Winehouse-Tony Bennett

[sadie1263]

Shortly before her death, singer Amy Winehouse teamed up with Tony Bennett to record "Body & Soul," a duet that will appear on Bennett's upcoming "Duets II" album. A preview of the track is now online -- take a listen above.

The album is set to release Sept. 20, in conjunction with Bennett's 85th birthday, and Lady Gaga, John Mayer, Mariah Carey and Carrie Underwood also duet with the legendary singer.

[trubble]

I don't really get the fuss about Tony Bennett. (I suspect it's just that he managed to live longer than other people doing the same thing).

Call me a philistine but suddenly he moved from old timer to legendary legend and I never knew why. Maybe I will appreciate Tony Bennett after he pops off. It's worked for me and Amy Winehouse.

[sadie1263]

Yeah....I'm not a huge fan either........I am just always fascinated of how much money the estates of deceased troubled artists can manufacture.

Michael Jackson's estate is starting to churn the money now......of course it helps that he's not draining it faster than it was coming in........Elvis was almost broke and Priscilla turned his estate into a multi-million dollar machine......

[trubble]

It's a double whammy; we all suddenly remember that we like the person we took for granted, and -- you're right -- they stop frittering it away. Alpha said (on another board)... the clever thing would be to fake your own death and go into peaceful retirement, raking it in and living the good life. I hope someone pulls that off one day.

[Deleted]

I heard Tony Bennett interviewed on the radio before Amy's death; he described her as a "lovely girl".

I can take or leave crooners like him, and Amy's voice makes my spine tingle....

but Bennett struck me with his professional approach; he seemed to appreciate that he owes his audience the best he can offer.

[sadie1263]

This happened to be on TMZ today......

New documents reveal ... Michael Jackson was in such debt at the time he died, his Beatles catalog was almost valueless, but the Estate has worked nothing less than a financial miracle to right the ship.

The docs -- obtained by TMZ -- show that at the time Michael died, his net worth was around $50 million. Shockingly, the ATV Publishing Trust -- the Beatles catalog -- was valued at only $474,544. We're told the reason it was so low was because Jackson had borrowed around $300 million against it.

Now, fast forward to October, 2010 -- 15 months after MJ's death. The net value of MJ's estate -- under the leadership of the Executors -- swelled to $218,964,000. And get this ... that figure doesn't include $185 million the Estate paid out for loans, family allowances, interest, paying off the Hayvenhurst mortgage, etc.

There are no figures for the current value of the Estate, but sources say it's worth much more than the valuation in October, 2010.

Short story -- Michael could be entering Elvis territory.