Duets II Tony Bennett

Duets II

1	The Lady Is a Tramp / Lady Gaga 3:18
2	One For My Baby (And One More For the Road) / John Mayer 2:58
3	Body and Soul / Amy Winehouse 3:23
4	Don't Get Around Much Anymore / Michael Bublé 2:41
5	Blue Velvet / k.d. lang 4:35
6	How Do You Keep the Music Playing / Aretha Franklin 5:28
7	The Girl I Love / Sheryl Crow 3:53
8	On the Sunny Side of the Street / Willie Nelson 2:57
9	Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me) / Queen Latifah 3:53
10	Speak Low / Norah Jones 3:56
11	This Is All I Ask / Josh Groban 4:36
12	Watch What Happens / Natalie Cole 2:09
13	Stranger in Paradise / Andrea Bocelli 5:03
14	The Way You Look Tonight / Faith Hill 3:55
15	Yesterday I Heard the Rain / Alejandro Sanz 3:44
16	It Had To Be You / Carrie Underwood 3:51
17	When Do the Bells Ring for Me / Mariah Carey 2:54
18	[CD-ROM Track] Multimedia Track

All Music Guide

Tony Bennett's first album of celebrity duets (2006's Duets: An American Classic) featured an impressive cast of superstars answering the call from the dean of pop vocalists, but the arrangements were overly safe -- virtually all of them ballads with soft strings or brassy finger-snappers. Duets II follows the first by five years and features, surprisingly, a cast just as star-laden, but also arrangements that are much more dynamic, and suitable for each song and its participants. (Marion Evans, a veteran whose career goes back nearly as far as Bennett's, handles the charts for a few of the best here.) Bennett, as ever in splendid voice and impeccable groove, laughs and trades lines with stars half his age (like John Mayer), or in the case of Lady Gaga, six decades younger, and clearly makes them so comfortable in this setting that it would be easy to believe that jazz vocals were their home. Standard fare yields standard results for the likes of Michael Bublé and Josh Groban, but all of these songs have something to contribute. Bennett is especially tender and expressive with k.d. lang on "Blue Velvet" (the two had already collaborated on a full album), and he clearly enjoys his pairing with Willie Nelson for "On the Sunny Side of the Street." (Nelson takes a guitar solo, and shows some of the vocal shadings that during the '60s made him as expressive a vocalist as Bennett.) The album wisely covers all bases, including stars of country music (Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill), R&B (Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse), and one-shots for rock & roll (Sheryl Crow), Latin music (Alejandro Sanz), and classical (Andrea Bocelli). Celebrity musical pairings rarely lead to innovation or excitement, but Duets II is an enjoyable celebration of what Tony Bennett has meant to pop music, and what he can bring out in any star vocalist he steps up to the microphone with. John Bush

USA Today

1/2 It helps that Bennett is such a gracious collaborator whose style seems to work with whomever he's sharing the mike. And while the material is classic, he and his partners give the impression that singing together is a genuine pleasure. Steve Jones

The Associated Press

Tony Bennett is as timeless as the songs he sings on "Duets II," which should put him back on the charts for a remarkable seventh straight decade.... At 85, Bennett remains a hip role model able to bring out the best in his colleagues without compromising his standards. Charles J. Gans

The Guardian

Bennett's latest sounds like a fantasy birthday party in full swing, one where an outrageously starry array of guests share the mic with a host as twinkling as ever. Hermione Hoby

Daily Telegraph

It’s a heart-warming who’s who. But something different happens between Bennett and Winehouse, who always said she was a jazz singer at heart. He seems to lean forward for the first time, engaging not just indulging. She sings into the song for its own sake, unlike the other performances which are delivered with a showbiz wink to the camera. Helen Brown

Reuters

Lady Gaga is a perfectly engaging vamp on the album's opener, "Lady Is a Tramp," and Norah Jones' participation in "Speak Low" adds up to nothing short of autumnal sublimity. But it's Winehouse's last will and testament, "Body and Soul," that's the album's serious keeper. Chris Willman

Newsday

When Aretha Franklin arrives for "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" you can hear how the two legends push each other to bring their A-games to hold the spotlight both separately and together in the thrilling climax. It's a marvel among many marvels on Bennett's "Duets II," raising the project beyond clever marketing and turning it into an artistic gem. Glenn Gamboa