The amazing Tony Bennett

Much has been made of the crooner's 1994 performance on MTV - the concert that really got his career rocking again. And now, you can hear him on Dec. 15 as part of Yahoo!'s series of Internet concerts. Bennett and his 53-year-old son Danny have been shrewdly packaging old standards for a new media crowd (while not forgetting his older constituency). BW's Ron Grover says it's all about finding an audience and the movie studios might want to pay attention.

He's hustled his newest album, Duets, out to Starbucks, which sold the CD in its stores, and made a deal with Target to sell the album on its Web site (along with some extra tracks thrown in as a special for Target customers). Heck, Tony even sang to a national sales meeting of the big-box retailer, which is sponsoring a TV special that NBC will air on Nov. 21. It's a full-fledged blitz the old-fashioned way, the way that stars of Tony's era used to do them. "We can do things that record companies can't and won't do," says Danny Bennett, Tony's 53-year-old son and manager, who has masterminded a brilliant campaign. What's that mean? For starters, Danny, who has been managing his father's resurgent career since the early '90s, can make deals with the likes of Target and Yahoo without regard for agreements a record company might have with other retailers or distribution outlets.

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So, with all the deals and you-can-have-me-anywhere-you-want-me marketing, how has Tony Bennett's new album Duets done? The album, which features joint singing with the likes of Sting, Bono, and The Dixie Chicks, has sailed over 1 million copies in its first month and was still ranked in the top 25 by Billboard after seven weeks on the list.