Tony Bennett’s millions of fans around the world can admire the great vocalist at his peak via a dedicated playlist on the official YouTube channel of The Ed Sullivan Show.
Bennett, who died on July 21 at the age of 96, made no fewer than 32 appearances on the famed variety series, a measure both of his enduring popularity and the sheer length of his career. His performances spanned almost the entire length of the show’s 23-year run on network television, which stretched from 1948 to 1971. The clips provide a fascinating demonstration of this master entertainer at work, undiluted and unswayed by changing music fashions around him, and with a number of collaborators.
There are, for example, three different chances to see him performing the song that became his most familiar signature, “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”: on its own in a November 1964 edition and twice in medleys with “I Wanna Be Around,” in both 1965 and 1967. Several of the videos have Bennett backed by the Woody Herman Orchestra, and in an April 1969 edition of Sullivan, we see him working with Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, on “Love Scene” and “(In My) Solitude.”
In another memorable pairing of musical giants, an April 1967 show has Bennett appearing with Count Basie and his musicians, in two separate clips featuring “The Lady’s In Love With You” and “Don‘t Get Around Much Anymore.” In the latter, watch for a brief but stellar trumpet feature by Harry “Sweets” Edison. From early days, admirers can see a 25-year-old Bennett in September 1951, singing “Because Of You,” and his return in March 1952 for “Since My Love Has Gone.”
At the other end of the show’s epic run, Bennett also appears in a January 1971 episode, just two months before its weekly syndication by CBS ended, performing “I’ll Begin Again.” From that same show, there are separate clips of a medley of “There’ll Never Be Another You” and “Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me),” and of “(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story.”
Watch the dedicated playlist of Tony Bennett’s performances on The Ed Sullivan Show.