Confessions of a 68yr old Little Monster
By Peter Bonventre for Five O’ Clock Magazine
I’ve got a crush on Lady Gaga! There, I’ve said it, and I don’t care who knows it. My infatuation kicked in sometime in late 2011, as I watched Gaga performing with Tony Bennett in a video to promote his Duets II album. They were singing “The Lady Is a Tramp,” and every second she appeared on camera was a revelation. Those big, glittery eyes! Those pillowy red lips! That slinky lace dress, and that smile! Oh, man, that smile she laid on Bennett sent some chills up my spine. But none of Gaga’s many charms razzled and dazzled this 68-year-old writer more than her voice. Who knew?
Well, now I know for certain: Stripped of electronic beats and flamboyant costumes, this Lady is the real deal, and the proof is in her new duet album with Bennett titled Cheek to Cheek, an 11-track marvel of jazz standards they sing alone and together. Get the deluxe version, which contains four additional tracks, including Gaga’s heartbreaking rendition of Cole Porter’s “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye.”
Gaga probably scared the daylights out of her “little monster” fans when she recently said she planned to record one jazz album a year. I hope she does. Her first attempt is a gem. She swings gloriously with Bennett on classics like “Cheek to Cheek,” “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” and “I Won’t Dance.” My initial instinct was that the great 88-year-old Bennett lifted the 28-year-old dance-pop queen’s game, but then she stunned me with her dramatic delivery on “Lush Life,” Billy Strayhorn’s notoriously difficult masterpiece.
Call me a crazy romantic, but I’m a sucker for a woman who sings like she’ll need a double Scotch when her set is done. Now, there are those who’ll tell you that I’m also smitten by Gaga because she’s a proud Italian-American New Yorker (nee Stefani Germanotta) who cherishes family and her nonna’s cooking. Okay, I’ll cop to that. But I’m hooked on her honesty too — she noted that without Bennett, few would have taken her jazz singing seriously — and I’m moved by the way she speaks of Bennett and his music with such admiration and respect. He’s returned her affection by comparing her to Ella Fitzgerald. It’s sweet of him to overlook a couple of things, like: She needs to burnish her phrasing and experience more of life to convey a ballad with deeper insight. But she’s got the chops. And one day she just might blow the roof off the joint like Ella used to do.
Peter Bonventre is the former Editorial Director of Time Inc.’s Entertainment Weekly. A journalist since 1969, he’s received two Page One Awards — in 1975, for his reporting on the Ali-Frazier heavyweight championship fight in Manila; and in 1976, for his reporting on the Montreal Olympics. In 1979, Bonventre helped to create and launch Inside Sports, a monthly magazine for which he served as Managing Editor until 1983. Bonventre has won three Emmy Awards on Howard Cosell’s SportsBeat and co-authored I Never Played the Game with Howard Cosell, which appeared for 22 weeks on The New York Times’ best-seller list, and in 1990 he wrote and produced a documentary for AMC called Knockout: Hollywood’s Love Affair with Boxing. Bonventre currently resides in Manhattan and Bronxville, N.Y., with his wife and son.
