Tony Bennett would have turned one hundred this week.
Few singers had careers that spanned as much of American musical life. From the era of the Rat Pack through the final years of his life, Bennett remained one of the great interpreters of the American songbook, recording with everyone from Count Basie and Bill Evans to Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga.
His own career had its ups and downs. But in the 1990s, encouraged by his son and manager Danny Bennett, it entered an extraordinary new chapter. MTV Unplugged introduced him to a younger audience, Grammy Awards followed, and a series of later collaborations with contemporary singers extended his reach well into the twenty-first century.
In 1992, just before that resurgence began, Bennett sat down with WBGO's Michael Bourne for Singers Unlimited.
Listening back today, what you hear is an artist still deeply engaged with the music he had devoted his life to and the writers whose work he returned to night after night.
Tony Bennett spent more than seventy years singing these songs. Listening back to this conversation, it’s easy to hear where his true heart belonged, no matter where he may have left it along the way.
You can hear Bennett’s full 1992 conversation with Michael Bourne from the WBGO Archives here
