As the lyric of the famed “The Christmas Song” proclaims, “from kids from one to ninety-two,” singer Tony Bennett has been celebrating the holiday season for 93 years and his heart-warming catalog of holiday recordings and original artwork are now featured on “Tony Bennett’s Holiday Yule Log,” launching on the 19-time Grammy winner’s YouTube channel today at 11 am EST.
The animated video presents a dozen of Bennett’s classic holiday tracks, with over 30 minutes of music. Included are two new Bennett recordings from Christmas with The Stars and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, released last month through Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. Bennett’s versions of “The Christmas Song” and “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” were reimagined with stunning new arrangements performed by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Steven Sidwell. The remaining ten tracks originate from Bennett’s own holiday albums: Snowfall, Tony Bennett and the Count Basie Orchestra: A Swingin’ Christmas and The Classic Christmas Album.
Tony Bennett’s original artwork is the imagery for the yule log animation from a painting titled, “Home Is Where The Heart Is,” which he initially created for the American Cancer Society’s Holiday Card Series to support cancer research. Bennett has for over 25 years contributed a holiday image for the charity’s annual holiday card series. The opening visual for the video also features another of Bennett’s holiday paintings titled, “Happy Holidays.” Tony Bennett, who paints under his family name, Benedetto, has been painting all his life and three of his original paintings are part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute. This marks the first time that Bennett’s original artwork has been animated.
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Photo Credit: Mat Hayward / Shutterstock.com