There are just some things that happen in this town that are so inherently Vegas-y, it boggles the imagination.  One such occasion happened Friday night, when iconic crooner Tony Bennett was honored at a VIP donor reception, Friday evening, at the Keep Memory Alive Event Center; preceding the 20th anniversary Power of Love™ gala, the following night, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

When Frank Geary was designing the landmark that has become the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, he teamed-up once again, with the sound engineers and acoustic experts, with whom he’d collaborated, on Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall.  As a result, the acoustics are sublime.

So, there we were, supping on fabulous finger-foods provided by the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, and sipping on top-shelf cocktails; when KMA co-Founder Larry Ruvo brought Tony Bennett onto the stage, and told the audience how – for the first time in its 75 year existence the Las Vegas Strip would change its name to an honorific.  Thus, Las Vegas Boulevard changed its name to Tony Bennett Boulevard, on Saturday; in honor of the singer who first performed here in the early ‘50s, as the opening act for comedian Milton Berle.

After the cheers from attendees – including KMA co-Founder Camille Ruvo; Nicole Ruvo and Michael Falcone; producer Bill Edwards; artist Peter Tunney and his wife, Amy; musicians Darius Rucker, Dan Orlando, and Herbie Hancock; actress Minnie Driver and curator Neville Wakefield; jeweler Steven Lagos and his muse Kristie Nicolosi – had subsided to a reasonable din, Bennett proceeded to sing a trio of classics from the American Songbook

Bart Howard’s 1954 jazz standard “Fly Me to the Moon” (originally titled “In Other Words”), brought the room together; while the song that’s become Bennett’s calling card, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco (written in 1953 by George Cory and Douglass Cross) had us at the edge of our respective seats.  He even sang an a cappella version of Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” that left me gobsmacked. 

After the singing, Ruvo brought Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman on stage, and I’ve gotta say, I’ve never seen our mayor as flirty and gushy, as she was when telling about how 12-year-old Carolyn Goldmark heard “Because of You” on the radio, and fell in love with Tony Bennett, right then and there.  The song (penned in 1940 by Arthur Hammerstein and Dudley Wilkinson) was featured in the 1951 film I was an American Spy.  That same year, Bennett covered it, and “Because of You” became his first hit; climbing to the top of the Billboard chart, where it stayed at Number 1 for ten weeks.

After presenting Bennett with both a Proclamation that declared Saturday “Tony Bennett Day,” and with the Key to the City, Bennett thanked the mayor by singing the song that had so enamored her younger self; and I tell you – she very nearly swooned!

But the show wasn’t over, yet; because after Mayor Goodman (heart still aflutter) left the stage, none other than Quincy Jones took her place, and once he’d praised both Bennett and Keep Memory Alive, Jones dropped a little knowledge on the room, saying “We’ve gotta get up, before we can get down!”

Well put, Q!  Well put, indeed.

20th Anniversary Power of Love™ gala – VIP Donor Reception
Keep Memory Alive Event Center
Click HERE for info

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#OneMemory

The world’s greatest hip-hop collective returns this weekend with the second edition of the history-making WU-TANG CLAN: THE SAGA CONTINUES… THE LAS VEGAS RESIDENCY