Tony Bennett: An American Classic (2006)

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The concert film Tony Bennett: An American Classic serves as a video accompaniment and companion piece to the legendary crooner's 2006 album of the same title. On that LP, Bennett duets on a series of pop standards, with nineteen of the world's top rock and pop artists. In the film version - originally produced and aired on NBC - Bennett teams up with many of the same guests, including Christina Aguilera, k.d. Lang, Stevie Wonder, Chris Botti, Elton John, Juanes, John Legend, Barbra Streisand and Diana Krall, to celebrate his own 80th birthday. Rob Marshall, the helmer of Chicago, directs. Tracks include: "Smile" with Streisand, "Sing, You Sinners" with Legend, "Because of You" with Lang and Botti, "The Best is Yet to Come" with Krall, "The Shadow of Your Smile" with Juanes, "Rags to Riches with John, "Just in Time" with Michael Buble, "For Once in My Life" with Wonder and "Steppin' Out" with Aguilera. Bennett then performs his standard closer, the seminal "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," as a solo number. Throughout, Marshall and his collaborators re-create, via elaborate onstage production design, classic settings from various periods in Bennett's life and career, including the 52nd Street Swing Club, one of the earlier incarnations of Columbia's recording studio, Carnegie Hall, the stage of the 'Rat Pack,' the set of Bennett's infamous MTV Unplugged performance in the early nineties, and much, much more. As these settings magically come to life on stage, such celebrities as Catherine Zeta-Jones, Billy Crystal, Robert de Niro, John Travolta and Bruce Willis, recount the tale of Bennett's life, career and musical journey, and their narration is interwoven with the musical performances by Bennett and his fellow vocalists. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi