Bennett reaches a career milestone   Play video

Let's face it: It's not every day you reach a career milestone at the age of 85.

But then, not everyone is American songbook singing legend Tony Bennett -- one of the classiest, warmest, most talented people you'll ever meet.

About two weeks ago Bennett became the oldest living singer to have an album debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with his latest CD, Duets II, an all-star followup to his 2006 Duets collection, which is his best-selling album to date and won three Grammys.

"What a blessing," said Bennett, looking dashing and dapper in a brown suit and orange tie with his blue eyes still blazing behind tinted glasses at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto on Monday.

"Everybody's telling me in the music business they don't think it's going to happen again -- that an 85-year-old person goes to No. 1 on an album. It's really different. And it's being sold all over the world very quickly. It's doing magnificent. It's a great group of young artists that my son (Danny) put together. It's getting reactions that I can't believe."

Among Bennett's collaborators on Duets II -- each singer was given three songs to chose from -- is British singer Amy Winehouse, who recorded Body and Soul with him at Abbey Road in February before her untimely death in the summer.

"Amy, believe it or not, had the best voice of all the singers that I've heard of the contemporary singers," said Bennett. "She sang in the tradition of what we would call the great art of intimate singing and she sang as good as Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald. She was right in that groove. She was a wonderful singing artist and tragically she died too young."

Bennett actually met Winehouse and her father a year previously when they came to Royal Albert Hall for two nights to hear him sing.

"She was always thrilled with me. When she won her first Grammy, I was the one who announced her as the winner for the Grammy for that year. She never got over it. She was a big fan. Backstage she came over with her father and her boyfriend and they were just wonderful to me. And they told me how much they (hoped to) hopefully do something with my some day. And then it happened and it was a beautiful recording."

Among the two Canadian collaborators on Duets II were Bennett's longtime pal k.d. lang, who joins him on Blue Velvet, and Michael Buble, who is heard singing alongside the master on Don't Get Around Much Anymore.

"Anything k.d. does is alright with me," said Bennett. "She's the most wonderful person. She's my sister, believe me. I just love her so much. And Michael Buble, I consider him a major talent with the public. He reminds me in another way of the fun that Louis Prima used to give to the public. He really entertains the people very well."

Bennett actually travelled the world doing face-to-face recordings with all of the Duets II artists.

"It was a great adventure," said Bennett, who was filmed recording all of the songs while his granddaughter Kelsey took stills of him and his duet partners. Both the documentary and the photos were shown off at a cocktail party in his honour at the Royal Ontario Museum while he was in Toronto on Monday.

So far, Bennett's only remaining Canadian tour date this year is Dec. 14 in Kitchener, Ont., at the Centre in the Square.

He's been coming to Canada since he signed his first record contract in 1950 and has always loved Toronto specifically, he said, singling out the Mirvish family theatre and art empire.

"I spent great days here," said Bennett. "When I first came to Toronto it was highly conservative and very, very strict, and Montreal was a swinging city and now it's switched. THIS is the swinging city now and Montreal is pretty conservative."

Bennett ‘painted’ nude Gaga - for Leibovitz

Yes, Tony Bennett did see Lady Gaga naked -- but it's not what you think.

Gaga told a British talk show host recently that Bennett had walked in on her nude when she was posing for Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair at his art studio which isn't strictly true according to Bennett.

"I'm painting Lady Gaga nude," said Bennett. "It's for Annie Leibovitz. You'll see it. It worked out. We did it already."

In the meantime, Bennett and Gaga recorded The Lady is a Tramp for Bennett's latest CD Duets II, and it's one of the album's biggest surprises.

"She's an amazing artist," said Bennett. "I've met everybody in the business because I'm 85 but I must tell you this: There's something magical and very intellectual about this Lady Gaga. The only way I can describe it is she reminds me of a young American Picasso. She's different every night.

"When she was with me she was in the most beautiful gown and she clowned around with me and it was a wonderful record. But the next day she was on The View and she showed up with a checkered piano and a checkered dress and a checkered glasses. She changes every day. She's that creative and she has an energy that knows no boundary. She just goes and goes. There's something very deep about her. I think she's going to become one of the great performers of all time."

Bennett added he will sing The Lady is a Tramp with Gaga in New York City this Saturday as she tapes a Thanksgiving network TV special.

jane.stevenson@sunmedia.ca