It has been one busy week for 85-year-old Tony Bennett. Not only did he grace the stage of the Metropolitan Opera for his birthday concert and release his new Duets II album, but he also has gotten himself in a bit of trouble with a few fans.
Bennett becomes the oldest living artist to ever appear on the Billboard Hot 100 this week with his duet with Amy Winehouse on Body & Soul debuting at 87 after selling 25,000 downloads. He surpasses George Burns who had a minor hit with I Wish I Was Eighteen Again in 1980 at the age of 85 years, 2 months (Bennett is older by a few days).
Tony also has the longest span between two Hot 100 entries for a solo artist with his last appearance being 43 years, 10 months and one week ago (For Once in My Life). He passes the record set set two months ago by Otis Redding but needs a couple more years to equal the all-time record for any artist, set by the Chipmunks with a span of 45 years and one week between entries.
His third record is the longest period on the Billboard Hot 100 as he appeared on the very first chart on August 4, 1958 with Young and Warm and Wonderful. Of course, he was having hits back to the early 50's before the advent of the full Billboard singles chart.
Coming up next week could be records for the Album chart including a personal one. If the album debuts at the top of the chart (which is said to be a good possibility), it will be the first number 1 album of Bennett's very long career.
On the controversial side, Tony appeared on the Howard Stern show on Monday and made a couple of very controversial comments about the 9/11 attack.
"Are we the terrorists or are they the terrorists?"
"They flew the plane in, but we caused it. Because we were bombing them and they told us to stop. They said what are you doing? And they came on stronger. And come on -- we're going to have to retaliate. No, no, no. They said give them four times as much."
He also told Stern that then President Bush had confided in him that the Iraq war was a mistake.
The pundits had a field day with the comments the rest of the day Monday and Bush's people issued a statement saying that no such conversation had taken place.
Tuesday, Bennett released a statement and appeared on ABC's The View.
I am so grateful to be an American and as a World War II veteran, I was proud to fight to protect our values, which have made America the greatest country on the planet.
There is simply no excuse for terrorism and the murder of the nearly 3,000 innocent victims of the 9/11 attacks on our country.
My life experiences - ranging from the Battle of the Bulge to marching with Martin Luther King - made me a life-long humanist and pacifist, and reinforced my belief that violence begets violence and that war is the lowest form of human behavior.
I am sorry if my statements suggested anything other than an expression of my love for my country, my hope for humanity and my desire for peace throughout the world.
He also stated on The View that "Nobody loves America more than I do."
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