Word: costello
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...center of his booming birthday industry, Tony Bennett: Duets/An American Classic, due out Sept. 26. "I was apprehensive," says Bennett. "I lean toward jazz, but jazz doesn't sell records. Dan's idea was collaborations on my greatest hits with contemporary artists who are institutions--Streisand, Elvis Costello, Bono. I told him I'd do it, but on certain terms...
...live on a single take--an almost unheard-of level of fussiness in an era when voices are spliced and diced and singers collaborate from different continents. "It's not just putting on a tuxedo, grabbing one of those old microphones and putting it on the album cover," says Costello. "With Tony, you've got to be there and have some curiosity about the music. You've got to learn his method...
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...
...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. "You don't want to sound like you're doing an impersonation," says Costello, "especially since he'd be the best person to copy and he's standing right here." Still, all three end up slipping into imitation. "Am I doing Tony too much?" Joel asks the control room after a take of The Good Life. "I'm trying not to." Pause. "I could...
...funk. The gap in average incomes between the countries has widened significantly in recent years to approximately 30%, drawing Kiwis across the Tasman in large numbers. Hanging over several of New Zealand's key industries (think banking), there's a branch-office stigma. Australia's Treasurer Peter Costello is chopping at tax rates with the glee of a burly bloke in a blue singlet. Kiwi workers complain that Costello's counterpart Michael Cullen is being a scrooge on fiscal policy, stacking up Budget surpluses when there's a good case for tax relief. But Cullen has no room to move...