Tony Bennett has a typical lack of effusiveness about the kudos of his seven-decade career, but he does reportedly display an inscribed picture from a longtime colleague and fellow saloon singer in his Manhattan apartment. It reads: To the best goddamned pop singer I ve ever heard. It s signed Frank Sinatra. But don t take the Chairman s word for it. Just listen as these two discs bound from one masterly performance to the next, documenting a career whose ups and downs--Bennett actually went long years without a record contract--belie a robust evolution of vocal strength and subtlety of phrasing. The arc of Bennett s art in the decade from Cold Cold Heart and Rags to Riches to The Best Is Yet To Come and his signature I Left My Heart in San Francisco is remarkable enough, but it just keeps getting better. When the singer s management shrewdly orchestrated his MTV-powered comeback in the late 1980s and 90s, Bennett delivered considerably more than mere hype. Indeed, the highlights of those efforts (a warm, semi-autobiographical collection of ballads; tributes to Sinatra, Astaire, Ellington, and the blues; the obligatory MTV Unplugged set) included here barely skim the surface and arguably warrant a double-disc collection all their own. Still, the 39 tracks here represent the best kind of anthology: one that leaves you craving more. --Jerry McCulley

Tracklist:

CD1:
1. Because Of You
2. Cold, Cold Heart
3. Blue Velvet
4. Rags To Richer
5. Stranger In Paradise
6. Sing You Sinners
7. The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
8. Just In Time
9. It Amazes Me
10. Love Look Away
11. Firefly
12. Put On A Happy Face
13. The Best Is Yet To Come
14. Tender Is The Night
15. Once Upon A Time
16. I Left My Heart In San Francisco
17. I Wanna Be Around
18. The Good Life
19. This Is All Ask
20. When Joanna Loved Me
21. The Rules Of The Road

CD2:
1. Who Can I Turn To
2. If I Ruled The World
3. Fly Me To The Moon
4. The Shadow Of Your Smile
5. Smile
6. The Very Thought Of You
7. For Once In My Life
8. Yesterday I Heard The Rain
9. My Favorite Things
10. I Do Not Know A Day I Did Not Love You
11. How Do You Keep The Music Playing?
12. When Do The Balls Ring For Me?
13. Night And Day
14. Last Night When We Were Young
15. Steppin Out With My Baby
16. It Don t Mean A Thing If It Ain t Got That Swing
17. Mood Indigo
18. Keep The Faith, Baby