Tony Bennett On American Theatre Wing Training & Seeking Fame

Recording legend Tony Bennett collaborates with internationally successful pop star Lady Gaga on a new standards duets album titled CHEEK TO CHEEK and the performer opens up about his affection for the great interpreters of the Great American Songbook as well as his theatrical training as part of a new interview.

Bennett shares, "I attended the American Theatre Wing School in New York [after serving in combat in World War II]. The first thing they taught me is to only sing quality - intelligent songs. Never treat the audience disrespectfully. It was a wonderful lesson. I had a teacher on 52nd Street, Mimi Spear; she said to me, 'Don't imitate another singer, because you'll just be one of the chorus if you do. To learn how to phrase, study musicians - a piano player, a saxophone player - and see how they're phrasing.' I took her advice."

Bennett concludes, "It sounds so simple, but if you just be yourself, you're different than anyone else."

Additionally, Bennett says, "My ambition was to help my mother after my father died [when Bennett was 10]. She was raising three children, working [as a seamstress] for a penny a dress. Fortunately, my first hit record became so big I was able to transplant my mother into nature in Englewood, New Jersey."

Check out the original article on the matter here.

CHEEK TO CHEEK is set to be released on September 23.

LADY GAGA & TONY BENNETT: CHEEK TO CHEEK LIVE! airs on PBS nationwide on October 24.

Of note, Bennett and Gaga previously collaborated on a duet of the classic "The Lady Is A Tramp" for Bennett's bestselling DUETS II album. New footage of that recording session was recently released and it was covered in a BroadwayWorld article here.