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Pop: Hot Ticket
By GINA VIVINETTO
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 1, 2001
The brilliant Mr. Bennett
At last year's Ruth Eckerd Hall performance, Tony Bennett wowed the crowd with two hours of smooth crooning, warm stage banter and dapper duds. Aside from being the hunkiest guy on the planet, 74-year-old Anthony Benedetto -- see, sigh, even our names rhyme -- is in a league of his own, a peerless interpreter of jazz and pop standards.
This guy bridged the generation gap by appearing on MTV's Unplugged in 1993 and scoring a new generation of fans. Now he lists among his good friends not only the late jazz genius Duke Ellington, but also Flea, the tattooed, hyper, oft-naked bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Count among Bennett's many attributes the fact that he's multitalented. When he's not singing, he's painting. He's also long been a champion of civil rights.
Basically Bennett, a nice Italian boy from Queens, is the kind of guy you wanna bring home to Mama. Except that my mom, naturally, has a crush on him, too.
-- GINA VIVINETTO, Times pop music critic
Monkees mania
Here they come, walking down the street. Well, three of 'em anyway. What is it with stubborn old Mike Nesmith? What makes him not want to play with his fellow Monkees (being too rich to care is no excuse!)? I get so upset, I'll tell you, I wanna tear that winter cap off his noggin.
Thank goodness we can still go and watch Peter Tork, Mickey Dolenz and Davy Jones sing and play. They'll do the Monkees favorites, everything from I'm a Believer, Pleasant Valley Sunday and Last Train to Clarksville to a few trippier tunes the act recorded when its members were smoking dope and making psychedelic films with Jack Nicholson.
Alas, it was the 1960s. And although the band, dubbed the Pre-Fab Four, was maligned for being made-for-TV, and their success has unfortunately spawned a slew of manufactured pop acts, the Monkees put more heart and soul into their tunes than all of today's made-for-MTV acts combined.
The Monkees perform at 8 p.m. today at Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater. Tickets are $35.75-$39.75. (727) 791-7400.
-- GINA VIVINETTO, Times pop music critic
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