--- title: Hear How a Cab Driver Changed Tony Bennett's Stage Shows description: Stay until the end of Bennett's shows, and he does something singers rarely do anymore canonical: https://time.com/3602143/tony-bennett-live-lady-gaga-performance/ author: Salima Koroma article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-24T16:12:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:19:21.960Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: How One Cab Driver Changed Everything for Tony Bennett og:description: He never performed live the same way again og:url: https://time.com/3602143/tony-bennett-live-lady-gaga-performance/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How One Cab Driver Changed Everything for Tony Bennett twitter:description: He never performed live the same way again twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Hear How a Cab Driver Changed Tony Bennett's Stage Shows by [Salima Koroma](https://time.com/author/salima-koroma/) ## Salima Koroma Nov 24, 2014 4:12 PM UTC by [Salima Koroma](https://time.com/author/salima-koroma/) ## Salima Koroma Nov 24, 2014 4:12 PM UTC Tony Bennett released his first number one single in 1951\. Since then he’s released close to 60 music albums, including _Duets: An American Classic_ (2006)which featured collaborations with Barbara Streisand, Elton John, and John Legend. That album led to _Duets II_ (2011), which featured Lady Gaga. Now, Gaga and Bennett are going on tour, headlining jazz festivals all across America. Bennett came to prominence just as the microphone was coming into style — but a chance remark from a taxi driver changed the way he performed live. The singer explains all in this video. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3602143/tony-bennett-live-lady-gaga-performance/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3602143/tony-bennett-live-lady-gaga-performance/"},"headline":"Hear How a Cab Driver Changed Tony Bennett's Stage Shows","datePublished":"2014-11-24T16:12:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:19:21.960Z","description":"A cabbie gave Tony Bennett an idea about his live performances that he's never forgotten","url":"https://time.com/3602143/tony-bennett-live-lady-gaga-performance/","keywords":["Music","entertainment","Lady Gaga"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Salima Koroma","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/salima-koroma/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3602143/tony-bennett-live-lady-gaga-performance/","name":"Hear How a Cab Driver Changed Tony Bennett's Stage Shows"}}]}] ```