The legendary Tony Bennett, now 81 years old, together with Danny Bennett his manager who is also his son, revealed the background to the extraordinary success of his career as a recording artist to a packed audience on Wednesday. In a seminar on the power of music hosted by the Grey Group, Bennett said the driving force behind his music – and painting – is passion.
“I believe that real music gives you soul, makes you a human being and lasts forever,’ Bennett said. The singer who is identified with his theme song, I Left My Heart In San Francisco, also talked about how he never sings the same song, the same way twice. Asked whether he ever gets tired of singing his songs over and over, he replied, “Do you ever get tired of making love?’
One of the rules of his career is not to release a recording unless he believes that “20 to 30 to 40 years from now, it won’t sound dated’.
On the success of a brand, Bennett believes that music can create a brand more successfully as it is more accessible than other brands – it can be heard at any time and in any place. Music also has the quality to make connections for the listener that will call up remembrances. “Your first kiss and your first date… You hear the song that was playing then and it instantly takes you back in time,’ said Bennett who for many people around the world is associated with the romance of an occasion.
Tony Bennett Talks Music was a follow up on the successful Grey seminar last year on music and its place in communication which focussed on the US soul singer, John Legend.
