Tony Bennett's "Duets II' CD

The singing duet has been a staple of popular American music since the minstrel show.

In the recording age, the pairing of two popular singing stars on the same song usually succeeded commercially, if not musically. In the new math of mass marketing, two stars on the same record multiplied the record's sales by more than two, reaching an audience far greater than either of the individual stars could have attracted alone.

Bing Crosby famously teamed up with the Andrew Sisters in the 1940s and later with Louis Armstrong, Rosemary Clooney and even his own son, Gary. More recently, Natalie Cole revived her career with an unforgettable ghostly duet with her late father, Nat "King" Cole. Frank Sinatra's best-selling (albeit artistically dubious) CDs were recorded at the end of his career in tandem with contemporary singing stars.

Five years ago, to celebrate his 80th birthday, Tony Bennett jumped on the bandwagon. He re-recorded his own hits with a series of pop, country and adult music stars, including Paul McCarthy and Stevie Wonder. Once again, the old formula worked: Tony Bennett's Duets was a huge success, winning him two Grammies and culminating in an Emmy-winning TV special.

Now, five years later, in celebration of another birthday, Bennett has released Duets II, comprised of 17 songs that Bennett sings with 17 different (and musically diverse) partners.

Lady Gaga as a tramp

The pop scene is well represented, including a somewhat strained but nevertheless surprisingly well sung Lady Gaga performance of "The Lady is a Tramp." You know the chemistry won't work when Lady Gaga describes herself as a tramp and in the background we hear Tony chuckle as if to say, "We all know she's just kidding."

Of course, Rogers and Hart, who wrote the song, were not kidding "“ they were making the point that people who are called tramps are, in fact, the best people.

The most publicized track is "Body and Soul," sung with the late Amy Winehouse. Here Winehouse tries very hard to imitate Billie Holiday— why, I don't understand: Billie Holiday's appeal lay not in her slender voice but in her incredible ability to become every song that she sang, perfectly phrasing it and telling you her story as no one else could. That's all missing here: Instead we get is Tony singing with someone who wants to sound like Billie Holiday.

Aretha: The one true diva

The CD's highlight is Bennett's duet with Aretha Franklin on the Alan and Marilyn Bergman/Michel Legrand song, "How Do You Keep The Music Playing?" At first, it seems an unlikely choice for this duet combination: This song is about a couple who've passed the first thrill of romance and wonder "How do you never run out of new things to say?" Once again as she did on Sinatra's Duets with "What Now My Love," Franklin proves that she's the one true diva in the house, and the only singer with the chops to keep with and even push Bennett. Maybe this track works so well because both of its singers actually are legends.

The rest of the CD has some hits and some misses. The orchestrations, by Jorge Calandrelli and Marion Evans, aren't particularly distinguished. There's a simple but fun "On the Sunny Side of the Street" with Willie Nelson, a swinging "Watch What Happens" with Natalie Cole, a lovely "Blue Velvet" with k.d. lang and a surprisingly poignant "It Had To Be You" with Carrie Underwood.

Sadly, too many songs on this CD were never meant to be sung as duets. So you have Sheryl Crow and Bennett awkwardly singing "The Girl/Man I Love" (or, worse, "The Man I/She Loves"). John Mayer pulls bartender duties on "One for My Baby," but the tip jar is empty as the arrangement and lack of chemistry achieve what seems impossible: they reduce this American classic into a lite-beer boilermaker.

Duet for wallflowers?

The low point of the CD is a duet with Mariah Carey. Bennett's chosen anthem for wallflowers, "When Do The Bells Ring For Me?", is a fine song, but it's an unlikely duet: It's the tale of person who can't find a companion"“ yet in this version she's only a note away. Nor does it help that, on this version, the alleged diva Carey sings as if somebody's holding a gun to her throat.

On Duets II, Bennett isn't well served by the arrangements or by his partners. Nevertheless, he gives each song the full Tony Bennett treatment— that is, he conveys the meaning and soul of the song, and he does it with a voice that's a wonder of our times.

Memorable moment

Bennett will return on November 4 to Philadelphia's Academy of Music, where I saw him almost 15 years ago. Toward the end of that concert, between songs, he stopped and looked around the Academy, slowly shaking his head in wonder. With that slightly halting, shy way of his, Bennett said how thrilled he was to be on the stage of one of the most beautiful concert halls in the world. Then he said that he wanted to do something he'd always wanted to try "“ and this was the best place to do it.

He put down the microphone and walked to center stage. A capella, he sang Irving Berlin's "When I Lost You." In today's digital world, we rarely hear an unadulterated human voice in concert, or even in a theater. So the experience of hearing Bennett's legendary voice, naked, in one of the world's great musical spaces was magical.

Which brings me back to Duets II and its ultimate implied question: Who is Tony Bennett's best singing partner? The answer is: Tony Bennett.