MEDIA MONDAY / HEART WARMING FEATURE ON TONY BENNETT IN AARP MAGAZINE.

Tony in his Manhattan home, 2021 Image by Kelsey Bennett.

AARP Magazine continues publishing general interest articles in the spirit of bygone magazines like Saturday Evening Post, Look, Life and MacLeans. 

It hit a proverbial home run in its Feb/Mar, 2021 edition with “Breaking the Silence,” an excellent human interest profile of singer Tony Bennett. Writer John Colapinto, a long-time contributor to The New Yorker and Rolling Stone, delved into the 94-year-old progression into Alzheimer’s Disease, the most common form of age-related dementia. 

Tony Bennett in 1971

The piece is Bennett’s family’s first public admission of Tony’s condition. Bennett’s enduring talent and popularity are at the center of the article but true to its roots AARP goes into the importance of maintaining joy, physical activity, family ties while battling the incurable disease. 

It also covers how recent studies are finding an intriguing link increases in patient lucidity to love of music and singing/playing instruments. “Singing is everything to him,” says Bennett’s wife Susan, “Everything. Many times. Through divorces and things. If he ever stops singing that’s when we’ll know…” Her voice catching, she stopped speaking. 

For the complete AARP article CLICK HERE. 

BEST OF BENNETT Writer Colapinto put together a Top Ten of The Best of Tony Bennett. 

1950: Boulevard of Broken Dreams Tony's first single with Columbia.

1951: Because of You, First No. 1 hit 

1953: Rags to Riches Later opened the film Goodfellas.

Kelsey Bennett photo
of Tony Bennett, 2021 

1959: Smile A definitive take on the Charlie Chaplin classic

1962: I Left My Heart in San Francisco Homesick ballad by a pair of unknowns 

1965: The Shadow of Your Smile Wrings a tear with oboe-like low notes 

1965: Fly Me to the Moon A spine-chilling, melancholy treatment 

1975: But Beautiful Reflects his midlife pain and doubt 

2011: Body and Soul (with Amy Winehouse) A heartbreaking jazz improvisation

2011: The Lady Is a Tramp (with Lady Gaga) These two have such fun it's palpable. —J.C. 

 TONY/LADY ON YOU TUBE: Click here. 

Recording studio video Tony with Lady Gaga singing “The Lady is a Tramp,” 2011