Singers from different generations with diverse styles unite in performing “I Wanna Be Around,” and all appearances are that they’re having a blast. Bennett first recorded this “revenge song” by Johnny Mercer in 1963, when Bono was three years old.
Bennett was born in Astoria (Queens), NY, in 1926, and was drafted into the U.S. Army near the end of WW II, where he served on the front lines in Europe. Several times he narrowly escaped death. Because he dined with a black friend from high school (in a segregated army), he was demoted and reassigned. Bennett’s war experiences led him to become a life-long pacifist.
Back in NY, Pearl Bailey asked him to open for her in Greenwich Village (1949), a jump start to his career. His first hit single was “Because of You” (1951), and a follow-up hit with Hank Williams’ “Cold, Cold Heart” helped bring country music to a wider audience. In subsequent years Bennett hosted a TV variety show, recorded several jazz albums, perfected a nightclub act and appeared in a film (1966). A staunch believer in the American Civil Rights Movement, he participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama. Bennett’s career tanked in the late 1960s, when rock music displaced his style of music. Marital problems and a cocaine addiction ensued, and by 1979 he owed a huge debt to the IRS. When he was at rock bottom, Bennett’s son Danny became his manager and spearheaded an amazing comeback career and return to financial stability. In 2002 he joined Michael Jackson and former President Bill Clinton in a fund raiser for the Democratic National Committee. At age 84 today, Bennett maintains a performing career presenting hundreds of concerts annually that still draw thousands. In recent weeks he sang “America the Beautiful” at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington, D.C.
Bennett is also an accomplished artist, and his paintings fetch upwards of $80,000; his painting of Central Park is on permanent display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, displayed next to a painting by Edward Hopper. He signs his paintings under his real name of Benedetto.
Bono, singer and chief lyricist for Irish band U2, was awarded an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his activism in Africa. U2's Bono and the Edge composed the score for the much delayed, much anticipated new Broadway musical "Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark," which begins previews November 14 at the Foxwoods Theater. Performers are propelled around the theater and over the audience in complicated bits of stage flying. Official opening is December 21 for the most expensive show in Broadway history; running costs are said to be just under $1 million per week.
But I digress. Back to the men and boys.
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