Cheek to Cheek is a collaborative album by American singers Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, released on September 19, 2014, through Interscope Records and Columbia Records. Bennett and Gaga first met backstage in 2011, after performing at the Robin Hood Foundation gala in New York City. The two later recorded a rendition of "The Lady Is a Tramp", and began discussing plans for working on a jazz project. consists of jazz standards by popular jazz composers like George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin. The album was inspired by Bennett and Gaga's desire to introduce the songs to a younger generation, since they believed that the tracks had universal appeal.
Cheek to Cheek
By January 2013, the album was confirmed by both artists and recording started after Gaga recovered from her hip surgery. The recording sessions in New York City were accompanied by a live band and jazz musicians associated with both artists. Gaga deviated from her characteristic pop tracks, wanting instead authentic jazz sounding vocals. The release date of the album was delayed multiple times, and the final date was announced by Gaga and Bennett on The Today Show. Full track listings and cover art for the album were released shortly there after, including the track lists for many alternate editions. The album received generally positive reviews upon release, with critics praising Gaga's vocals.
The artists promoted Cheek to Cheek through multiple performances in and around New York, including a "behind the scenes" of the album recording on Home Shopping Network (HSN) and a special which aired on PBS in October. The album was preceded by the release of two singles; "Anything Goes" and "I Can't Give You Anything but Love". They both reached number one on Billboard's Jazz Digital Songs Chart.

Background

Tony Bennett originally announced the album in an interview with Rolling Stone in September of 2012. Bennett says that Lady Gaga's father called on her behalf while she was on tour in New Zealand to request doing a collaborative jazz album, which Bennett happily accepted following their work together on "The Lady is a Tramp" in 2011.^[2]

“	"We're gonna do a jazz album with Marion Evans, a big swing band, and I'm looking forward to it because a lot of people don't know it, but she's a phenomenal jazz singer. I can't mention the composer because I don't want anybody to do it before we do it, but there's a great composer that's very underrated, very famous, but not as famous as Gershwin or Porter. But he did as many hit songs as anybody, and so we're gonna do a big swinging album."	”
—Tony Bennett to Rolling Stone

In an interview with PhillyBurbs.com, discussed his involvement in "The Lady is a Tramp" and the upcoming project. At that point, he did not know how many songs were expected to be on the album, but there would be about four or five different sized orchestras that would be utilized.^[3]
During an interview in late June, Bennett revealed the first song title, "Paradise" stating it is one of the original songs written by Gaga to be included on the album, he also stated that while the album will include collaborative covers between the two, it will also feature solo covers as well as some newly written material. Following the interview, Gaga clarified that the album would consist solely of standards.

Recording

 Asked about the album in March of 2013, Bennett revealed to Rolling Stone that they already started working on it on papers and would continue to do so until June. The recording session began in late June of 2013 in New York City. According to the press release, the album took over a year to complete.
The duo recruted for their musicians members of Bennett's quartet, Mike Renzi, Gray Sargent, Harold Jones, Marshall Wood and Tom Lanier along with The Brian Newman Quartet, Alex Smith (Piano), Brian Newman (trumpet), Paul Francis (Drums), Scott Ritchie (Bass) and Steven Kortyka (Tenor sax). They also recruted jazz soloists Joe Lovano and Paul Horn on selected tracks.

Release

In September 2013, Bennett announced in an interview the album will come out in January 2014, and was quoted saying, "We recorded all great standards, quality songs; George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, songs like that. With a big swingin' band and great, great, jazz artists playing." A month later, it was announced it would come out New Year's Day (January 1), 2014. However, on December 12, in an interview to CNN, Benett revealed that album's release was delayed and the final release date was confirmed as March 18, 2014. USA Today's "2014 Album Roster" reported that the album had been pushed back to Fall of 2014.
On The Today Show on July 29, 2014, the same day the lead single was released, Gaga and Tony announced that the final release date for the album is set for September 23, 2014

Track list

 

No.	Title	Length

1.	"Anything Goes"	2:03
2.	"Cheek to Cheek"	2:50
3.	"Don't Wait Too Long" (Solo by Tony)	2:36
4.	"I Can't Give You Anything But Love"	3:13
5.	"Nature Boy"	4:08
6.	"Goody Goody"	2:11
7.	"Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" (Solo by Gaga)	3:10
8.	"Firefly"	1:57
9.	"I Won't Dance"	3:56
10.	"They All Laughed"	1:48
11.	"Lush Life" (Solo by Gaga)	4:14
12.	"Sophisticated Lady" (Solo by Tony)	3:49
13.	"Let's Face the Music and Dance"	2:06
14.	"But Beautiful"	4:04
15.	"It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)"	2:23