Dishing dirt sells. That’s the message from the successful memoirs by rockers Keith Richards, Steven Tyler, and so many other bad boys. Now along comes a new book by Tony Bennett, which charts a completely different path. It is rosy and upbeat with rarely a negative word said about anyone.

Where Richards and Tyler buried their naysayers with vitriol, Bennett lays on the kindness. To give him credit, he has earned his happiness. He is 86, has performed for 11 presidents, won 17 Grammys, and achieved a staggering number of firsts — from being the first pop act to play Carnegie Hall to the first white artist to sing with Count Basie’s band.