Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto, known professionally by his stage name Tony Bennett, is an American singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. He is also a painter, having created works under the name Anthony Benedetto that are on permanent public display in several institutions. He is the founder of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, New York...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPop Singer
Date of Birth3 August 1926
CityQueens, NY
CountryUnited States of America
Sometimes the teacher would tell me that if you're singing a love song and you just don't feel it with a person or something you've experienced, just think of a dog or cat that you love.
Just give a drum roll, announce my name & I come out & sing. I have a contract that says I'm a singer. So I sing.
I think one of the reasons I'm popular again is because I'm wearing a tie. You have to be different.
I have to say I owe my career to the master composers of the Great American Songbook who have written such high-quality songs - the best popular music ever composed.
I try to tell the story about the song with the believability that I've lived it myself and I understand what it's all about.
I'm still learning about music. The best way to learn is to listen to the audience. When you listen to the audience, they will tell you what they like. I wish these big corporations, instead of telling the audience what they should have, would listen.
The bottom line of any country is: what did we contribute to the world? We contributed Louis Armstrong.
If you are creative, you get busier as you get older.
What I really search for is something that I really love hearing, something that's my own private game: If I find a song I really like, I try to do a definitive version.
I'm not the type of person who likes to look backwards. I've always felt compelled to move forward and I've never been one to dwell in the past. All the people I've met, all the places I've been, and all the things that I've done have simply been part of who I am.
We're in an era where the demand is for immediate hits that are destined to become obsolescent. Six months later, everyone forgets the artist and the tune. It's become like a con job. Producers, engineers, lawyers and accountants all make money, but the artists don't.
It's really quite a situation. It's ridiculous. I make $200,000, $300,000 a night. For years I was working little dives, and if I got $700 a week, I'd say, "Wow, I'm really cooking.
I left my heart in San Francisco, high on a hill, it calls to me. To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars, the morning fog may chill the air, I don't care. My love waits there in San Francisco, above the blue and windy sea, when I come home to you, San Francisco , your golden sun will shine for me.
I think in all of the arts there are just certain people that have a gift. I think it's a certain spirituality, it's a God-given gift that just certain individuals have.