Through her telling her audience how much she likes me, all of them became fans of mine, all these young teenagers. She helped me and I helped her by doing Cheek to Cheek. Gaga is a gorgeous singer, and when she sings a great ballad, I get goose bumps. You’ve brought a lot of classic songs to younger generations, whether it’s from MTV Unplugged or your collaboration with Lady Gaga … It shows you just how the right way to think about the elimination of racial prejudice.
She kept saying to me, all the time, “Tony, we’re all here.” That one sentence, those three words, says it all. She said it all, in one sentence, about racial prejudice. I used to go to her home, and she was wonderful. She was my neighbor in Hollywood when I lived there. In 1963, Ella Fitzgerald did her own album of Kern covers. He taught every great composer about which way to go with the Songbook.” He’s the one who said, “Let’s do Kern,” and I said, “Why do you want to do Jerome Kern?” He said, “Because he was the top. He really impressed me as a magnificent jazz artist, a highly intellectual person. They couldn’t believe he was writing the songs he was writing. He impressed all the greatest composers, like Cole Porter and Gershwin. Well, for many years, I’ve always been attached to what they call the Great American Songbook, and Kern was a great leader of that because he had the classical training of Europe. To start off, when were you first introduced to the songs of Jerome Kern? Perched on a couch surrounded by his paintings, Bennett discussed the Great American Songbook, memories of Amy Winehouse and Ella Fitzgerald, why he’s not a fan of Goodfellas, and what he and Gaga have in store for their next album. The 89-year-old crooner is here to talk about his new album, The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, a covers collection dedicated to the early 20th-century composer who wrote such classics as “The Way You Look Tonight,” “All the Things You Are,” and “I’m Old Fashioned.” It’s Bennett’s 45th LP to chart on the Billboard 200, following last year’s Cheek to Cheek, his No. And he was clear that it would be an album of songs by Cole Porter.“I’ve never been more successful than I am now,” Tony Bennett says with wonderment, sitting in his art studio overlooking Central Park. So was it always clear that there would be a sequel?Īccording to Lady Gaga, they had barely finished Cheek to Cheek when Tony started talking about a follow-up. Gaga's sincere attraction to that tradition was something they hoped would resonate with her fan base. Tony has devoted his life to a celebration of the Great American Songbook, and the art of jazz singing. And this is something both artists told me they wanted to achieve. Isn't that extraordinary chart success for any jazz album? According to Guinness, that's a record he still holds. And as for Tony Bennett: he was 88 when Cheek to Cheek topped the charts in 2014, which made him the oldest artist ever to score a No. There's nowhere to hide, musically, when you're singing in this style. As she told me at the time, Lady Gaga was seeking a certain validation as a singer - and having the Bennett benediction, so to speak, really put her in a different light. I imagine both artists gained something from their pairing. Music Interviews Tony Bennett Retires From Performing: Listen Back To His 'Fresh Air' Interviews