Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
If you're a big loyal fan, this is not for you!, 13 Dec 2006
I think the idea of the CD was good, but it's too shoddy and if you're a loyal fan you probably won't like the other artists parts of the songs, I do agree they should pay respect to Tony, but this isn't as good as I thought it would of been. John Legend's "Sing You Sinners" was okay, and Barbra Streisand's version of "Smile" was good, not great though. However the best song on the CD is probably Tony Bennett going it alone in "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" It's such a great version! It's better than the original in my opinion.
I bought it off Itunes, and i've already got "The Ultimate Tony Bennett Album" on my ipod, so I just changed the "I left my heart..." versions around(If that made sense to anyone...lol).
I suggest you buy his Ultimate CD, or maybe one of the few compilations he has.
Overall it's a let down for me, but the idea of the artists paying tribute to the great Tony Bennett is such a great thing, you don't get people like Tony today.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It looks good, it sounds good, but I do not feel it !, 19 Nov 2006
There's little more dispiriting than the sound of ageing stars frantically chasing after their lost youth. This autumn sees 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 like Tony Bennett and this allbum looks good, it sounds good, but I just do not feel it.
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19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still going strong at 80., 19 Oct 2006
This album of duets has been released to celebrate Tony Bennett's 80th birthday but listening to the album it is impossible to believe you are listening to an 80 year old singing. While Tony's voice may not have the power and range of his prime it is still an excellent instrument and a joy to listen to and there is no one who can match his skill and experience when it comes to singing the great American songbook.
I cannot claim to have been familiar with all the artists who appear on this album but having heard their excellent performances I will be trying out some of their other work. Foe me a few of the highlights were `Smile' with Barbra Streisand, `Shadow of your smile' with Juanes, `Because of you' with kd lang and `How do you keep the music playing ` with George Michael.
All of the songs will be familiar to Bennett fans and many appear on the numerous compilation albums of his work. These are the songs that he has sung for years. He has never compromised as a singer always singing the songs he wanted to in his own style rather than being a slave to passing fashions in popular music. This has meant that his popularity has varied over the years but gives his work an integrity and strength that each new generation rediscovers.
This is a wonderful album that I have listened to at least once a day since I got it and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys good music and good singing.
Happy Birthday Tony.
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