Music bridges Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s differences
BENNETT AND GAGA. No need for attention-calling gimmicks.
Lady Gaga may be 60 years younger than 88-year-old Tony Bennett, and their musical genres and singing styles may be as different as night and day—but, their album, “Cheek to Cheek,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, proves there’s nothing great music can’t bridge.
Yes, “The Lady Is A Tramp,” the couple’s first collaboration in 2011’s “Duets II” album, which became Bennett’s first No. 1 album at age 85, was no fluke. This time around, their full-length “experiment” isn’t always successful (“Let’s Face The Music And Dance”), but the recording is a bona fide triumph for Gaga, who reinvents herself with tunes that don’t require attention-calling gimmicks and provocative lyrics to impress her feisty Little Monsters.
The songstress is especially haunting when she breathes life into Eden Ahbez’s ethereal “Nature Boy.”
The album is a veritable fun romp, courtesy of Bennett and Gaga’s scorchingly swinging numbers (“Cheek to Cheek,” “I Won’t Dance,” “It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing,” “They All Laughed,” “Goody Goody” and the sizzling “Anything Goes”), made more crackling by spot-on scatting, clever counterpointing—and the singers’ potent chemistry!
Carols from Idina Menzel
MENZEL. Spreads hope and holiday cheer.
We know the cold doesn’t bother Idina Menzel—and, she proves this as she beams and glows in wintry weather on the cover of her first album in six years, the 12-track “Holiday Wishes,” which comes on the heels of her multimedia successes onstage (“If/Then,” “Wicked,” “Rent”), in recording (“Let It Go”), on TV (“Glee”) and in the movies (“Frozen,” for whose short-film followup, “Frozen Fever,” she will once again lend her voice to Elsa’s character).
Recently, Menzel made history when “Let It Go” made its way into the Hot 100 chart: She’s the only Tony acting awardee with a Top 10 hit! We were underwhelmed with the 43-year-old singer’s enthusiastic but harried performance at the Oscars early this year—but, her fourth album captures Menzel in top vocal form.
She puts her theatrical flair to good use in her covers of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” “When You Wish Upon A Star,” Joni Mitchell’s “River,” “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” sung with the marvelous Michael Bublé.
The theater diva has a voice that demands listeners’ attention. When Idina sings the stunning “Do You Hear What I Hear?,” you can visualize its story vividly as she hopscotches from one soaring note to another. Rendered like a Broadway aria, the self-penned thanksgiving hymn, “December Prayer,” brims with hope and holiday cheer, in which Idina sings about a weary soldier coming home to his mother’s grateful smile—it’s a song guaranteed to thaw “frozen” hearts!
