When Tony Bennett Was 'Joe Bari'

Bennett / Bari

Yes, there was a time (at least several years) when the famous pop singer Tony Bennett was known as "Joe Bari." And before that, there was a time when Joe Bari was known as Anthony Benedetto, his birth name.

There was nothing unusual about stage names back in the day, or even today. But Bennett's days as Joe Bari are little known; one of the few pieces of evidence is a rare 78 "Joe" made for the tiny Leslie label in 1949, just before he became Tony Bennett and went to the much bigger Columbia label.

Anthony Benedetto chose the name Joe Bari when he started singing about 1940, and stayed with that tag when he came back from the war and renewed his career in show business.

One of his first breaks was the Leslie recording date. In his autobiography, Tony says he was excited to do the recording because it was being produced by George Simon, the editor of the influential magazine Metronome. Simon was co-composer of one of the songs on the disc, "Vieni Qui," done as a duet with singer Pat Easton.

I found this rare record on Internet Archive because I was searching for anything by Easton, who was married at the time to Joe Derise. This may be the only record she made under her own name.

Bennett recalls that the group backing him was called the Tattlers, who had recently made a recording of "Jamboree Jones" with Bing Crosby. Actually, the Crosby session was in April 1950, about a year after Tony's Leslie date. The accompanying vocal group isn't identified on the label, which only credits Marty Manning as leading the band. The presence of Pat Easton, however, suggests that it might have involved Derise, but that's speculation.

"Vieni Qui" is backed by "Fascinating Rhythm," a Gershwin classic that Bennett was proud to have recorded on his first date. In the event, the Italian specialty is better done than the Gershwin tune. Oddly, Bennett's sense of rhythm fails him on the latter number.

At about the same time as the Leslie date, Bennett caught the attention of Pearl Bailey. She added him to her stage show, Bob Hope saw him perform, took him on the road, and simplified his given name to Tony Bennett. Soon thereafter Tony's demo record of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" found its way to Mitch Miller, and his Columbia career began.

Note (July 2023): this has now been remastered in ambient stereo.