Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse: what did US singer say after working with Winehouse on Body and Soul?

The American singer Tony Bennett has died at his home in New York at the age of 96.

Bennett, who was particularly renowned for his collaborations with other musicians, worked with Amy Winehouse in the months before her death. Their song together, a rendition of ‘Body and Soul’ recorded for Bennett’s album Duets II, was the last piece of music Winehouse worked on before her death in 2012.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly ahead of the release of his album, Bennett recalled Winehouse’s initial anxiety about the session - both because the recording was held after Winehouse had taken a break from music, and because Bennett was such a big inspiration of hers. 

“She was very nervous to perform, but I said, ‘You know, it sounds like you’re influenced by Dinah Washington.’ And all of the sudden, her whole life changed,” he said.

“She said, ‘How did you know that Dinah Washington is my goddess?’ She did some Dinah Washington licks, and from that moment on, she just relaxed. And it came out wonderful. She was like, ‘Tony understands me, you know?’”

As part of the same interview, Bennett went on to praise Winehouse’s talents as a musician, in particular as a jazz singer.  “Some people think that anyone could sing jazz, but they can’t. It’s a gift of learning how to syncopate but it’s also a spirit that you’re either born with or you’re not. And Amy was born with that spirit.”

“Jazz is a wonderful art,” Bennett went on to explain. “Listening to it, I compare it to watching the greatest tennis player who’s so intelligent about where he places the ball, it becomes effortless. The great ones that are very talented know just how to turn jazz singing into a performance that’s unforgettable.”

“And Amy had that gift. The fact that she died at 27 years old is just horrible to me. If she had lived, she would’ve been right up there with Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington. It’s just a tragedy.”

The pair first met in 2008, when Bennett presented Winehouse with a Grammy award. Some years after, Winehouse went to the Royal Albert Hall to see Bennett perform, and explained to him afterwards that the highlight of winning the Grammy had been meeting him. 

“I was playing Royal Albert Hall for two nights … and she came back with her dad, and her boyfriend,” Bennett explained to the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2012. “She said, ‘You know, two years ago, I won a Grammy, and I wasn’t excited about winning the Grammy, but that Tony Bennett was announcing.’ She was a big fan of mine, and I was really surprised, because she [was] so young.”