Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006 | 7:34 a.m.
Who: Tony Bennett
When: 9 p.m. Oct. 20-21
Where: Las Vegas Hilton
Tickets: $70 to $80; 732-5755
Tony Bennett hit 80 on Aug. 3 and didn't break stride. At about the same age that his pal Frank Sinatra hung it up, Bennett is still singing strong and clear.
Fans can wish Bennett a belated happy birthday when he performs Friday and Saturday at the Las Vegas Hilton.
It's been - and will be - a very good year:
In February he won a Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for "The Art of Romance."
On Sept. 26 his "Duets: An American Classic" debuted on the Billboard Top 200 album chart at No. 3 - his highest charting debut in a career that spans six decades.
On Nov. 9 he'll be feted at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles at a benefit for Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang camp program for children with serious illness.
On Nov. 21 NBC airs the special "Tony Bennett: An American Classic," produced and directed by Academy Award winner Rob Marshall ("Chicago," "Memoirs of a Geisha").
On Dec. 4 Bennett returns to Las Vegas to receive this year's Billboard Century Award for outstanding musical achievement.
But one of the biggest honors for the lifelong painter was when his oil painting, "Central Park," was accepted to the Smithsonian's American Art Museum's permanent collection in Washington.
Bennett recently talked with the Las Vegas Sun about a variety of topics. Here are his comments:
On aging
This year has been the best thing that ever happened to me. At 80, it's become the big payoff for me. It's amazing what's happened to me this year.
I learned from Jack Benny and George Burns, if you're doing business, you don't quit. I've been sold out for the past 30 years wherever I play, and if you're doing business, you don't quit. You just keep going. As long as I keep my health, I'm going for it. I love entertaining people. I love it. To me, if I make people feel good, it makes me hit the pillow at night like you wouldn't believe.
On old Las Vegas
I love it in Las Vegas. The weather is just the greatest, and because I play tennis, it's ideal for me.
I've played almost every room, even the rooms that aren't even there anymore, like the Sands hotel. I played for many years at Caesars and then many years at the Hilton, the Flamingo, MGM, the ex-Dunes.
I started there in the '50s, when they didn't even want a recording artist in town. Everything was high level. The customers had to have suits and ties and the artists were like Noel Coward and Marlene Dietrich and Frank Sinatra and Lena Horne - just real high-level art.
No country acts whatsoever. They were like off-limits. There was nothing but complete art at the highest level, but then it kept changing with the times.
It was a segregated town (in the '50s). But the whole country was still very segregated. They didn't want blacks in Vegas years ago because most of the big spenders were from down South - in Houston and Dallas and Galveston and all this kind of thing. They were the high rollers, and the casino bosses didn't think slot machines made the most money. They thought the high rollers made the most money.
Louis Prima was at the Sahara. He was so big, bigger than the Rat Pack - that's where the Rat Packers got their idea, from Louis Prima in the lounge. He was doing so much business in the lounge that Sinatra got Dean Martin and Joey Bishop and Sammy Davis and they put it on film and made it look like it was the only thing that was happening - but don't forget, there was Elvis at the Hilton and I was at Caesars, and we were doing as much business as anybody. We just didn't put it on film.
On new Las Vegas
I don't like the fact that they don't use the star system now. They have big revues, and of course Cirque du Soleil - those things are magnificent shows. I'm not knocking anything that's happened. They're large, big revues, but it's not like years ago when you had the Golden Era where you had in the lounge at the Flamingo, you'd have Ella Fitzgerald with Nelson Riddle's great orchestra. Duke Ellington would be in a lounge. You had all the greatest entertainers - the entertainers built that town at one time, but then when the convention center went in, that was a major change. Corporations took over, and all of a sudden they didn't need the star system anymore to bring the people in. The stars made the town work.
On his latest album, 'Duets'
It was my son Danny's idea. I was apprehensive about it, but then when he showed me the lineup of artists I would be doing duets with, I changed my mind. He was really able to attain the biggest artists in the world today - Paul McCartney and Barbra Streisand and Billy Joel - all the biggest artists. Sting. Bono. They were all nice enough to accept it, and so we went to where they lived to record.
We recorded in L.A. with Elton John and Barbra Streisand. Then we went to England to record with Paul McCartney at Abbey Road, where they made the first Beatles album. That was quite an experience with George Michael also there. Then we went to the studio I have in Englewood, N.J., and recorded with Billy Joel and Diana Krall and Elvis Costello and Tim McGraw. It was all done live. It took all summer to complete.
On the future
I'm just warming up.
