Some days are just a helluva lot more special than others and this one is kinda hard to top: I was one of about 200 people invited to watch Tony Bennett perform an eight-song set Friday and I will be in a good mood over it for... I dunno... the rest of my LIFE!

Tony, who turned 80 in August, looked no worse for the wear after his star-studded birthday gala last night at the Kodak Theater as he strode onto the stage singing "The Best is Yet to Come." My friend, Evan, and I were sitting on stools (the set resembled a swanky nightclub) about 15 feet away from Mr. Bennett. We could not believe it! He sounded as good as he ever did, moved like an old pro, and even scatted at the end. He is a man who loves what he does.

Bennett went on to sing "Cold, Cold Heart," "Just in Time," "The Good Life," "Steppin Out With My Baby" "I Got Rythm," and, best of all, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."
"I thought it would be a local hit," Bennett said of "San Francisco." "But it's my signature song now and allowed me to sell out around the world since 1962."
Backed by a four-piece band, he was smooth, such a cool cat.

The set was interrupted by a short Q&A session and I loved Tony's answer to the obvious question about what seems to be enternal youth: "I've always had a passion to sing and paint. The older I got, the more disciplined I got. I just love what I'm doing. It doesn't feel like work to me."

Evan had to rush back to work but I stuck around for a real nice VIP reception (Me? Turn down free food?) and chatted up the music legend asking him how he is still topping the charts after all these years.

"I was taught at the Paramount Theater where we had to do seven shows a day because there were that many people coming in to see us, and the managers there, they said, 'In the morning you have your teenagers, in the afternoon you have your senior citizens, at night you have your married couples. Sing great songs. Don't ever just sing it to one group. If you sing to the whole family, it's like when Walt Disney made movies like 'Snow White' or 'Bambi,' the parents went to see it as much as the children. Everybody enjoyed it.So it's a bigger audience, economically, that's much more successful than just singing to one demographic group."

I also asked Tony (well actually, I call him Mr. Bennett) about his recent CD of duets which included a duet with his frequent singing partner K.D. Lang and other openly gay performers Elton John and Geroge Michael.
He said: "I believe that everybody is here on this planet and you should cater to all of them and not be bigoted."