In a recent interview with Vulture the 89-year-old crooner Tony Bennett sat down with Dan Reilly to talk about his latest album 'The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern', the 45th LP to chart on the Billboard 200, following last year's Cheek to Cheek, his No. 1 duet album with Lady Gaga. Bennett discussed The Great American Songbook and what he and Lady Gaga have been working on in secret for their next album.
You've brought a lot of classic songs to younger generations, whether it's from MTV Unplugged or your collaboration with Lady Gaga …
Gaga is a gorgeous singer, and when she sings a great ballad, I get goose bumps. She helped me and I helped her by doing Cheek to Cheek. Through her telling her audience how much she likes me, all of them became fans of mine, all these young teenagers. On the other hand, by her singing these beautiful songs on the album, the audience I have, all of them said, "God, I never knew she sang that wonderfully." So we both helped one another. We get along great. She's got a lot of talent. I think someday she's going to be very big in films, which I'm not too interested in. I work live, to audiences, but I think she's going to surprise everybody and make some good films.
Have you watched her on American Horror Story?
No, I haven't. How is that?
It's pretty disturbing.
[Laughs.] Oh, wow.
Have you finalized plans for another album?
Yeah, we're doing an album. It's going to be all Cole Porter songs. He was the best writer of all of them in the Great American Songbook. Highly intelligent. We're going to have a lot of fun doing that.
