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22 November 2022

(Until 22 November)

Tony Bennett – Phantom Dancer 22 Nov 22

Tony Bennett, singer, is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. You’ll hear him and his music in a 1955 interview. Bennett has released over 70 albums during his career. The biggest selling of these in the U.S. have been I Left My Heart in San FranciscoMTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett, and Duets: An American Classic, all of which went platinum for shipping one million copies. Eight other albums of his have gone gold in the U.S. Bennett also charted over 30 singles during his career.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday22 November) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

EARLY YEARS & WAR

At age 10, Tony Bennett sang at the opening of the Triborough Bridge in New York City, standing next to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia who patted him on the head.

He began singing for money at age 13, performing as a singing waiter in several Italian restaurants around his native Queens.

Drawing was another early passion and he saw himself having a career in commercial art. He attended New York’s School of Industrial Art studying painting and music . He later appreciated their emphasis on proper technique.

He dropped out at age 16 to help support his family and worked as a copy boy and runner for the Associated Press in Manhattan

He then set his sights on a professional singing career, returning to performing as a singing waiter, playing and winning amateur nights all around the city, and having a successful engagement at a Paramus, New Jersey, nightclub

As an infantryman in the US Army from 1944 during World War 2 in Germany, Tony Bennett narrowly escaped death in combat several times. The experience made him a pacifist. He later wrote, “Anybody who thinks that war is romantic obviously hasn’t gone through one…It was a nightmare that’s permanent. I just said, ‘This is not life. This is not life.'” At the war’s end he was part of the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp near Landsberg.

Upon his discharge from the Army and return to the States in 1946, Tony Bennett studied at the American Theatre Wing on the GI Bill. He was taught bel canto singing which has kept his voice in good shape for his entire career.

NEW AUDIENCE

Around 1990, Tony’s son, Danny Bennett, (who you will hear as a 17 month old in the 1955 Tony Bennett interview in this week’s Phantom Dancer) felt that younger audiences who were unfamiliar with his father would respond to his music if given a chance. No changes to Tony’s formal appearance, singing style, musical accompaniment or song choice (generally the Great American Songbook) were necessary or desirable.

Danny began regularly to book his father on Late Night with David Letterman, a show with a younger, “hip” audience. This was subsequently followed by appearances on Late Night with Conan O’BrienThe SimpsonsMuppets Tonight, and various MTV programs.

In 1993, Bennett played a series of benefit concerts organized by alternative rock radio stations around the country. The plan worked; as Tony later remembered, “I realized that young people had never heard those songs. Cole Porter, Gershwin – they were like, ‘Who wrote that?’ To them, it was different. If you’re different, you stand out.”

Bennett was seen at MTV Video Music Awards shows side by side with the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Flavor Flav, and as his “Steppin’ Out with My Baby” video received MTV airplay, it was clear that, as The New York Times said, “Tony Bennett has not just bridged the generation gap, he has demolished it. He has solidly connected with a younger crowd weaned on rock. And there have been no compromises.”

His 1994 MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett album went platinum and, besides taking the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Grammy award for the third straight year, also won the top Grammy prize of Album of the Year.

TECHNIQUE

Bennett had no intention of retiring until his announcement on stage in 2021, saying that he had to retire due to health reasons. He was 95.

Refering to artists like Pablo PicassoJack Benny, and Fred Astaire, Bennett said “right up to the day they died, they were performing. If you are creative, you get busier as you get older.”

Regarding his choices in music, Bennett stated his artistic stance in a 2010 interview:

“I’m not staying contemporary for the big record companies, I don’t follow the latest fashions. I never sing a song that’s badly written. In the 1920s and ’30s, there was a renaissance in music that was the equivalent of the artistic Renaissance. Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer and others just created the best songs that had ever been written. These are classics, and finally they’re not being treated as light entertainment. This is classical music.”

22 NOVEMBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney
LISTEN ONLINE

Community Radio Network Show CRN #570

107.3 2SER Tuesday 22 November 2022
12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 – 5:55pm
National Program
5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am
3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am
4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 – 4am
2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am
2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 – 4am
2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am
2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am
3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm
7MID Oatlands Monday 6 -7pm
6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 12am – 1am
2SEA Eden Tuesday 6 – 7pm
2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 – 10am
1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 – 11am
2ARM Armidale Friday 12 – 1pm
5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 – 2pm
Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturdays 10 – 11am
Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm
7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 – 6am
3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 – 6am
3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm

Set 1
Ben Burnie – Music While You Work
It’s a Lonesome Old Town (theme) + The Army Air Corp
Ben Bernie Orchestra
‘War Workers’ Program’
relayed to CFRB Toronto Canada
31 Aug 1942
The Singing Sands
Ben Bernie Orchestra (voc) Jack Fulton
‘War Workers’ Program’
relayed to CFRB Toronto Canada
31 Aug 1942
Put-Put-Put-Put-Put Your Arms Around Me
Ben Bernie Orchestra (voc) The King’s Jesters
‘War Workers’ Program’
relayed to CFRB Toronto Canada
31 Aug 1942
Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry + Rosalie + CloseBen Bernie Orchestra (voc) Gail Robbins
‘War Workers’ Program’
relayed to CFRB Toronto Canada
31 Aug 1942
Set 2
Sauter-Finnegan
Open + Liza
The Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra
‘Guest Star’
Radio Transcription
New York City
9 Jun 1957
Midnight Sleighride
The Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra
‘Guest Star’
Radio Transcription
New York City
9 Jun 1957
April in Paris
The Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra (voc) Anita Darian
‘Guest Star’
Radio Transcription
New York City
9 Jun 1957
Doodle Town Fifers + Close
The Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra
‘Guest Star’
Radio Transcription
New York City
9 Jun 1957
Set 3
Smooth Music
Song of the West  (theme) + Hooray for Love
Caesar Petrillo and the CBS Orchestra  (voc) Elaine Rodgers
‘The Chicagoans’
WBBM CBS Chicago
10 Apr 1950
Dancing in the Dark + Old Pal
Caesar Petrillo and the CBS Orchestra
‘The Chicagoans’
WBBM CBS Chicago
10 Apr 1950
Black Lace
Caesar Petrillo and the CBS Orchestra  (voc) Lon Saxon
‘The Chicagoans’
WBBM CBS Chicago
10 Apr 1950
Happy Times + Song of the West (theme)
Caesar Petrillo and the CBS Orchestra  (voc) Elaine Rodgers
‘The Chicagoans’
WBBM CBS Chicago
10 Apr 1950
Set 4
Tony Bennett
Who Wants My Bublinsky? (theme) + Open
Howard Miller
‘Howard Miller Show’
WBBM Chicago
30 Aug 1955
Because of You
Tony Bennett
‘Howard Miller Show’
WBBM Chicago
30 Aug 1955
Interview
Tony, Sandy & Danny Bennett
‘Howard Miller Show’
WBBM Chicago
30 Aug 1955
May I Never Love Again + Close
Tony Bennett
‘Howard Miller Show’
WBBM Chicago
30 Aug 1955
Set 5
1930s-40s Swing
Cotton Pickers’ Congregation
Russ Morgan Orchestra
Paradise Restaurant NYC
14 Oct 1938
Down South Camp Meeting
Benny Goodman Orchestra
Madhattan Room
Hotel Pennsylvania NYC
20 Nov 1937
Boogie Woogie Lullaby
Ted Fio Rito Orchestra (voc) Madeline Mahoney
Naval Air Station
Banana River FL
12 Aug 1945
Flying Home
Will Bradley Orchestra
Famous Door
New York
City
21 Feb 1941
Set 6
Harmonists
For You
King Sisters
Radio Transcription
Los Angeles
1947
Blues in the Night
Trio (voc) Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra
‘Spotlight Bands’
Jefferson Barracks MI
Mutual Network
23 Nov 1945
Just Squeeze Me
King Sisters
Radio Transcription
Los Angeles
1947
Heebie Geebie Blues
Boswell Sisters
‘Woodbury Program’
KNX CBS LA
18 Sep 1934
Set 7
Jimmy Dorsey
Contrasts (theme) + Jug Music
Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra
Aircheck
20 Oct 1941
Hit the Note
Jimmy Dorsey OrchestraPalladium Ballroom
KNX CBS LA
5 Sep 1943
Dixieland Detour
Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra
Meadowbrook Ballroom
Cedar Grove NJ
WABC CBS NY
5 Oct 1939
Saturday Night
Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) Patti Thomas
‘Spotlight Bands’
11 Feb 1945
Set 8
Bop 1949
Tiny’s Blues
Chubby Jackson Orchestra
‘Symphony Sid Show’
Royal Roost
WMCA NYC
5 Mar 1949
Esy
Tito Puente Orchestra
‘Birdland Show’
WABC ABC NYC
1951
All Gigs
12:04 pm - 2:00 pm
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