Remembering Tony Bennett through his famous Canadian duet partners

During a career spanning more than seven decades, beloved singer and American Songbook interpreter Tony Bennett released more than 70 albums and won 19 Grammy Awards (among 41 nominations). But what his fans came to know him for best in the latter half of his career were his duets.

He released his first of two officially titled Duets albums in 2006, featuring the likes of the Chicks, Barbra Streisand and Stevie Wonder, but Bennett had first leaned into the format years earlier in 1994, when he recorded an MTV Unplugged album that included songs with k.d. lang and Elvis Costello — two artists who would become frequent Bennett collaborators.

Over the years, a duet with Bennett became a rite of passage, and his most consistent partner came late in his career: Lady Gaga, with whom he released two albums, and also gave his last performance, in 2021. But the New Yorker often called on Canadian musicians to share in the spotlight. Below, we look at four of Bennett's standout Canadian collaborators.

Diana Krall

It may be an unpopular opinion, but Tony Bennett was at his very best performing not with a big band, but rather a small ensemble. (His two duo albums with pianist Bill Evans, released in the '70s, are miracles.) And that may have been Diana Krall's motivation for Love is Here to Stay, her intimate 2018 duet album with Bennett with Bill Charlap's exquisite trio backing them up. Krall and Bennett had performed together numerous times before, and their mutual love of Tin Pan Alley tunes and the Great American Songbook made them perfect partners on this project, which has a certain valedictory quality — after all, Bennett was in his early 90s and coping with an Alzheimer's diagnosis when it was released. But he sounds spry and focused in these duets with Krall, and if his famously robust baritone had lost some of its heft, he made up for it with his absolute mastery of the material, as the title track attests.

K.d. lang

Bennett and Lang duetted many times throughout his storied career, winning several awards together along the way. Their joint record, A Wonderful World, won the Grammy for best traditional pop vocal album in 2004. Bennett knew he wanted to work with lang from the moment he heard her voice: "When I first heard k.d. sing, I immediately thought, 'She has it' — just like Judy Garland or Ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holiday," he said. "It's that rare quality where singing is so natural, such a part of a person's heart and soul, that it appears effortless."

Originally, Bennett recorded a cover of Bernie Wayne and Lee Morris's song "Blue Velvet" in 1951, and it was a solo hit for the crooner. He re-recorded it with lang for his 2011 album, Duets II, which was released on Bennett's 85th birthday, and the album broke a record by making Bennett the then oldest-living artist to land a No. 1 album. The pair's vocals fit together seamlessly, sounding "softer than satin" as they deliver a rich, emotive rendition.

Michael Bublé

There's no contemporary singer who pays homage to Bennett's era of crooners more than Michael Bublé. Over the years, the Canadian artist has consistently named Bennett one of his biggest musical inspirations, and has appeared on both of Bennett's Duets albums, singing "Just in Time" together in 2006 and "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" in 2011. When Bublé first came onto the scene in the early 2000s, he caught Bennett's attention, as the New Yorker told USA Today: "I really liked what he was doing compared to other contemporary acts. He has a great sense of knowing how to perform." Bublé has never hid his devotion to traditional pop standards and the American Songbook, admitting once to Bennett that he has "stolen so much" from him, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald and more. But instead of admonishing him, Bennett responded, as Bublé recalled in a PBS interview: "Kid, you steal from one, you're just a thief. But when you steal from everyone, you can call it research." 

Céline Dion

Bennett and Céline Dion only released one duet together, though they would both perform a decade later at a star-studded Frank Sinatra tribute night. "If I Ruled the World" was released on Bennett's 2006 Duets album, and marked the second time he recorded it, the first being in the 1960s as a solo track. As a duet, "If I Ruled the World" sparkles, as Bennett's voice provides a stable bedrock for Dion's to do its acrobatics. The two revered vocalists complement each other beautifully as they trade verses, and when they finally twine at the end, it's time for the fireworks. The second time around, "If I Ruled the World" helped earn Bennett a Grammy.