Tony Bennett Celebrates Career and 80th Birthday with Two Albums on Starbucks Hear Music

New Tony Bennett Duets Album On Columbia/RPM Will Be Available At Starbucks Locations As Well As Traditional Retail Later This Year

Tony Bennett is unquestionably one of the foremost icons of American music. A singer's singer, Bennett is one of the rare recording artists to have new albums chart in five different decades. Over the course of his career, he has earned 13 GRAMMY® Awards, including a GRAMMY® Lifetime Achievement Award and honors for Record of the Year ("I Left My Heart in San Francisco," 1962) and Album of the Year (MTV Unplugged, 1993). He is also the recipient of an EMMY Award and the Kennedy Center Honors. To commemorate this lifetime of achievement--and in celebration of the artist's 80th birthday milestone--Starbucks Hear Music will introduce customers to two Tony Bennett CD projects this year. The first of these is a Starbucks Hear Music™ Opus collection, Through the Years, which will be available exclusively at Starbucks Company-operated locations in the U.S. and Canada beginning April 4.

For Through the Years, Starbucks Hear Music worked with Bennett to select landmark hits as well as some of the artist's handpicked personal favorites, to create a portrait of Bennett's musical career. On the 15-track CD are songs for which Bennett created definitive interpretations including “I Left My Heart in San Francisco," Cy Coleman's “The Best Is Yet To Come," Hammerstein's Sound of Music classic, “My Favorite Things," Hank Williams' “Cold, Cold Heart," Rodgers and Hart's “Blue Moon," “The Way You Look Tonight," “Smile," and “It Had To Be You." Also among the tracks are the memorable “Just In Time," “I Wanna Be Around," “The Good Life," “I Could Write a Book," “Steppin' Out with My Baby" and a version of “My Foolish Heart" recorded with the great jazz pianist Bill Evans.

The Starbucks Hear Music(tm) Opus series showcases songs by artists essential for any music collection. The Starbucks Hear Music content team compiles a mix of classic tunes with songs people may not have ever heard to create a portrait of each artist. Previous Starbucks Hear Music(tm) Opus Collections include: Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, and Ray Charles.

This fall, Starbucks will offer a second CD, an RPM/Columbia release, which will feature newly recorded duets with Bennett and a wide range of musical artists, among them Bono, the Dixie Chicks and Billy Joel. The repertoire will include the songs most closely associated with Bennett's celebrated catalogue, which comprised countless hits over five decades of recorded output. The duets album, which is currently untitled, will be available simultaneously at Starbucks Company-operated locations and traditional retailers.

“Tony Bennett transcends generations and demographics," said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment. “It is an honor to work with Tony Bennett to offer two remarkable recordings to our customers. We are excited to commemorate him on the occasion of his 80th birthday."

“I feel very fortunate to celebrate my 80th birthday with these two CD releases--the first as a retrospective of my career followed by a collection of new recordings with musical performers that I admire," says Tony Bennett. “To be associated with Starbucks Hear Music, which has proven its ability to connect artists with customers who love great music, is a wonderful opportunity."

About Starbucks Hear Music
Founded in 1990, and acquired by Starbucks Coffee Company in 1999, Starbucks Hear Music is the voice of music at Starbucks. Starbucks Hear Music is dedicated to creating a new and convenient way for consumers to discover, experience and acquire all genres of great music through its CD compilations and music programming for Starbucks coffeehouses worldwide, as well as its innovative partnerships with other music labels to produce, market and distribute both exclusive and non-exclusive music. In 2004, Starbucks Hear Music launched a 24-hour digital music channel with XM Satellite Radio (XM Channel 75), the Starbucks Hear Music™ Coffeehouse in Santa Monica where customers can select from over 15,000 CDs or burn their own custom mixes, and the Starbucks Hear Music™ media bars, a service that offers custom CD burning at select Starbucks retail locations in Seattle and Austin. In 2005, Starbucks Hear Music opened the Starbucks Hear Music™ Coffeehouse in San Antonio, Texas. In 2006, Starbucks opened the Starbucks Hear Music™ Coffeehouse in Miami, Florida. Starbucks Hear Music™ CDs are featured at Hear Music and Starbucks retail locations, as well as online at www.starbucks.com/hearmusic.

About Starbucks Coffee Company
Starbucks Corporation is the leading retailer, roaster and brand of specialty coffee in the world, with approximately 11,000 retail locations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim. The Company is committed to offering the highest quality coffee and the Starbucks Experience while conducting its business in ways that produce social, environmental and economic benefits for communities in which it does business. In addition to its retail operations, the Company produces and sells bottled Frappuccino® coffee drinks, Starbucks DoubleShot® espresso drink, and a line of superpremium ice creams through its joint venture partnerships. The Company's brand portfolio provides a wide variety of consumer products--innovative superpremium Tazo® teas and exceptional compact discs from Starbucks Hear Music™ enhance the Starbucks Experience through best-of-class products. The Seattle's Best Coffee and Torrefazione Italia® coffee brands enable Starbucks to appeal to a broader consumer base by offering an alternative variety of coffee flavor profiles.