This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
THE MAIN EVENT: In 1962, he left his heart in San Francisco for the first time. Forty years later, Tony Bennett returns to the city’s Fairmont Hotel — where he unveiled the number — to sing it for the zillionth time.
Backed by his swinging combo, sweetened by an orchestra and joined by a barefoot Tobey Maguire — whoops, my mistake, that’s k.d. lang — Bennett also whips through surprisingly abbreviated versions of 19 other beloved oldies like I Got Rhythm, It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing and Steppin’ Out With My Baby, in a fast-paced 70-minute PBS special.
EXTRAS! EXTRAS! Yep, it includes a biography and discography (of his in-print Sony albums, at least). But there’s also a photo gallery of San Francisco landscapes painted by Bennett, which is a nice touch.
AW, SKIP IT: The three-minute “interview” with Tony and k.d. basically consists of plugs for the special and their recent duets album A Wonderful World.
