Tony Bennett

Speaker 40:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For rights' reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty seven, and the presenter was Michael Parkinson.

Presenter0:29

He has a voice as warm and inviting as a cosy fire on a cold winter day. That's how one critic described the singing style of our castaway. Fraxinata, who knows about these things, was more direct. He called him the best singer in the business.

Presenter0:43

He was born Anthony Dominic Benedetto in New York City. It was Bob Hope who told him to change his name to Tony Bennett.

Presenter0:50

Tony Welcome

Presenter0:52

What kind of a of a world was Antonio Dominic Benedetto born into?

Tony Bennett0:57

Well, it was um right at the beginning of the uh Franklin Delano Roosevelt era, coming up out of the Depression.

Tony Bennett1:05

And uh it was in a town called Astoria outside of uh New York City.

Tony Bennett1:11

and about fifteen minutes away from New York City, a suburban part of uh New York City. I had a very warm upbringing because I had a beautiful father and mother and sister and brother and we were all very close and all our relatives were close.

Presenter1:26

You'd be very poor though I imagine.

Tony Bennett1:27

Oh yes. Well the the whole country was at that time.

Presenter1:29

At that time. But there's no sense of deprivation at all. I mean, you didn't feel that you were underprivileged and uh

Tony Bennett1:36

Well I I felt the fright of it, only the vibrations of it, and my family kinda kept it from me, but uh we had a very warm family and we were very together.

Presenter1:36

Well

Presenter1:48

'Cause your father died when you were young, didn't he? Yes, nine years old. So your mother brought the family what did she do to support the family?

Tony Bennett1:50

Yes, nine years old.

Tony Bennett1:54

Well, she was a seamstress and um a magnificent motivator and wonderful person.

Presenter2:00

Where did the music come from? Was the music in the family naturally? Was it uh my father?

Tony Bennett2:04

My father my father was a wonderful singer. My brother sang uh as a youngster. He sang in the Metropolitan Opera, Solo Spots and

Tony Bennett2:12

He was called the Little Caruso and yeah, so

Tony Bennett2:16

I always had an ear for very good music.

Tony Bennett2:20

But uh I went the popular way and uh sang popular music, being influenced by Al Jolson and

Tony Bennett2:27

Eddie Canton

Presenter2:29

Right, let's let's hear your first choice of music that you're gonna take on this desert island.

Tony Bennett2:34

Well, the uh immortal Duke Ellington and uh the great concert he did at the Newport Jazz Festival, which uh

Tony Bennett2:42

To this day was the best performance that was ever given at any jazz festival. Joe Jones, Count Basie's drummer, played in the wings, not visible to the audience. He rolled up a piece of newspaper and just played time on his knee and swung the whole Duke Ellington band. It was amazing because uh the band took on a flair that uh uh no one's ever heard anything swing as much uh since.

Presenter3:09

And this is Take the A Train.

Tony Bennett3:10

It's the A-Train by Duke Ellington.

Presenter4:13

Duke Emmett and I take the A train recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival. You of course worked with Duke, didn't you, uh Tony?

Tony Bennett4:19

Yes, many times. He was a sorcerer.

Tony Bennett4:23

That's the only way I could describe him. He is just a magician actually. Had a very beautiful aura around him and he contributed more to uh American popular jazz music than uh

Tony Bennett4:39

Well, I I just think he's the first

Tony Bennett4:42

Authentic classical musician from the United States.

Presenter4:46

Let's go back now to where we left off in the the story of your your childhood. Do you remember your first uh the first time that you you sang publicly?

Tony Bennett4:54

Uh, I sang with my brother a lot, you know, very competitively. It was fun though. But then my first uh

Tony Bennett5:02

My job as a singer was uh when I was sixteen years old and I was a singing waiter and uh used to uh wait on tables and uh take requests and two Irish waiters would take me in the back uh two old timers and teach me the songs real fast and out of necessity I would learn them real quick and come out and get extra money for the weekend.

Presenter5:24

What kind of songs were they did they get requested?

Tony Bennett5:28

There were all kinds, you know, from um my girl Sal to uh

Tony Bennett5:32

Blue Moon, all kinds of incongruous songs that you'd have to learn real fast to get some extra money.

Presenter5:38

I also read too that you you worked in a minstrel show about that time as well, was that right?

Tony Bennett5:42

Yeah, then in the Catholic Church, I guess.

Presenter5:44

Doing what?

Tony Bennett5:45

Just singing a couple of songs. I think it was A Few New Susie in imitation of Eddie Cantor.

Presenter5:51

Art was in fact your was your first love, wasn't it? It's something in fact which you've uh carried on to this day. I mean you you paint and paint successfully. And you in fact became an art student, didn't you?

Tony Bennett6:01

I've always had a passion to uh sing and paint and uh it's funny that my life has just been in focus that way right through my whole life.

Presenter6:10

So wh whereabouts were you an art student?

Tony Bennett6:12

I went to the High School of Industrial Art and it was right across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And uh

Tony Bennett6:20

Had some very, very, very good teachers there.

Presenter6:23

And your ambition at this time was in fact more inclined toward a a job in in the art world rather than music, was it?

Tony Bennett6:28

Yes, I was steering myself toward that. And uh I had a a wonderful music teacher in the art school and he suggested that I go into music. And uh it upset all the art teachers a lot that he did that. But uh

Tony Bennett6:43

I think he's the first one who uh gave me the bug to just keep going toward music.

Presenter6:48

Let's have a second choice of record.

Tony Bennett6:51

Well, I I think the one singer of popular music that has God going right through her at all times is Ella Fitzgerald. She's given the world the greatest singing for forty years that uh I think anyone's ever heard. The uh genius of uh Ella Fitzgerald and uh the beautiful song, These Foolish Things.

Speaker 47:15

A cigarette that bears ellipsticks traces

Speaker 47:24

An airline ticket to romantic places And still my heart has wings These foolish things remind me of you Alright.

Presenter7:45

I always think when I hear Ella singing like that that if I were another woman singer, I wouldn't be so much inspired by that as I go and shoot myself. I know what you're saying. I mean it's perfect, isn't it?

Tony Bennett7:52

I know what you're saying. I mean, that's about as good as you get it.

Presenter7:59

And of course Oscar Peterson accompanying her there. You have worked, like Ella, with a lot of jazz people. I mean, you you like working with jazz people, don't you? Why is that?

Tony Bennett8:01

You

Tony Bennett8:06

Well, it creates a spontaneity, a a vitleness, uh, an unpredictability on stage instead of a set program, something that's so predictable and it's a great scare on stage to become stale and very predictable.

Tony Bennett8:22

So you have to do the unexpected and and jazz artists live for the moment and they play unexpected things and

Tony Bennett8:30

Then it's a matter of just um getting properly involved with them on stage and having something happen that you didn't plan.

Presenter8:36

They lift your performance because

Tony Bennett8:38

Yes, they lift it up, yes.

Presenter8:40

Let's go back to the story. You you went in the army, didn't you? And this was sort of World War II time.

Tony Bennett8:45

Red.

Presenter8:45

Uh did did you get any chance to sing in the army?

Tony Bennett8:48

After the war was over, we had to wait a while before we all got home and file out. And uh I was at the American Forces Network in Wiesbaden, Germany, and performed every weekend with a wonderful orchestra.

Tony Bennett9:02

And had very good experience. I was a librarian for the orchestra, so I learned a lot about the complexity of uh musicians and their habits and their talents.

Tony Bennett9:14

And uh I really said, This is all right. I I think I'll try and make this a profession. So when I got out, I joined the American Theater Wing and went to school for quite a few years at the American Theater Wing and kept auditioning for about seven years. I had a rough time trying to get going.

Tony Bennett9:33

But Pearl Bailey and Bob Hope discovered me and uh decided to uh put me on stage with them and

Presenter9:40

That was the beginning.

Tony Bennett9:41

That was the very beginning of uh being put in focus with the public.

Presenter9:45

And was it true that Hope did in fact change your name?

Tony Bennett9:47

Oh, yes, definitely.

Presenter9:49

'Cause you weren't seeing it under the name of Antonio Dominic Benedetto even then. You you had another name, didn't you?

Tony Bennett9:54

I had a professional name that I I made up called Joe Barry, just hoping that everybody would remember it. And it was quite uh amateurish and Bob Hope said, I don't like that name He said, What what's your real name? And I said, Anthony Dominic Benedetto.

Tony Bennett10:08

And he said, Well, that's too long for the marquis.

Tony Bennett10:11

He had no idea that there would ever be a singer called Engelbert Humperdale.

Tony Bennett10:15

So he said, Let's edit it down and Americanize you and call you Tony Bennett. And he actually went on stage at the Pearmont Theatre in front of Les Brown's orchestra and full audience and he said, We'd love to have you meet a brand new singer, Tony Bennett. And that's uh that was the first time I ever heard that name.

Presenter10:32

Extraordinary. Next choice of record, please, Tony.

Tony Bennett10:36

When it comes to uh jazz and popular music, the one man who's way up on his shelf and separate and away from everybody else and incomparable is Artatum and his wonderful recording of Don't Blame Me.

Presenter11:51

I think actually if you keep on picking artists like Art Tatum I might join you on the desktop as well. I mean he is just absolutely breathtaking, isn't he?

Tony Bennett11:59

Yeah, it's permanent, it it'll live forever, it's timeless.

Presenter12:03

Did you ever meet him, uh, Tony?

Tony Bennett12:05

I did. Uh, I met him uh several times because I was so in love with his artistry and uh I'd go see him whenever I could and he played on Fifty Second Street, uh

Tony Bennett12:15

Well, my father had a grocery store when I was really young.

Tony Bennett12:19

I never heard of any other artist that conjured up so many different legends. You know, all kinds of things happened. Uh one famous story is that uh on Fifty Second Street, as soon as three o'clock came about, all the clubs would close down and they would all the piano players in New York City

Tony Bennett12:37

Including very fabulous classical musicians like Artur Rubinstein would.

Tony Bennett12:42

come in and and visit R. Tatum and all sit down. All the piano players would sit down and just be in awe of his playing and then he would play for h his fellow uh piano players.

Presenter12:52

in that situation at that time we're talking about, which is the fifties in America, being black, of course, he must have suffered dreadfully from the sort of racial prejudice that was around at the time. Was there anything of that in the in in his competitive nature that made him more competitive?

Tony Bennett13:04

Well, that's uh one of the other legends, you know. Uh his attitude was that every time he got turned down he was black, he was blind. So what he would do would just go back and he would tell his wife

Tony Bennett13:15

I really have two or three strikes against me here, he said. Now I'm going to just have to keep getting better and better and better so that I will not be able to be turned down.

Tony Bennett13:24

And this is what happened and this is why he his level just raised up

Tony Bennett13:28

to um a a zen kind of uh thing where it it just became something that no one to this day has ever been able to attain on the piano.

Presenter13:37

Let's have another choice of record.

Tony Bennett13:40

You know, one of the big influences in that particular era that I grew up in, all of the jazz musicians and popular singers like Sinatra and Billie Holiday.

Tony Bennett13:50

They were all influenced by classical music, romantic classical music, uh Tchaikovsky and Revelle and Debussy.

Tony Bennett13:57

So we all fell in love with Maurice Ravel, and here's his uh string quartet and F.

Presenter14:56

There is a quartet in F major by Ra Bell played by the Juilliard Quartet.

Presenter15:01

Tony, let's talk a little bit about this this time you were growing up and uh starting your career in America in the fifties. It was a remarkable period, wasn't it, for for music?

Tony Bennett15:11

Actually, the end of the thirties going into the forties and early fifties.

Tony Bennett15:15

was a period that I describe incomparable to the French Impressionists at the turn of the century.

Tony Bennett15:24

It was a time when we were all kind of lifting ourselves up by our bootstraps in the United States and magnificent things started happening.

Tony Bennett15:32

The Empire State, the Chrysler Building, we were all going up. We were poor and yet it was happening. We saw that.

Presenter15:36

Uh

Presenter15:38

Yeah, that's the incredible thing about it, wasn't it? It came out of a dep

Tony Bennett15:40

It was just at this uh time that we all helped one another. There was a great camaraderie. It was an age of individualism.

Tony Bennett15:49

Great individuals in the movie stars. There were so many performers.

Presenter15:53

Yes.

Tony Bennett15:54

To this day I I still am baffled that uh it didn't go where I thought it would go as a child.

Tony Bennett16:00

Uh

Presenter16:00

Why what do you think is a child? What do you think about him?

Tony Bennett16:02

Well, I it was so spectacular. You know, everybody was uh, you know, wonderful specialists at what they did. There was a magnificent street called Fifty Second Street where you had Art Tatum and Billy Holliday and George Shearing and Stan Goetz and Lester Young and Errol Garner and just loaded with these great artists playing all the time.

Tony Bennett16:22

The theatres had uh wonderful vaudeville performances with great big bands and wonderful comedians.

Tony Bennett16:30

And um Broadway was magnificent. You had Cole Porter and Richard Rogers and Rogers and Hart and Rogers and Hammerstein and all these uh wonderful, wonderful uh musical shows.

Tony Bennett16:43

And what great playwrights? I don't know. I think what happened is in those days you had a a terrific accent on integrity and quality, similar to a Rolls-Royce attitude.

Presenter16:44

And what do you feel?

Tony Bennett16:54

of doing something with great quality.

Tony Bennett16:57

Having that stand for what the American product is all about. And I think it took a big turn. They made so much money with that.

Tony Bennett17:04

accent on quality that they

Tony Bennett17:06

Accountants kind of came in and producers and kind of took over when they saw this uh flood of money that flowed to them and

Tony Bennett17:15

all of a sudden it became an age of greed, you know, where the money became first and the the artistry was secondary.

Presenter17:21

And then they did of course discovered a a new young market too and and in came rock and roll and

Tony Bennett17:26

Yeah, th they just created that. I mean, actually I think it's very incompetent to think of a one group of people to sell to.

Tony Bennett17:33

I think the old masters really were very intelligent in playing to the whole family so that if something was popular the whole audience, the whole American audience went out to see it instead of one group.

Presenter17:44

It's interesting because you've not compromised in your choice of material in all the years you've been working.

Tony Bennett17:49

Right.

Presenter17:49

Do you see yourself, therefore, as a guardian of the kind of music that you've been talking about that you grew up with?

Tony Bennett17:54

Not really. I just see myself as a very uh happy man uh because uh you know even if there are some disappointments and some executives that turn me down

Tony Bennett18:03

The public never has. And uh, I still carry on and

Tony Bennett18:07

Really feel good about my life because I'm I'm swimming around in the most wonderful music and being involved, properly involved with the Duke Ellingtons and

Tony Bennett18:15

and the Woody Hermans and the Buddy Riches and Count Basie and

Tony Bennett18:19

all these great masters really show you the way to go.

Presenter18:23

Let's have another choice of record, Tony, please.

Tony Bennett18:25

Okay, let's have who I consider the best singer of the century, the finest, because of her training and that wonderful era where they really stroked and groomed an artist. Uh the movie companies in those days took Mickey Rooney and Judy Gollin and taught them everything that anyone was ever to know about uh theatrics and uh they taught this little girl very well, Judy Gollin, and uh a song that outside of uh all the things you are.

Tony Bennett18:53

I think is a

Tony Bennett18:55

Possibly the best popular song ever written by Yiparberg last night when we were young.

Speaker 419:02

Is that close?

Speaker 419:12

When we were young.

Presenter19:32

The late Judy Garland in Last Night when we were young. You worked with her too, did you, Tony?

Tony Bennett19:36

Yes, uh I did a television show with her and uh that was great fun. Yeah. Oh yeah. She was a wonderful, wonderful person.

Presenter19:40

Yeah.

Presenter19:44

Do you see her as a tragic figure?

Tony Bennett19:45

Oh yes, yes. Very, very similar to uh Edith Piaf.

Presenter19:50

Mm. Yeah. There is that quality in her voice too, isn't there? There's that extraordinary emotional range that that that that she has.

Tony Bennett19:54

Yeah.

Tony Bennett19:56

Boy, but that emotion, it drove the audiences crazy.

Presenter19:59

Uh

Tony Bennett19:59

Yeah. I never saw audiences react to anyone like they did to Judy.

Presenter20:03

Let's go back to your career now, because you you talked about the new kind of music, the new kind of audience that that came in. But in the middle of all this, all this happening, in the middle of all the rock and rolling, I mean, you found a song, which is not so much a song now, as a calling card for you, isn't it?

Tony Bennett20:17

Yes, it's a signature.

Presenter20:18

San Francisco.

Presenter20:21

I mean, that was astonishing. I thought it was sixty two, wasn't it?

Tony Bennett20:23

Nineteen sixty two yes.

Presenter20:25

What were the circumstances of of of that, uh Tony?

Tony Bennett20:28

Well, Ralph Sarin, my music director.

Tony Bennett20:31

He's always found my songs through the years and uh we were on our way to the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco and

Tony Bennett20:38

We were in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and playing in a supper club there. And he said, I think this would be a good song. The people in the city of San Francisco love their city. And I think this would be a good song for them. And I went about learning the song. And as soon as I performed it, everybody got terribly excited in that area. So they said, please rush in and record this as soon as possible.

Tony Bennett21:04

I had no idea I thought it would be a local hit in that area, not knowing that that would become my permanent signature song and played around the world and making it responsible for me to play five command performances and sing for five presidents in the United States.

Presenter21:19

So it's been a great gift.

Tony Bennett21:19

It feels

Presenter21:21

Did you like the song when you first heard it?

Tony Bennett21:22

I've always liked it, as I like it to this moment. I like singing it. Everybody said, Don't you get tired of singing it.

Presenter21:25

Yeah.

Tony Bennett21:28

And I always say, Do you get tired of making love? But.

Tony Bennett21:33

It's wonderful, it's brought a whole longevity to my career, which is what every performer dreams about and hopes for.

Tony Bennett21:42

And it's been a great gift for me.

Presenter21:44

Great gift for San Francisco too. I mean, were they grateful to you?

Tony Bennett21:46

Oh yes, they're so wonderful. Uh they they treat me well there and I go there maybe twice a year and and it's always a great ex I just came from there at the uh Davies Symphony Hall and had a beautiful time there.

Presenter21:59

They offered you a tram once, didn't they? Yeah, it was a gift. Right.

Tony Bennett22:00

Yes, right. No, they do all kinds of things and it's really nice.

Presenter22:06

Right, let's do the next choice of record.

Tony Bennett22:09

Well, you know, the one thing about jazz is that it keeps growing and it keeps uh becoming uh inventive and everybody looks for new artists and uh along came the magnificent Bill Evans.

Tony Bennett22:20

who uh had uh wonderful facility classical backgrounds and started playing for Charlie Parker and Miles Davis and became quite famous doing that and he and I became grand friends and um

Tony Bennett22:34

His composition of Waltz for Debbie always moved me very much and I'd love to have your audience hear that.

Presenter23:41

Tony, let's talk uh a little bit now about uh

Presenter23:43

The other side which is the painting.

Presenter23:46

How important or how large a part of your life is it now, the the painting?

Tony Bennett23:51

Well, you know, I started out just painting and and then the music took over and then I really continued painting uh as a hobby. I just always have loved it. It's always been a passion with me.

Tony Bennett24:02

I had some very nice teachers in Britain here. I had John Barneycote, who's a wonderful professor of painting, and he tutored me in.

Tony Bennett24:09

gave me some very nice lessons and, um

Tony Bennett24:13

I kept painting and then uh different people uh like Glynnis Roberts, you know, she said, Why don't you have an exhibition? I said, Oh, no She said, No, do it, just try it.

Tony Bennett24:23

So I had my first one here in Britain.

Speaker 424:25

Yeah

Presenter24:25

Uh

Tony Bennett24:25

Right on Mount Street where Dougie Haywood is.

Tony Bennett24:29

And it was really nice and frightening at the same time. But then with each exhibition, I had the second one in Chicago and

Tony Bennett24:36

And then Johnny Coston in America said, Bring your paintings on camera. So I said, You're kidding. He said, No, he said, I like your paintings. He said, Come on, bring them on camera.

Tony Bennett24:45

And that kind of opened up

Tony Bennett24:47

The whole

Tony Bennett24:48

New, wonderful, exciting career for me in painting.

Tony Bennett24:52

Because every distinguished gallery in the United States and Hawaii now are all saying, Please, uh we'd like to see your paintings and

Tony Bennett25:00

My career is going up and up and painting, so now I'm singing and painting, which is what I've always done my whole life, and it's so wonderful to know that it's starting to really happen now.

Presenter25:09

To be paid for both.

Presenter25:11

Now let's talk now a bit about the subject of your next choice uh of music because in fact it is Mr. Sinatra.

Presenter25:18

You've had a long and friendly association with do you still see him?

Tony Bennett25:21

Very friendly, yes.

Tony Bennett25:23

Every once in a while I'll see him and uh

Tony Bennett25:26

It's always been very warm and grand because he's been wonderful to me right through the years.

Presenter25:31

Why do you pick him as one of your choices for for Desdale and what is it particularly about him that that you admire?

Tony Bennett25:38

I love the whole art of popular singing, the uh the art of intimate singing since the advent of the microphone.

Tony Bennett25:45

Ben Crosby, Louis Armstrong.

Tony Bennett25:47

They kind of invented a kind of a psychological type singing rather than the old fashioned great performers who sang without a microphone and sang to the back of the house.

Presenter25:58

Yeah.

Tony Bennett25:59

So this microphone created this whole new.

Tony Bennett26:02

What I consider a terrific craft.

Tony Bennett26:05

An an art form, really. I think down the line it'll be considered an art form and Sinatra.

Tony Bennett26:12

did something with his voice.

Tony Bennett26:15

When you hear him sing, you kind of know just how he's feeling at that very moment.

Tony Bennett26:20

It's almost uh like he's uh being in a psychiatric chair and telling his most intimate feelings to someone.

Tony Bennett26:29

And he's always kind of hypnotized the world with his performances.

Tony Bennett26:35

This song that he recorded, Jimmy Van Heusen's song.

Tony Bennett26:40

Deep in the Dream is kind of what I've been talking about.

Speaker 326:44

I dim all the lights And I sink in my chair

Speaker 326:53

The smoke from my cigarette climbs through the air.

Speaker 326:59

The walls of my room

Speaker 327:04

Fade away in the blue

Speaker 327:07

And I'm deep in a dream.

Presenter27:11

Love you.

Presenter27:14

You've been in the in the game now forty years. You're still working, you're over here touring, uh, playing concerts, uh, enjoying yourself. What about the voice though? I mean, how does that change over the years? How how do you find it now? How is it different?

Tony Bennett27:26

Well, I have this uh ambition that

Tony Bennett27:29

Try and get better as I get older. And I've had very good teachers.

Tony Bennett27:34

And I I'm just hoping to get lucky enough to keep my health. And if I do, I think I'll succeed with my ambition to try and get better as I get older.

Presenter27:42

Well, how long are you gonna keep on going?

Tony Bennett27:44

I've never been bored with this. I really enjoy entertaining people and making them feel well on the way out.

Tony Bennett27:51

And I just hope to keep doing it.

Presenter27:53

And of course you've just released a new record, I mean the first in in ten years, a new album. Right. So that m must mean that there's a there's a new audience out there waiting for it.

Tony Bennett28:01

Well, there is. We found out in the United States. It's a brand new album here, but it's been out about four months in the United States. And of all things.

Tony Bennett28:08

The whole Beatle audience are now discovering Tony Bennett for the first time because they have one or two children and they're all settling down and they say, Hey, this this Tony Bennett, we didn't know they they're just picking up on Tony Bennett's recordings and uh it's thrilling to go in in front of an audience now and see uh all these young folks in the audience and uh just discovering Tony Bennett for the first time.

Presenter28:30

That's our final choice of record.

Tony Bennett28:32

Well, uh, let's get what I would say to the real thing with Igo Stravinsky and the Rite of Spring.

Presenter28:38

Why?

Tony Bennett28:39

Uh

Tony Bennett28:39

Well, I think he's uh, and always will be light years ahead of any musical genius that's ever hit the planet. I never heard anyone that knew more about music than this. He's just way ahead of time.

Presenter29:57

It was part of Slavinsky's The Writer's Spring, played by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

Presenter30:03

Tony Bennett, you're now on your desert island. You have to pick one record from the eight.

Presenter30:09

But to suppose that seven been washed away, which record would you keep?

Tony Bennett30:13

I would choose the autatum. He's my favorite. I kind of learned how to phrase from his wonderful piano playing.

Tony Bennett30:20

And I never tire of listening to Tatum.

Presenter30:23

And what about the book? You can assume that on the island you've got the works of Shakespeare and you've got the Bible.

Presenter30:28

So what other book would you take?

Tony Bennett30:30

Dostoevsky's crime and punishment.

Presenter30:33

and the luxury object inanimate.

Tony Bennett30:35

I love good clothes, so I would take a very nice suit.

Presenter30:38

The best best castaway we've ever had, I suppose.

Tony Bennett30:40

Great.

Presenter30:41

But

Tony Bennett30:41

Yeah.

Presenter30:41

Totally better. Thank you very much indeed.

Tony Bennett30:42

Thank you.

Speaker 430:51

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