Stars Harry Connick Jr. and Michael Bublé reflect on Tony Bennett's legacy

 

So many music stars are

paying tribute to Tony Bennett tonight,

including two Grammy Award

winning singers.

Michael Bublé

will join us in just a moment.

But right now,

we are pleased to welcome harry

connick, jr.

Into The Situation Room.

It's an embarrassment of riches

for us here in The Situation Room.

Harry, great to see you.

How are you?

Remembering this icon

and your friend, Tony Bennett.

I mean, we were just looking through

all those clips there.

What an amazing life.

Well, it's good to be with you, Jim.

Thanks for having me.

I was so saddened to hear about it

because I've known Tony for years,

probably since I was a teenager.

I think when he came through New Orleans

was the first time I met him.

And I just remember him

aside from we could talk for hours about

what an unbelievable musical talent

he was.

Yeah,

but he was so nice to me, always so kind.

His arms were always open,

so encouraging.

And I just have a lot of

laugh when I think

about it, because he was the kind of guy

I would love to have him

come on stage and sing with me.

But you also had to be careful

because you knew

who was going to get the most applause

and it wasn't going to be me.

No, I'm sure a lot of singers

felt that way.

But how did Tony Bennett's

unique impact

on pop and jazz inspire you?

Because it was

such a unique and iconic voice.

The good times.

Yeah, his voice was one of a kind.

You know,

he just had this incredible ability

to interpret lyrics

and an unbelievable amount of power

in his voice.

When you couple that with his elegance,

his talking humility

and his incredible ability to

to to bring an audience into

some of the

Great American Songbook, it was

it was one of these once in a lifetime

kind of kind of things.

There was nobody

who really did it like him.

And I don't think there

I can

assure you there will never, ever

be anybody who doesn't like Tony Bennett.

Yeah.

What was it like

being in the room with him?

Were you starstruck yourself at first?

Well, I'll tell you a quick story.

When I was in my mid-twenties,

I was playing a concert.

There were a bunch of singers on the bill

and the way the lineup was,

I was going out to sing

and he was going to follow me,

which was a very good thing

because you don't want

to follow Tony Bennett.

And I sang

I got out there with a microphone,

and I usually hold him

like pretty close to my mouth.

But this time I saw him in the wings

watching me,

and I held the mic about two feet away.

And I was saying in my mind,

I hope he's watching this.

My sound is getting bigger.

Tony Bennett's got a big sound,

but I'm I'm working on my sound.

And so I sang the song.

It was fine and went off stage.

Tonight, Mr.

Bennett says, Oh, hi.

He walks out.

He says, Good evening,

ladies and gentlemen,

and takes the microphone

and puts it down on the piano.

And sang the song without a microphone.

And I'm like,

I just wanted to

I just wanted to crawl into a hole

because, you know, that's why

you don't follow Tony Bennett.

You can't

you know, you just can't win

kind of a mic drop over there.

Well, Harry Connick, Jr. Exactly.

Great to talk to you.

We could go on all night.

Really appreciate you coming in.

The Situation Room.

And my hat's off to you as well.

What an amazing career you've had.

And thanks for sharing

those special memories.

We really appreciate it.

Thank you, Jim.

Good to be with you. Good to be with you.

All right.

Now let's bring in another modern day

crooner and Grammy Award winning artist

Michael Bublé.

He is also with us.

Thanks for joining us.

Michael, great to see you.

And you had the honor of collaborating

with Tony Bennett on several duets.

I have to ask you about that.

What was it like to sing with

such a giant in the industry?

It is tough to

to share a stage with them.

I have to imagine

that while I mean,

he's incredibly talented,

but he was always warm and gracious.

And, you know, as a

as a kid who had so much reverence

for him,

and the heroes that

that come before

me and the Great American Songbook,

you can imagine how much it meant

to have him take a kid

like me under his wing. And

I loved just every time I got

a chance

to be with them, to talk with them,

to ask him questions.

And I remember the first time

I was with him, I was very nervous.

I told the story too many times

but it bears repeating.

I said, Mr.

Bennett, I have stolen everything

from you

and Frank and Dean and Bobby and Al.

And he said to me, kid, he said,

We get steel from one person.

You're a thief.

He said, But if you steal from everybody,

it's research.

And I've told that story so many times,

and I continue to steal from those greats

and from the news.

What a class act.

Absolutely.

And that is an amazing story.

And I think about how

he had such

an amazing stage

presence early on in his career,

right up until the end,

and just had this powerful voice

that was UNMIS stackable.

What was it about Tony Bennett that

connected with you, Joe?

Well, I love that person.

The voice was unique.

The God kiss that man's throat

and everybody knew

the great ones knew it. Frank knew it.

They all knew it.

What I really find

fascinating about it, though,

is now that I got to spend

20 years

watching and being and seeing this guy,

I was always amazed by the fact

it's a great lesson to learn.

By the way, in any business

you're in

know who you are,

be confident in who you are.

And he was.

And even though times change

and tastes change

and your audience goes

and comes and your popularity wanes,

you just if you're really confident

and you really know who you are

and you have that kind of integrity,

they'll find you.

And we always found Tony,

as a matter of fact, coming here today.

A girlfriend of mine was outside

with a message and she said,

Are you okay?

She said, Well, it's a really tough day.

I love Tony Bennett.

She said, I was.

I spent the whole morning

listening to her and she's 24.

She's been four years. She's a kid.

And now,

and now we we pay great respect.

And those of us who are lucky, you know,

people like Harry

Connick, Jr and myself, and Lady Gaga

and Diana Krall,

Jamie Cullum, people that he

he sort of

opened up to and took under their wing.

Now it's our wonderful responsibility

to make sure in our small lives

we keep the legacy of not only Tony, but

I think the greatest gift

America ever gave to the arts.

The great American Songbook.

We keep it going in his name.

What an honor

and a real privilege

to be able to do that.

And you know, what

a remarkable music career

he had spanning more than 70 years,

touching just about every generation

of the last century.

What sort of legacy does

he leave behind, do you think?

I think it's never ending.

I truly do. I think he's truly an icon.

I mean,

he has changed the face of music.

And it's

not just in the beautiful country

of America

or even North America, including cats.

It is worldwide.

I mean, listen,

I toured nearly 50 countries this year,

and there's not a place

there's not a language

spoken that doesn't love him

and that won't love him forever.

He'll become part

of all our lives in wonderful moments

when we get married

or when we fall in love to

the difficult moments,

you know,

when we're saying goodbye to each other.

He's he's

just become a part of culture and

you can imagine

it's a very strange day

for so many of us.

You know, I done Danny this morning,

and we have

we talked and

and I told Danny

just listen

how remarkable it was for me

as a as a father of four kids

to know that his kid loved him

so much and understood the legacy

and was a part of that journey

in keeping this incredible dude

more than relevant

the way he did it

I mean, it is a fascinating tale.

It truly is. It's the movie, which

it just means a lot to me that I can

come on here, Jim, and just sort of share

what it meant for me

to have him in my life.

And I mean, it changed my career, man.

When a guy like that

says to the world, hey,

this is, you know,

this is this guy's okay, that really does

It really does change things for you.

I bet

that's always going to stay with you.

Whether we've had times of great sadness

or great joy in our lives, it seems like

he was part of that soundtrack.

I think that's what's

just going to be so special about him.

We always leaned on Tony

in those moments in our lives.

Mike Man, like you said it.

You said it best.

He that I am the original American Idol.

And he still is.

He really is.

No question about it.

Michael Bublé, honored to have you on.

Thanks so much.

We're all thrilled to have you with us.

Harry Connick, Jr as well.

You're both wonderful.

Thanks so much.

And what a tribute to Tony Bennett.

I'm sure he'd be proud.

All right. We'll be right back.

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