It was Jean Hartranft's second Tony Bennett concert.

Her first Tony Bennett concert was 63 years ago at the Frolics Ballroom in downtown Allentown. She was 17, a student at Phillipsburg (N.J.) Catholic. The year was 1952. Bennett was riding high on the pop music charts with his second hit, "Rags To Riches."

Hartranft, 81, attended the Tony Bennett concert May 1 at the State Theatre Center for the Arts, Easton, with her son, Mike, who got the tickets.

Bennett didn't sing "Rags To Riches," but his one-hour and 26-minute, near sold-out concert of 25 songs, by my count, was confirmation that he hasn't lost his touch as a showman and preeminent interpreter of the American Songbook.

The audience gave Bennett an opening standing ovation and several standing ovations during the concert and at its conclusion, bringing him back for repeated bows. Bennett wowed the audience and this reviewer.

Following a nice opening 20-minute set of six standards by his daughter, Antonia Bennett, the dapper, gracious and smiling 88-year-old Bennett, wearing a dark blue suit, dress shirt and tie, was on stage the whole time, never taking a seat, and even did a few well-timed twirls and steps, including during a duet with his daughter.

Bennett's selections included George and Ira Gershwin's "They All Laughed"; Duke Ellington's and Eddie De Lange's "(In My) Solitude"; "Irving Berlin's "Steppin' Out With My Baby"; Cy Coleman's "The Best Is Yet To Come"; Jerome Kern's and Dorothy Field's "The Way You Look Tonight"; Bennett's first demo, Harry Warren's and Al Dubin's "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams"; Johnny Mercer's and Harold Arlen's "One For My Baby"; Charlie Chaplin's "Smile"; and sang without microphone, Bart Howard's "Fly Me To The Moon." Bennett, of course, sang his trademark, George Cory and Douglass Cross's "I Left My Heart In San Francisco."

Backed by piano, electric guitar, upright bass and drums, Bennett hit the big notes, often finishing triumphantly with arms outstretched, or with a fist pump, and then with palms out, thanking the audience. Bennett not only sings the songs. He's lived them.

When introducing Bennett, State Theatre President and CEO Shelley Brown said that booking Bennett at the State was on her "bucket list."

"Finally," Brown said, "to the State Theatre, which opened when Tony Bennett was born."

For his part, Bennett, born Aug. 3, 1926, said to the audience at the concert's conclusion, "Well, I'd like to come back," adding, "You know, we play all over the world, but when we play a theater like this it's something special."

And so was Tony Bennett at Easton's State Theatre.