Which are your favorite Tony Bennett quotes?
Tony Bennett is an American singer, performer, and painter. He is most popularly recognized for his signature song ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco’. Bennett encompasses various genres of music ranging from traditional pop standards, show tunes, to jazz singing.
Throughout his years as a singer, he has successfully sold over 50 million records globally. Bennett has also amassed an astounding number of eminent music awards, including 19 “Grammy Awards”, two “Primetime Emmy Awards”, and was named an “NEA Jazz Master” which is only granted to 7 chosen jazz musicians annually.
One of his most important legacy in arts is his school the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, New York.
Here’s a collection of the most motivational Tony Bennett quotes:
50 Ingeniously Motivational Tony Bennett Quotes
1. “I lived for 15 years in Los Angeles, and I still can’t believe that the handsomest man in the world, Cary Grant, and the greatest performer in the world, Fred Astaire, and Johnny Carson, one after another – they were all in my home at different times. I celebrated my 50th birthday with them. Unforgettable.” – Tony Bennett
2. “I have grown to appreciate the power of believing in myself and of always having faith in myself. I rarely look back; instead, I always look forward. There is so much of life that we miss when we wallow in regret.” – Tony Bennett
3. “I was taught never to compromise: to never sing a cheap song. I never look down at the audience and think that they are ignorant or think that I’m more intelligent than they are. To think otherwise is totally incorrect and runs contrary to everything I was raised to believe.” – Tony Bennett
4. “If music sounds dated, it means it wasn’t very good in the first place.” – Tony Bennett
5. “I know the history of the record business so well because I followed Billie Holiday into the record studios. It was so primitive compared to the sophisticated business today.” – Tony Bennett
6. “Never treat the audience disrespectfully.” – Tony Bennett
7. “The whole music world is based on the young, the very young people.” – Tony Bennett
8. “I was possessed with a wonderful example of my Italian American family. They would come over and join us every Sunday, all my aunts and uncles and nephews and nieces, and I would sing for them.” – Tony Bennett
9. “I loved Art Tatum! And, through him, and other different jazz musicians, I actually found my technique.” – Tony Bennett
10th of 50 Tony Bennett Quotes
10. “To me, life is a gift, and it’s a blessing to just be alive. And each person should learn what a gift it is to be alive no matter how tough things get.” – Tony Bennett
11. “I still feel that I can get better somehow. And I search for it all of the time.” – Tony Bennett
12. “I still insist that American performers are the best performers in the world.” – Tony Bennett
13. “I think one of the reasons I’m popular again is because I’m wearing a tie. You have to be different.” – Tony Bennett
14. “I still have a lot to learn. I’m concentrating on learning a lot more about music.” – Tony Bennett
15. “Johnny Mercer started Capitol Records, and he brought in Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Nat King Cole. He just let them sing whatever they wanted, and it became the best record company in America.” – Tony Bennett
16. “Mercer was very clever. He knew the way Southerners spoke and put that into his lyrics. But in that whole era, you had the best. Harold Arlen was just fantastic. Cole Porter was better than anybody, and Gershwin was Gershwin, y’know. Johnny Mercer started Capitol Records, and he brought in Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Nat King Cole.” – Tony Bennett
17. “The singers who are the most honest are the ones who become immortalized.” – Tony Bennett
18. “I still get a little nervous before performing. You don’t want to forget a lyric; you don’t want to make a mistake. I still get butterflies. You can try to judge an audience, but you can only really judge things by the applause.” – Tony Bennett
19. “Presley is country music, white music. Jazz is black music – it was invented by the blacks in New Orleans. And I’m really a jazz singer. I was impressed with Elvis – he was the handsomest guy I ever met in my life, and a very nice person, too. But the music doesn’t impress me.” – Tony Bennett
20th of 50 Tony Bennett Quotes
20. “Sinatra invited me once to his birthday party in L.A. I was young, and I felt great about it. But when I got there, the Rat Pack were all in the kitchen laughing their heads off.” – Tony Bennett
21. “It sounds so simple, but if you just be yourself, you’re different than anyone else.” – Tony Bennett
22. “More than anybody else I’d like to thank Count Basie for teaching me how to perform.” – Tony Bennett
23. “The high point for me in my career was when Sinatra called me his favourite performer in the Fifties. And I’ve been sold out ever since.” – Tony Bennett
24. “My whole premise has been, right from the beginning, that it would take me a lifetime to learn to explain myself as an artist. As you grow older, you learn what to do and what to leave out. You kind of simplify your work and get the same thing done with fewer strokes. It’s pretty interesting to me.” – Tony Bennett
25. “Gaga is a gorgeous singer, and when she sings a great ballad, I get goosebumps.” – Tony Bennett
26. “When you hear a great two-track of a performance in Carnegie Hall, let’s say, it sounds like you’re right there at that moment. It’s true to reality. And the closer it gets, once it gets too technical, it becomes very tinny to hear notes. It doesn’t sound right. It has to be natural.” – Tony Bennett
27. “In America, at the beginning of talkies, they pulled Fred Astaire from the theaters and put him on the screen and had all of these great composers write songs for him. They call it the Great American Songbook; I call it the Fred Astaire Songbook because they were written for him.” – Tony Bennett
28. “I want to try to prove that at 100, I could sing as well as I was singing when I was 45 or 43.” – Tony Bennett
29. “Singing intimately is almost like thinking into a microphone, so it helps to have the song buried inside you.” – Tony Bennett
30th of 50 Tony Bennett Quotes
30. “I have a simple life. I mean, you just give me a drum roll, they announce my name, and I come out and sing. In my job, I have a contract that says I’m a singer. So I sing.” – Tony Bennett
31. “I’ve been so fortunate because I never really had ups and downs as far as my career. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I’ve been sold out all over the world.” – Tony Bennett
32. “Every day feels like just starting out because I still have so much more to learn.” – Tony Bennett
33. “The United States created the best popular songs that were ever written, and from the 1920s to the 1940s, it was a renaissance period. It stopped in 1950.” – Tony Bennett
34. “I’d like to prove that if you take care of yourself, you can actually not regret the fact that you’ve become an old-timer, but you can just still improve and actually get better.” – Tony Bennett
35. “No matter what age you are, there’s a lot of room for learning.” – Tony Bennett
36. “I’ve never worked a day in my life.” – Tony Bennett
37. “I get up, and boy, I can’t wait to paint and study music and keep learning. I just love it.” – Tony Bennett
38. “I don’t sing operatically, and I sing very intimately, but I still do the scales, and I think in terms of intonation and making sure that I’m hitting the notes right on the head… and having it appear quite effortless.” – Tony Bennett
39. “The young people look great on television. They’re youthful and have a lot of zip and energy, but when you see them live, they can only do about 20 minutes because they haven’t got the training to hold an audience for an hour and a half or so.” – Tony Bennett
40th of 50 Tony Bennett Quotes
40. “I grew up in an era where the record companies just sold records to everybody, and the whole family bought songs. Today, record companies are failing because they are putting their accent just on the young, and I think that’s rather silly.” – Tony Bennett
41. “I study nature, and I realize that no matter how much you learn, you can’t top nature.” – Tony Bennett
42. “As a young boy, I did a lot of foolish things. I made a lot of mistakes. And you live and learn.” – Tony Bennett
43. “My whole life has been singing and painting. I just do those two things.” – Tony Bennett
44. “Every show is different. The public has always been nice to me. I’m fortunate that way.” – Tony Bennett
45. “I love entertaining people; I strive to make them feel good, and they make me feel wonderful. To explain it simply, I like what I do, and my ambition is to get better as I get older. That’s really what I’m all about.” – Tony Bennett
46. “If something is good, it’s always good. You don’t have to change it.” – Tony Bennett
47. “I take care of myself. I work out three times a week. I have a trainer, and we just work out for an hour.” – Tony Bennett
48. “Performers should really go to the best schools, like Lady Gaga, you know, she went to NYU and had great teachers… It’s best to really study your technique as much as you possibly can so you can have a long career instead of a quick one that’s a failure.” – Tony Bennett
49. “I’ve been very fortunate. I’m doing what I love, and I’m getting away with it, you know?” – Tony Bennett
50. “Nobody has communicated with the public more than Lady Gaga. Ever. I trust the audience, and I’m very impressed. As far as they’re concerned, she’s part of their family. The only guy whoever did that was Bing Crosby, years ago.” – Tony Bennett
Summary
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