(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.”
– 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
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
“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)
