Review of Tony Bennett: Live By Request

Introduction

With a career that has spanned over five decades and with nine Grammy Awards to his credit, Tony Bennett is known the world over as a premiere entertainer. Live by Request is a star studded celebration of Tony`s 50 years in showbusiness recorded in New York in December 1998. With tributes from show business stars and phone ins, Tony performs many of his popular hits including, Steppin` Out With My Baby, Fly Me To The Moon, For Once In My Life and Chicago, in the only way Tony can sing them, with panache and grace.

Video

Presented with a 4:3 fullframe transfer, this DVD looks clean and presentable. No visible signs of anything wrong with the transfer. Colours are well reproduced across the range. It`s a shame it`s not in widescreen, the set is visually appealing and has good lighting which works well in setting the mood for the songs. Very cabaret like.

Audio

This is complete with Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM soundtracks. Both sound very good, but as ever, the 5.1 track is the one to listen to. The soundfield broadly covers the front and sounds well mixed. All the instruments, the bass, the audience cheering and Tony`s singing sound good.

Features

Nice looking animated menus lead to poor features. Just a photo gallery and links to websites. No bios, no interviews, nothing else that might be a welcome value added feature and I found this to be quite disappointing. There are no subtitles for the music either which I find to be a sad omission.

Conclusion

My introduction to Tony Bennett was watching the film `Goodfellas`. Tony belting out the opening big band number `Rags to Riches` where Henry Hill begins his story is something I can never forget. I do enjoy classic 50`s and 60`s big band style music and Tony Bennett is one of the greats along with Sinatra and Dean Martin. Effortlessly singing everything from bluesy infused jazz to laid back easy listening, this proves why Tony is truly a superstar. Not only is his singing ability still something to admire, but his charming personality and sparkling eyes still manage to captivate a huge global audience of all ages. He`s still very popular.

This DVD celebrates 50 years of Bennett in showbusiness and befitting such an occasion means a whole host of stars paying tribute to the man by way of video clips and fan phone in requests. KISS, Sting, Billy Crystal, George Clooney, Joe Pesci and Madonna are among the video tributes while Natalie Cole, Clint Black and Elmo (from Sesame Street) sing a few numbers too. This is a collection of 16 tracks but sadly for me there`s no sign of the aforementioned `Rags to Riches`.

I enjoyed watching this DVD with one exception, there`s too much talking and not enough singing. There are too many interruptions from phone in requests and stars gushing at how much they love our Tony. I didn`t mind in the first few minutes of the disc, but then I was getting more tired of it and wished they`d just edit it all out. I just want to hear and watch the singing. Luckily there are chapter breaks for the start of the songs so you can skip this meandering stuff. In between the singing there are a few anecdotes too which are okay to listen to.

Did you know Tony paints? He`s not only a talented singer, but he can paint really well too, an accomplished artist! I wish they`d include some stills of his paintings as a special feature here. I`d like to see stuff without having to go online. If you want to see his paintings, check out: http://www.benedettoarts.com/.

Despite my small niggle above, I enjoyed playing this DVD and even now I`m not so much watching it but leaving it to play in the background. It`s great for that. One day, just one day I might make it to Vegas to see Mr Bennett live. That for me would be awesome! This is recommended for Bennett fans without question, there`s no one quite like Tony. Anyone else who`d like to get into something a little different, you could do worse than get into Tony Bennett.