Clyde recalls seeing Tony Bennett in the early '50s, on Davis Music Connections

Show hosts Ned and Clyde open this week’s Davis Music Connections with an audio clip from American Movie and memories about legendary singer Tony Bennett, who died on July 21 at 96.

Each saw Bennett perform, Ned about 30 years ago, and Clyde in the early 1950s (!) — few performers had a career as long as Bennett’s. “He hadn’t quite got popular yet," Clyde says. "We were staying at the Statler in LA, and they have a small room there, and Tony Bennett was doing about three sets a night. He had a single guitar player behind him. It was really cool.”

Ned riffs on American Movie, a movie about a guy making a movie. The late film critic Roger Ebert gave it four stars, calling it "a very funny, sometimes very sad documentary.” And then we move on to the music, starting with “Rag Doll” by the Four Seasons.

We're not entirely sure how the alarming illustration of Tom Cruise and Bennett ties in, but -- are you keeping up? Davis Music Connections is in session.

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