A salute to #TonyBennett who died on Friday, and #AmyWinehouse who died on this day in 2011. For Tony Bennett, when this song went to #1 in Sept. 2011, Bennett became the oldest living person to hit #1 on the charts. At the time he was 85. He first topped the charts in 1958.
"My heart is sad and lonely
For you I sigh, for you dear only
Why haven't you seen it
I'm all for you body and soul"
#TonyBennett & Me | Tony was also a painter. In the Spring of 1987, he could be seen at midday, donning a smock and erecting his easel under a tree on Farragut Square, a park in downtown DC. Office workers brown-bagged there; I did every day.
One noontime, Tony started singing a cappella, "It Had To Be You." Just a few bars, and when he finished, we shouted "Bravo!" and clapped. Tony smiled big, bowed deeply and went back to his canvas. #RIP
It's heartbreaking to lose a creative visionary well before their time. Amy brought a punk attitude to soul music, blending 60s girl groups with real lyrics.
I still remember buying "Back to Black" on iTunes, with 16 million other people. Rolling Stone ranked at #33 on the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Its unique production lends it to a rare timelessness. (along with "Frank")
Heads up: I’m bringing a music listening project that I’ve been working on over to mastodon now. I’ve been calling it “Radio to the Death”.
Basically I wanted to listen to Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time. But also, I’m me, so everything has to be a game of some kind. As such, I took all the albums and made a tournament bracket seeded by order in the original list. I listen to each pair of albums (in one sitting, ideally) and declare a winner. #RadioToTheDeath
#RadioToTheDeath Matchup #6
Winner: Back to Black
7-4
———
Back to Black was a jam, front to back. Hadn’t listened to SZA before. Ctrl was a really fun, sexy, unique album.
This really was a great matchup. If I had arranged this bracket by hand instead of by ranking, I probably would’ve tried to make this exact matchup happen, but probably later in the Jazz/R&B/Soul bracket because I’d love to hear more of both.