Monday, April 25, 2016

Tony Bennett, the Man Who Sings to all Generations


This blog is about Tony Bennett. Some of you may be thinking of his album with Lady Gaga, or his duets with  k. d. lang, I however I'm thinking of the Tony Bennett who's been in my life since the 1950s.

First off, I want to apologize for my entire generation. We took his song," Lady of Spain," and changed the lyrics. We sang  "Lady of Spain I adore you. Pull down your pants I'll explore you."

At that point, we were into rock 'n roll, and we perceived Tony was singing to our parents generation. Ah, what fools we.

He then sang,  "I left my heart in San Francisco," and so many loved that song. I met many people, when I was living in Germany, who would say the words to the song and say San Francisco was the one place they wanted to visit, out of all cities.

He always said, "I'm not about creating big songs, I'm about creating great albums."

One of his albums had this beautiful song called "When Joanna loved me." Every once in a while I think about that song and the feelings it evokes. The song  went," When Joanna loved me, every  town was Paris, every day was Sunday, every month was May." To me this song  encapsulates what true love is all about. Now Tony Bennett speaks to a new audience, in the same way he spoke to my parents in the last days of the Great American Songbook.

Carry on Mr. Bennett, for  you sing for the ages.

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