Word: bennett
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Sure enough, Bennett, while a warm and enthusiastic paramour, is not a patient one. "You don't get more than three takes," laughs Costello after recording Are You Havin' Any Fun? (and watching his wife Diana Krall record The Best Is Yet to Come) at Bennett's Englewood, N.J., studio. After three takes of Cold, Cold Heart, the Hank Williams song Bennett took to No. 1 in 1951, producer Phil Ramone asks Tim McGraw, "You want one more?" McGraw, who can't stop confessing his nerves, says, "I want 20 more." Bennett looks momentarily ill. "If Tim wants...
...Some of Bennett's need for speed is the product of a Depression-era upbringing. "The studio isn't a clubhouse," he says. "We're here to work." But it's also a critical part of his process. "Singing intimately is almost like thinking into a microphone, so it helps to have the song buried inside you." Like a method actor, Bennett goes over lyrics for days--even for songs he has sung forever--repeating them until they're second nature. When the time comes to record, the words pour out with different emphases on each take. (On Cold, Cold...
...Bennett's technique can be a little imposing. So can the presence of four guys with live instruments. When Billy Joel peers over his microphone and sees the Ralph Sharon Quartet, he says, "Live instrumentation? So if we f___ up, they got to do it again and again? Ho boy. I haven't had a drink in a year, but right now, I really want a cocktail." McGraw says simply, "Uh, I've never done this before." (He does have a cocktail.) Once a duet partner gets used to the live instruments, there's the vocal to reckon with...
...Bennett: "How about yourself...
...Bennett: "Well, I'm not a psychiatrist...