Original air date - Phantom Dancer :: 12:00pm 14th Jun 2022

Tony Bennett, singer, is this week's Phantom Dancer feature artist. You'll hear him and his music in a 1955 interview. Bennett has released over 70 albums during his career. The biggest selling of these in the U.S. have been I Left My Heart in San Francisco, MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett, and Duets: An American Classic, all of which went platinum for shipping one million copies. Eight other albums of his have gone gold in the U.S. Bennett also charted over 30 singles during his career. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaJDMecJolI[/embed] The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week. LISTEN to this week's Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 14 June) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/ [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uv-AkkGiDg[/embed]

EARLY YEARS & WAR

At age 10, Tony Bennett sang at the opening of the Triborough Bridge in New York City, standing next to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia who patted him on the head. He began singing for money at age 13, performing as a singing waiter in several Italian restaurants around his native Queens. Drawing was another early passion and he saw himself having a career in commercial art. He attended New York's School of Industrial Art studying painting and music . He later appreciated their emphasis on proper technique. He dropped out at age 16 to help support his family and worked as a copy boy and runner for the Associated Press in Manhattan He then set his sights on a professional singing career, returning to performing as a singing waiter, playing and winning amateur nights all around the city, and having a successful engagement at a Paramus, New Jersey, nightclub As an infantryman in the US Army from 1944 during World War 2 in Germany, Tony Bennett narrowly escaped death in combat several times. The experience made him a pacifist. He later wrote, "Anybody who thinks that war is romantic obviously hasn't gone through one...It was a nightmare that's permanent. I just said, 'This is not life. This is not life.'" At the war's end he was part of the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp near Landsberg. Upon his discharge from the Army and return to the States in 1946, Tony Bennett studied at the American Theatre Wing on the GI Bill. He was taught bel canto singing which has kept his voice in good shape for his entire career. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZScm9K2uC8[/embed]

NEW AUDIENCE

Around 1990, Tony's son, Danny Bennett, (who you will hear as a 17 month old in the 1955 Tony Bennett interview in this week's Phantom Dancer) felt that younger audiences who were unfamiliar with his father would respond to his music if given a chance. No changes to Tony's formal appearance, singing style, musical accompaniment or song choice (generally the Great American Songbook) were necessary or desirable. Danny began regularly to book his father on Late Night with David Letterman, a show with a younger, "hip" audience. This was subsequently followed by appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Simpsons, Muppets Tonight, and various MTV programs. In 1993, Bennett played a series of benefit concerts organized by alternative rock radio stations around the country. The plan worked; as Tony later remembered, "I realized that young people had never heard those songs. Cole Porter, Gershwin – they were like, 'Who wrote that?' To them, it was different. If you're different, you stand out." Bennett was seen at MTV Video Music Awards shows side by side with the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Flavor Flav, and as his "Steppin' Out with My Baby" video received MTV airplay, it was clear that, as The New York Times said, "Tony Bennett has not just bridged the generation gap, he has demolished it. He has solidly connected with a younger crowd weaned on rock. And there have been no compromises." His 1994 MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett album went platinum and, besides taking the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Grammy award for the third straight year, also won the top Grammy prize of Album of the Year. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPAmDULCVrU[/embed]

TECHNIQUE

Bennett had no intention of retiring until his announcement on stage in 2021, saying that he had to retire due to health reasons. He was 95. Refering to artists like Pablo Picasso, Jack Benny, and Fred Astaire, Bennett said "right up to the day they died, they were performing. If you are creative, you get busier as you get older." Regarding his choices in music, Bennett stated his artistic stance in a 2010 interview: "I'm not staying contemporary for the big record companies, I don't follow the latest fashions. I never sing a song that's badly written. In the 1920s and '30s, there was a renaissance in music that was the equivalent of the artistic Renaissance. Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer and others just created the best songs that had ever been written. These are classics, and finally they're not being treated as light entertainment. This is classical music." [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1OdWOLWeCM[/embed]

14 JUNE PLAY LIST

Play List - The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINECommunity Radio Network Show CRN #549
107.3 2SER Tuesday 14 June 2022 12:04 - 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 - 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 - 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 - 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 - 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 - 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 - 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 - 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 - 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 - 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 6 -7pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 12am - 1am 2SEA Eden Tuesday 6 - 7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 - 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 - 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 - 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 - 2pm Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturdays 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 - 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 - 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 - 6pm
Set 1	Ben Burnie - Music While You Work
It's a Lonesome Old Town (theme) + The Army Air Corp	Ben Bernie Orchestra	'War Workers' Program' relayed to CFRB Toronto Canada 31 Aug 1942
The Singing Sands	Ben Bernie Orchestra (voc) Jack Fulton	'War Workers' Program' relayed to CFRB Toronto Canada 31 Aug 1942
Put-Put-Put-Put-Put Your Arms Around Me	Ben Bernie Orchestra (voc) The King's Jesters	'War Workers' Program' relayed to CFRB Toronto Canada 31 Aug 1942
Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry + Rosalie + Close	Ben Bernie Orchestra (voc) Gail Robbins	'War Workers' Program' relayed to CFRB Toronto Canada 31 Aug 1942
Set 2	Sauter-Finnegan
Open + Liza	The Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra	'Guest Star' Radio Transcription New York City 9 Jun 1957
Midnight Sleighride	The Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra	'Guest Star' Radio Transcription New York City 9 Jun 1957
April in Paris	The Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra (voc) Anita Darian	'Guest Star' Radio Transcription New York City 9 Jun 1957
Doodle Town Fifers + Close	The Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra	'Guest Star' Radio Transcription New York City 9 Jun 1957
Set 3	Smooth Music
Song of the West  (theme) + Hooray for Love	Caesar Petrillo and the CBS Orchestra  (voc) Elaine Rodgers	'The Chicagoans' WBBM CBS Chicago 10 Apr 1950
Dancing in the Dark + Old Pal	Caesar Petrillo and the CBS Orchestra	'The Chicagoans' WBBM CBS Chicago 10 Apr 1950
Black Lace	Caesar Petrillo and the CBS Orchestra  (voc) Lon Saxon	'The Chicagoans' WBBM CBS Chicago 10 Apr 1950
Happy Times + Song of the West (theme)	Caesar Petrillo and the CBS Orchestra  (voc) Elaine Rodgers	'The Chicagoans' WBBM CBS Chicago 10 Apr 1950
Set 4	Tony Bennett
Who Wants My Bublinsky? (theme) + Open	Howard Miller	'Howard Miller Show' WBBM Chicago 30 Aug 1955
Because of You	Tony Bennett	'Howard Miller Show' WBBM Chicago 30 Aug 1955
Interview	Tony, Sandy & Danny Bennett	'Howard Miller Show' WBBM Chicago 30 Aug 1955
May I Never Love Again + Close	Tony Bennett	'Howard Miller Show' WBBM Chicago 30 Aug 1955
Set 5	1930s-40s Swing
Cotton Pickers' Congregation	Russ Morgan Orchestra	Paradise Restaurant NYC 14 Oct 1938
Down South Camp Meeting	Benny Goodman Orchestra	Madhattan Room Hotel Pennsylvania NYC 20 Nov 1937
Boogie Woogie Lullaby	Ted Fio Rito Orchestra (voc) Madeline Mahoney	Naval Air Station Banana River FL 12 Aug 1945
Flying Home	Will Bradley Orchestra	Famous Door New York City 21 Feb 1941
Set 6	Harmonists
For You	King Sisters	Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1947
Blues in the Night	Trio (voc) Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra	'Spotlight Bands' Jefferson Barracks MI Mutual Network 23 Nov 1945
Just Squeeze Me	King Sisters	Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1947
Heebie Geebie Blues	Boswell Sisters	'Woodbury Program' KNX CBS LA 18 Sep 1934
Set 7	Jimmy Dorsey
Contrasts (theme) + Jug Music	Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra	Aircheck 20 Oct 1941
Hit the Note	Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra	Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS LA 5 Sep 1943
Dixieland Detour	Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WABC CBS NY 5 Oct 1939
Saturday Night	Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra (voc) Patti Thomas	'Spotlight Bands' 11 Feb 1945
Set 8	Bop 1949
Tiny's Blues	Chubby Jackson Orchestra	'Symphony Sid Show' Royal Roost WMCA NYC 5 Mar 1949
I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles	Jackie Kane & Roy Kral	'Symphony Sid Show' Royal Roost WMCA NYC 1949
Father Knickerbocker	Chubby Jackson Orchestra	'Symphony Sid Show' Royal Roost WMCA NYC 5 Mar 1949