Maps of Music

Life Is Beautiful (1975)

Where the lyrics of Life Is Beautiful take you, and where it was really made.

Tony Bennett's 1975 album takes its name from a Fred Astaire song and was the first release on Bennett's own Improv label.

Place unknown

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Album draws on Bennett's long study of the American songbook
Track list mixes composers such as Duke Ellington, Kurt Weill and Herman Hupfeld
'Bridges ('Travessia')' credited to Gene Lees and Milton Nascimento
Concord reissue added a separately recorded 13-minute Cole Porter medley
The medley is not part of the original release and appears only on the Concord reissue

Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto on August 3, 1926, in Long Island City, Queens, New York City.
Grew up in poverty after his father, a grocer, became unable to work and died when Tony was ten.
Sang for money from age 13 as a singing waiter in Italian restaurants in Queens.
Attended New York's School of Industrial Art but dropped out at 16 to help support his family.

Drafted into the U.S. Army in November 1944 and fought as an infantryman in the final stages of World War II.
Stayed in Germany with the occupying force and sang with an Army Special Services band under the name Joe Bari.

Studied bel canto at the American Theatre Wing on the GI Bill; Pearl Bailey and Bob Hope helped launch him, and Hope shortened his name to Tony Bennett.
Signed with Columbia Records in 1950; first number-one hit "Because of You" in 1951.
Shifted toward jazz singing in the late 1950s; "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" (1962) became his signature song.
Declined commercially during the rock era and struggled with addiction and debt until a comeback in the late 1980s, managed by his son Danny.
The 1994 MTV Unplugged album won the Grammy for Album of the Year.

Collaborated with Lady Gaga from Cheek to Cheek (2014) through Love for Sale (2021).
Won 20 Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, and sold more than 50 million records worldwide.
Received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2005 and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Co-founded the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens with Susan Crow.

AllMusic reviewer John Bush reads the ten selections as reflecting 25 years of Bennett's study of the American songbook
Bush calls the Duke Ellington cover 'Reflections' the best track on the album
Bush praises 'I Used to Be Color Blind' and 'Experiment' as great versions of rare songs
Bush warns that Bennett's voice is not always in top condition and that he strains on some notes

AllMusic reviewer William Ruhlmann says the record had nothing to do with 1975 pop trends, as Bennett intended
Ruhlmann says the album sounds fresher decades later than many of Bennett's late 1960s and early 1970s attempts to be contemporary