Tony Bennett: Enduring Appeal

This week’s news that 94-year-old singer Tony Bennett, “an artist for all ages,” as the Library of Congress once described him, has been battling Alzheimer’s Disease for the last few years, little noted by fans of his many continuing live and recorded performances, prompts posting this Newsweek On Air conversation with him in 1986, as his album The Art of Excellence was released.

We talked then about the resurgent appeal and enduring power of the Great American Songbook that he continued to personify and champion – especially in duets with a new generation of pop stars like Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse and Diana Krall that enlightened and enlarged their audiences and his own.

“He is doing so many things, at 94, that many people without dementia cannot do,” neurologist Gayatri Devi says in a new AARP magazione article. “He really is the symbol of hope for someone with a cognitive disorder.” Says his wife, Susan: “There’s a lot about him that I miss. Because he’s not the old Tony anymore. But when he sings, he’s the old Tony.”

https://archive.org/details/newsweekonair_860914_complete @ 36:23

 Enjoy!