To Croon or Not to Croon

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While singers from Bolton to Stewart are busy butchering the classics, Tony B. is still dazzling

By Marjorie Preston

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Aug. 24, 2006

Bennett

Way back in prehistory (OK, it was 1982) rock singer Linda Ronstadt astounded the music world and her fans by recording What's New, an album of standards with arranger Nelson Riddle, onetime musical major domo for Frank Sinatra. The success of that album set an unfortunate precedent for rock stars that continues to this day. When their careers flag and their music falls out of heavy rotation, an increasing number of rockers decide to turn crooner.

For people who love the genre, patented and owned into perpetuity by Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee and a select few others, hearing Rod Stewart sing "For Sentimental Reasons" is a bit like watching a pigeon defile a historic landmark.

Ronstadt was famous for hits like "Different Drum," "Blue Bayou," as well as covers of Buddy Holly tunes like "It's So Easy." She had not had a big hit in several years; What's New put her back on the map. The collection included the old Nat Cole hit, "Straighten Up and Fly Right," the jazz classic "Lush Life," the winsome "Little Girl Blue," and the title tune, which became a Top 20 hit. The album won critical plaudits, alienated a few Ronstadt fans, and earned many more.

Linda Ronstadt is no Sarah Vaughan or Ella Fitzgerald -- she isn't even Rosemary Clooney -- but her pristine alto and clear affection for the music made for a credible album that went on to sell two million copies its first six months. She had the eminent good sense to work with Riddle, the man responsible for some of Sinatra's most memorable arrangements (including what may be Ol' Blue Eyes' greatest kick-ass, uptempo number, "I've Got You Under My Skin").

But when raspy-voiced rockers decide to appropriate the repertoire, it's time to enact new legislation: It should be illegal in all 50 states for Rod Stewart to verbally assault tunes like "Blue Moon," "Embraceable You" and "What A Wonderful World."

The sad part is, it's working. Though one senses opportunism rather than inspiration in his strategy, Stewart has released three volumes of his Great American Songbook series. The guy who once wore leopard print tights and squawled "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" is now tricked out in a sport coat and artfully loosened tie, a la Sinatra.

Some of the music isn't half bad (but that ain't good). Stardust: The Great American Songbook Part III, includes a sprightly duet of "Manhattan," but you can credit Bette Midler for the song's infectious fun. When Stewart made the mistake of singing the same tune with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America (Diane Sawyer! Does everybody think they can sing these tunes?) the fun went right out of it, like air out of a whoopee cushion.

Rod's third installment.

It doesn't end there. With the debut of Swinging with Sinatra, a new CD by Michael Bolton, a new assassin is on the loose. Bolton is known for two things: his mullet (now sheared) and his ability to singlehandedly raze buildings with his jackhammer screech. That he presumes to take on the songbook of the most sensitive, nuanced, and musically canny popular artist of the 20th century is a tribute to Bolton's ego, and Stewart's success with the same tired formula.

Bolton manhandles Sinatra standards like "Night and Day," "New York, New York," and heaven help us, even "I've Got You Under My Skin." He warbles a duet, "The Second Time Around," with his onetime flame and current fiancee, Desperate Housewife Nicolette Sheridan. All lack the magic, the punch, the sizzle, the steak, the power and the persuasiveness of Sinatra, but that's no surprise. The surprise is that these people are buying it. Stewart and Bolton have generated plenty of press, as well as CD and concert sales, through their pallid efforts to channel the great singers and songs.

Where to turn for the real thing? Tony Bennett, appearing Aug. 25-26 at Bally's Atlantic City. The last of the great crooners sounds better at age 80 than he did in his career infancy; wannabes like Stewart, Bolton, Carly Simon and even Michael Bublé (once hailed as heir apparent to Francis Albert) do not deserve to touch the hem of his robe. (What happened to Bublé, anyway? He showed such promise, and is now devolving into pop pablum.)

Bennett today, as always, is the assured pilot who can soar off into the musical stratosphere, perform dizzying vocal acrobatics, bring the tune home in a smooth approach, and land on a dime. He gets the material. He has the wisdom, maturity and chops to do right by composers like Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington, Jule Styne and Jimmy Van Heusen.

Bennett once described Louis Armstrong's music as having "so much feeling and honesty and humbleness." The new crop of rock-crooners seems to lack all three.

And Rod Stewart, who keeps marrying the same blonde decade after decade (he's the only one who gets older), is a bit like a kid trying on his dad's clothes. They just don't fit.

On a brighter note, there are a few contemporary singers who measure up to the mighty standards of the 1940s, '50s and '60s: k.d. lang, who has partnered many times with Bennett, and Bette Midler, who has always been comfortable in the genre and recently put out tributes to both Rosie Clooney and Peggy Lee. Then there is Dana Owens (aka Queen Latifah) whose eponymous Dana Owens CD revealed a mastery of the oeuvre that should shut the mouths of the Stewarts and Boltons. Literally. Please. And soon.