Release Date: September 26, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000H0MKGU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (251 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,039 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

At this point, who else but Tony Bennett would have the clout to round up stars on the scale of Elton John, Paul McCartney, Bono, Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand for some duets? (Note also that unlike some similar projects, all the parties involved on this CD were alive when it was recorded!) The material consists of relatively obvious classics in standard big-band arrangements, and Bennett himself is in top form at age 80, so much so that he doesn't need anybody else to handle "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." But the fun comes from checking out how his collaborators fare. The Dixie Chicks provide wonderful Andrews Sisters–type harmonies on the percolating version of "Lullaby of Broadway" that opens the festivities. The best songs tend to be the ones where Bennett's slightly craggy voice is juxtaposed to smooth female ones, like Diana Krall on "The Best Is Yet to Come," familiar accomplice k.d. lang on the sultry "Because of You" and Streisand—-perhaps Bennett's only equal in stature at this point—on "Smile." Among the less expected guests, soulman John Legend is a revelation on the hard-swinging "Sing, You Sinners," while George Michael confirms he’s quite the crooner on "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" Elvis Costello, Celine Dion or Juanes don't sound as comfortable, and sometimes it feels as if they overdo it to compensate, but overall this collection is among the best of its kind, with most guests rising to the occasion. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Product Description

Perfecting the art of excellence for over six decades, with 105 albums selling over 50 million copies, Tony Bennett has come to represent the essence of elegance, tradition and artistic accomplishments. Tony celebrates his 80th birthday recording Duets of his greatest hits with today's greatest artists: Bono, Michael Bublé, Elvis Costello, Celine Dion, Dixie Chicks, Billy Joel, Elton John, Juanes, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, John Legend, Paul McCartney, Tim McGraw, George Michael, Sting, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, and Stevie Wonder.

More from Tony Bennett

The Art of Romance	A Wonderful World (with k. d. lang)	Perfectly Frank: An American Classic Celebrates 80
Basie Swings, Bennett Sings (DVD)	The Movie Song Album	The Classic Collection (Box Set)

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For a couple of Grammys...a merely commercial exercise., March 9, 2007

By	Mr.Style Joe "music connoisseur" (Boston,MA) - See all my reviews

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.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars When faded stars see double ., May 25, 2007

By	power (London, UK) - See all my reviews

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 A Wonderful World that 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, Diana Krall, 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 !!
Listen to the following ones!
The Essential Tony Bennett
The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album
The Art of Excellence

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I really loved him., April 24, 2007

By	Marie deVarenne (Boston, MA and Leeds, UK) - See all my reviews

There's little more dispiriting than the sound of ageing stars frantically chasing after their lost youth. Last autumn we've seen 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 really loved Tony Bennett. This album looks good on the paper, it sounds good as a background music, but I just do not feel it.