I do not like the whole notion of demographics. As a performer, I play to the whole audience. When I was growing up, the main source of entertainment was the movie houses. For a nickel, you would buy a ticket in the morning and stay all day if you wanted to. That meant that whatever they were showing had to appeal to everybody. They had newsreels, human-interest shorts, cartoons, serials, and then at least two feature movie presentations. Sometimes they even had live performers appear between films. But an act wouldn’t go over well if it didn’t appeal to the entire family.
That’s the only thing that makes sense to me, and it makes for smart business, too. The more people who buy your product, the more money you’ll make. When you’re an entertainer, you want to reach as many people as possible. By only playing to young people, and forgetting their parents and grandparents, you’re eliminating a lot of your audience, on purpose. If something is excellent, it defies demographics. Just consider The Wizard of Oz, Snow White, or any Fred Astaire–Ginger Rogers film. They still look like they were made yesterday, and undeniably they remain the favorites of all ages.
I think that it was a huge mistake for Alan Freed, the deejay who coined the term rock and roll, to invent the whole demographic concept. I don’t like the idea that one type of music is for a certain age group and no one else, and that your parents have to like another kind of music. Who came up with that? When you’re an entertainer, you want to reach as many people as possible. I love performing in a concert hall where I see all the generations coming to hear my music, and where no one needs to be left out.
When I did a date in Palm Beach, Florida, at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, which has an older audience, I announced, “If anyone has to go to the bathroom in the middle of the show, I’ll understand.” But the very next night at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, also in Florida, every seat was packed with people of all ages. Look at classical music; when you listen to Bach, you think, That’s incredible. How could anybody be that great? It’s not dated in the least. If music sounds dated, that means it wasn’t very good in the first place. If something is really good, it’s always going to be good; it doesn’t change according to who’s listening to it.
The whole industry’s doing demographics, and that’s why they’re going bankrupt—but I’m anti-demographic. The television and newspaper people think demographically when they want to attract an audience, but their most successful shows and publications are the ones that the whole family enjoys. It’s simple math, but they never seem to learn the lesson.
Mitch Miller always wanted to put me into a commercial box. My passion was for jazz, but they positioned me as a traditional pop singer because I’m white, which isn’t the preconceived idea of what a jazz artist should be. Yet the music that I made with the giants of jazz, such as Stan Getz and Bill Evans, are still the best records in my collection.
It was the jazz singer Annie Ross who made the suggestion to Bill Evans and me that we record together. And as I’ve said, of all the recordings I’ve ever made, this one is considered the most prestigious, with the highest-level musicians. I did a television show a while ago with the London Symphony, and on the first break of rehearsal, a few of the classical musicians came up to me with that album for me to sign. It was such an honor that these great musicians had chosen this album out of all of my records for me to autograph.
Back in the sixties, I was told I had to change my music for the kids to accept me. Yet through the years, every age responds to my singing, even though I haven’t changed a thing; I just continue to be myself. Kids today are like those from any era: they’re open-minded and excited. And they don’t want to be put into a box about their music or books or films, any more than I do—they want to enjoy what they like, and to be free to choose. Each new generation of young people has accepted me into their hearts and lives, which is incredibly gratifying.
My recording of “The Way You Look Tonight” connected me to many of the kids. During the red carpet and wrap-up for the Academy Awards one year, they used my version of the song the whole time. As a result, I still have college students coming up to me and saying, “Could you sing ‘The Way You Look Tonight’?” Young people are very smart; if they’re given something hip, they’ll respond to it.
Louis Armstrong created one of the most enduring styles of music when he invented swing. When you have that in your bones, there’s nothing like it. There’s a whole army of Americans who love swing when they hear it. Their parents danced to it for years and years, and they grew up hearing these songs. And if you combine a swing tune with great lyrics, then you’ve got yourself a hit. When Duke said, “Sing sweet, but put a little dirt in it,” that’s what he was talking about. Always make it swing. Then when you add a well-crafted lyric, you also become a master storyteller, and your work will last for a hundred years.
It’s fortunate that today there’s a whole group of younger artists who play on a more mature level, like Diana Krall and Michael Bublé. These musicians are really communicating with the public, and they are enjoying success because they’re playing to the entire family. Time is a great leveler; you can be assured that the cream will always rise to the top.
The Zen of Bennett
If something is excellent, it defies demographics and categorization.
If music can be dated, it wasn’t very good in the first place.
Young people don’t want to be put into a box about their music or books or films—they want to be free to choose what they like.
