Now the rest of the world has the chance to watch the moving August 3 show on a television special, “One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga,†which aired Sunday on CBS.
In addition to her signature song, Bennett has performed standards like “Fly Me to the Moon” and “Steppin ‘Out With My Baby” and duets with Lady Gaga including “Love For Sale” and “Anything Goes”.
Singing “New York, New York” before Bennett took the stage, Lady Gaga cried when she stopped to talk about him.
“He’s my friend. He’s my musical mate. And he’s the greatest singer in the world. And I’m counting on you, New York, to make him smile. So you better cheer. You better. to scream. You better laugh. You better cry. You better give your soul.
The audience at Radio City Music Hall held their end of the bargain. Bennett received his first standing ovation before even singing a note – and racked up at least a dozen more throughout the night.
In “Fly Me to the Moon”, when he sang the line “Let me sing forever more”, the audience burst into joy. At one point, the camera turned to a member of the audience who was shouting, “We love you! ”
But his wife Susan Benedetto said once she saw him on stage that night, his eyes sparkling and his arms outstretched towards the crowd, she knew everything would be fine.
“It has become itself. It just turned on. It was like a switch,” she told “60 Minutes” in a segment that aired last month.
That’s because the music and the performance are so ingrained in the singer, according to Bennett’s neurologist Dr. Gayatri Devi.
“People react differently depending on their strengths. In Tony’s case, it’s his musical memory, his ability to be a performer. It’s an innate, hard-wired part of his brain,†Devi said on “60â€. Minutes”. “So even if he doesn’t know what the day will be or where his apartment is, he can still sing the entire American Songbook repertoire and move people.”
But when she took the stage to join him at the Radio City Music Hall concert, Bennett seemed to have no doubts. “Wow,” he said as she turned in a glittering gold dress. “Lady Gaga!”
A look of joy passed over Lady Gaga’s face. She leaned down, her head in her hands, before taking another turn.
“I had to stay the course because we had a sold-out show and I had a job to do,†Lady Gaga told “60 Minutesâ€. “But I’ll tell you, when I went out on stage and he said ‘Lady Gaga’, my friend saw me, and it was very special.”
“It was a difficult decision for us to make because he is a capable artist. However, it is the College of Physicians,” said Danny Bennett. “It’s not the singing aspect but more the travel. Look, he’s getting tired. The decision is made that doing concerts now is just too much for him.”
Lady Gaga told “60 Minutes” that she heard a powerful message during Bennett’s last performances at Radio City Music Hall.
“It’s not a sad story. It’s moving. It’s hard to see someone change. I think what’s beautiful about it, and what’s been hard, is seeing how it affects him in some ways, but to see how it doesn’t affect his talent, â€she said. “I think he’s really pushed something to give the world the gift of knowing that things can change and that you can still be beautiful.”
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