Tony Bennett Message Board and Comments

Mr. Bennett, I think it is wonderful that you are still doing what you love to it. I am a friend of Roger Kelloway's and you not have had a better musical director than Roger. Did you know that Roger was musical director for Bobby Darin? In fact, 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of "Mack the Knife". It hit as #1, stays there for 9 weeks and "That's All" enters Billboard's LP chart reaching #7, charting for 52 weeks. My request to you is would you be willing to do a duet with Bobby (Maybe "Left My Heart In SanFrancisco) for a 50th anniversary CD we, Bobby's fans, are trying to get Bobby's estate to do. There are Bobby fans all over the world. Heck, Natalie Cole did it with her dad, Celine Dion did it with Elvis on tv. I am about to call Dodd Darin and talk with him about this. I hope you will be able to jump on board with this. You are the first artist I have made this request to. I will get back in touch with you, if you are interested, after I have spoken with the Darin Estate. Thank you and keep on singing, Edwina A. Halsey

As a fellow graduate of SIA high school and one of your long time fans since "Because of You", I have to very strongly disagree with you about your statement that the US is culturally inferior to some countries in Europe. I'll keep it brief: The US has contributed MORE than painting, cuisine, theater, and art than those European countries you named. WE THE PEOPLE of the United States of America have led the world in human rights, true liberty for the individual, and compassion for the needy than anyone else in the world. Democracy was only a word written on paper but we made it a reality for all. We may not have invented liberty or freedom or been the first people to write a constitution, but we were the ones who put it to work for the common man, unlike other European countries whose people could never aspire to the same things that their feudal lords had. Does the word "opportunity" ring a bell with you? Your own Italian ancestors chose to come to this wonderful land to share in the opportunities that did not exist in their own European native soil. You claim that Germany is a world leader in science?. They did invent the rocket, but they chose to use it to kill people; (remember the bombing of England?) And they used their superior scientific knowledge to eliminate more than 6 million jews. Yes, that takes superior use of science and technology. All the while the culturally inferior Americans used their inferior technology to free an entire continent and put a man on the moon. What Italian or Frenchman or German made that trip? The USA has made the benefits of science to mankind a reality. We have more Nobel Prize winners than any other country. I could go on and on about the superiority of the US over all European countries, in all those things you so admire in them. Don't forget, many of those cultural events happened centuries ago. What have they done culturally of late? It has been your fellow Americans who have saved those same civilizations you so admire, during two world wars, and continue to do so even today. Mr. Bennet, you sorely need to brush up on your American history. By reading it, you will find just how condescendenly wrong you are about your country. You don't like today's modern music? Neither do I, Hip hop and gangsta rap is not my thing. But don't forget, Americans always look to experiment, and that is what young people always do. That is precisely what they are doing now; much the same way that young Americans did when they took the music played in whore houses and brought to the public. Most people hated it, but in time it achieved respectability, and in the process, acquired a name: JAZZ. Same way it has happened with ROCK n' ROLL. We simply have the best culture in the world, because we've taken the best the world has to offer in EVERY field. We "latch on to the affirmative and e-liminate the negative" and made it into our own, while all the Jeans-clad Europeans and some self-hating Americans turn up their noses at us "culturally inferior" Americans. But we Americans are a forgiving people; we will continue to buy your records and smile while the rest of the world embraces the dynamic American culture. Welcome home Paisan'.