Anderson Cooper on witnessing
Tony Bennett's final act
Let someone start believing in you…
Steady on his feet, he takes his place alongside the piano.
Let him hold out his hand…
His smile grows wide; his gaze meets the eyes of those assembled around him.
Let him find you…
He knows the key, the tempo, the lyrics.
And watch what happens.
What happens next is nothing short of remarkable.
"His brain has pretty much built itself
around his music"
As Anderson Cooper reported this week on 60 Minutes, music legend Tony
Bennett is in the throes of Alzheimer's disease. On any given day, the 95-year-old may forget a lot about his past life. He likely won't recall the stories behind the photos that fill
his New York City apartment, not the ones with Frank Sinatra or Rosemary
Clooney, not even the one with Bob Hope — the man who gave
Anthony Dominick Benedetto his new stage name: Tony Bennett.
But when Bennett hears that music, the soundtrack that has accompanied
more than seven decades of American life, the singer that millions have
come to know returns.
When Cooper and the 60 Minutes crew arrived at Bennett's New York City
apartment last summer, they witnessed the metamorphosis in real-time.
Bennett was rehearsing for his final big performance: two sold-out nights
at Radio City Music Hall in August. He would be performing with his friend
and collaborator, Lady Gaga.
The coda
Back at Bennett's Manhattan apartment, Musiker begins playing "This Is All
I Ask." Tony Bennett readies himself to sing the song, which he first
recorded more than six decades ago.
When he stands alongside the piano, it seems he has a strong sense of
exactly who he is.
Wandering rainbows,
Leave a bit of color for my heart to own…
"I consider myself an entertainer. My tool is singing. I like to just entertain
people," Bennett told 60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley in a 1995
interview. "For me to make everybody forget their problems for an hour, it
feels like a very noble job to me. You know, I try and make people feel good."
Stars in the sky,
Make my wish come true before the night has flown…
Bennett is the boy who made his mother feel good by singing to her when
she came home from making dresses in New York City's garment district.
He is the man who kept his singing style, no matter how much the music
on the radio evolved and changed, who continued to sell millions of records
and attract new generations of fans.
And he is the man who, at 95, performed to a sold-out crowd at Radio City
Music Hall before walking off the stage for what may well be the final time.
And let the music play as long as there's a song to sing
And I will stay younger than spring.
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