Album Review: Tony Bennett "Duets II"

This week I went ahead and bought Tony Bennett's "Duets II". I'm not going to lie, I really liked the first one, so I jumped at the chance of getting a second round of duets, especially once I saw the duet partner lineup. I really love Tony Bennett's voice and some of these pairings are really unique. I also sort of can't believe that this guy is 85 years old and still singing... I hope I'm that way too!

Instead of doing my normal couple of songs, I'm going to give a quick review of each of the songs:

1. The Lady Is A Tramp featuring Lady Gaga: I have to admit, Gaga is really starting to grow on me. I was pleasantly surprised with this first song on the album - she proves that she can actually sing without any of that crazy electronic stuff. They took the classic and added some cute little things to it to updated it.
2. One For My Baby (And One More For The Road) featuring John Mayer: If there was one voice that I would pick to blend pretty well with Tony Bennett's it would probably be John Mayer.
3. Body and Soul featuring Amy Winehouse: I feel sort of bad speaking ill of the dead, but I'm really not that impressed with her singing on this song. She has a distinct sound to her voice, but it's really hard to understand her... and her harmonies just don't really mesh with Tony Bennett... it was sort of an odd duet.
4. Don't Get Around Much Anymore featuring Michael Bublé: This is another one of those voices that was just meant to sing with Tony Bennett. I could listen to this song over and over again.
5. Blue Velvet featuring k.d. lang: I really liked this one too... k.d. lang has such a mellow voice and this song just screams for it. This is one of the types of songs that you'll listen to on the way home from work after a stressful day.
6. How Do You Keep The Music Playing featuring Aretha Franklin: Up until about the last 30 seconds of the song, Aretha really keeps her "queen of soul" voice reigned in. Just when you think she's made it through the whole song, she lets some runs go.
7. The Girl I Love featuring Sheryl Crow: This is not a bad song, but it sounds a little like Sheryl Crow is trying too hard.
8. On The Sunny Side Of The Street featuring Willie Nelson: Talk about a weird match up. Not the greatest on the album, but I love Willie's voice, so it makes it work!
9. Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me) featuring Queen Latifah: I don't know that I'd ever heard this song before, but I think it's absolutely beautiful and am amazed at how beautiful Queen Latifah's voice is!
10. Speak Low featuring Norah Jones: She has one of those amazing jazz voices that lends itself to this style of music - and this is an amazing song!
11. This Is All I Ask featuring Josh Groban: Josh Groban has to be one of my favorite classical singers, so it pains me to say this. He can't really cross over into other genres. I love his classical music, but when he tries his hand at other types of music, he sounds like an opera singer trying to sing Britney Spears. It just doesn't work for me.
12. Watch What Happens featuring Natalie Cole: If anyone can sing with one of the greats, it's Natalie Cole. Great tune.
13. Stranger In Paradise featuring Andrea Bocelli: Now this is a guy who can sing classical and then blend it into almost any other style of music. Where Josh Groban fell short, Andrea Bocelli stepped in!
14. The Way You Look Tonight featuring Faith Hill: You know, in the last few years, I've liked Faith Hill's music less and less. Don't get me wrong, she has a great voice, but this song just feels very awkward and forced.
15. Yesterday I Heard The Rain featuring Alejandro Sanz: This is a really beautiful song. I hadn't heard of Alejandro Sanz before, but he's a very accomplished Spanish singer-songwriter. He sang his bit in Spanish and it was really pretty.
16. It Had To Be You featuring Carrie Underwood: I was actually a little disappointed with this one. I've always thought Carrie could sing the alphabet and I'd like it, but again, this felt forced to me. She normally does really well with the duet thing, so I'm not exactly sure what happened with this one.
17. When Do The Bells Ring For Me featuring Mariah Carey: Also a great song. How do you go wrong with Mariah Carey? Ok... well, there was "Glitter"...

This is definitely a great album - I highly recommend it!