(Reuters) – Quotes by and about singer Tony Bennett, who has died at the age of 96:
BENNETT ON BENNETT
* “I have a feel for people. I want people to like me and I get a kick out of making them happy.”
– Time magazine in 1964
* “Through song and art, I can communicate what I believe is the essence of life – truth and beauty. In my time, I’ve seen both go out of style but they always come back in vogue again.”
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– 1995 Good Housekeeping magazine interview
“If you study the masters – Picasso, Jack Benny, Fred Astaire – right up to the day they died, they were performing. If you are creative, you get busier as you get older.”
– 1999 New York Times interview
* “The public teaches me. I sense what they like and don’t like. … I’m a servant to the audience.”
– CNN interview in 2007
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OTHERS ON BENNETT
“For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business.”
– Frank Sinatra in a 1965 Life magazine interview.
“I’ve met two presidents in office. I’ve met the Pope, Pavarotti – and Tony Bennett.”
– Blues guitarist B.B. King in AARP magazine in 2003
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“Tony Bennett is the most unselfish performing artist today. He gives to credit to everybody with him, including the fourth triangle player.”
– Duke Ellington in his autobiography, “Music Is My Mistress”
“To attend a Tony Bennett concert is to find yourself in the presence of a performer who exudes a rough-hewn natural elegance, devoid of airs … He can still end a song like ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ or ‘How Do You Keep the Music Playing?’ with an old-fashioned, quasi-operatic crescendo but he makes these corny triumphal endings stick in your heart.”
– The New York Times in 2006
“I know the words to ‘Cold, Cold Heart’ by heart but I was shaking so bad standing 3 feet from him that I had to hold on to the lyric sheet to try to steady myself. But he was such a gentleman. It was the thrill of a lifetime for me.”
– Country singer Tim McGraw in 2006 telling Time magazine about recording a duet with Bennett
“The other day, Tony said, ‘I’ve never once in my career not wanted to do this.’ It stung. Six months ago I didn’t feel that way. I tell Tony every day that he saved my life.”
– Lady Gaga in 2014 telling the Guardian she would have given up singing had Bennett not become someone she could “relate to.”
(Compiled by Bill Trott; Editing by Diane Craft and Andrew Heavens)
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