John Wilt will celebrate the music of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Dean Martin with performances March 21 at the Maui Coffee Attic and March 22 at the Historic Iao Theater. Courtesy photo

Loving singing classic songs by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Dean Martin, former Maui resident John Wilt will present a one-man show of Bennett and Martin songs March 21 at the Maui Coffee Attic and some of Sinatra’s greatest songs March 22 at the Historic Iao Theater.

“I’ve just always enjoyed Sinatra, his delivery,” says Wilt. “I love his songs and Tony Bennett is a close favorite. I got to hear him twice on Maui and once in North Carolina, and that was his very last performance.”

The Iao Theater show will feature exotic dancer Lily O Lei from Waikapu Danceworks and the screening of brief historical film clips of Sinatra’s rise to fame. He will perform some of Sinatra’s most loved songs including “Come Fly With Me,” “Learnin’ the Blues,” “New York, New York,” “Day In, Day Out,” “Mack the Knife,” “L.A. is My Lady,” and “My Way.”

The Maui Coffee Attic concert will feature him singing “14 Dean Martin songs and 16 Tony Bennett songs,” he says. “There’s a dancer, a young lady by the name of Mykaela Padron. The dancers have come from my connection to Waikapu Danceworks. I just let the dancers decide when to dance. It’s perfectly fine with me if they don’t come out and dance for every song. I’ll be doing 60 songs and it’s all from memory.”

His Bennett repertoire includes “When Joanna Loved Me,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” “Rags to Riches, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” and “The Good Life.” He will sing Martin’s “That Ol’ Black Magic,” “It Happened in Monterey,” “Besame Mucho,” “That’s Amore” and “You’re Nobody ’til Somebody Loves You.”

A former University of Hawaii Maui College professor living on Maui for 21 years and now residing in Virginia, Wilt auditioned for “America’s Got Talent” in 2011.

“I went to audition in Atlanta, Georgia,” he recalls. “In those days there was Sharon (Osborne), Howie (Mandel) and (Piers) Morgan. I got a yes vote from Sharon, but you had to get two votes. Now you have four judges, and you have to get three yes votes.”

Wilt hopes he can one day make it back on the popular talent show. “I’ve auditioned all 20 seasons, either in person or remotely, or sent a cassette,” he says.

He became enamored with the music of Sinatra, Bennett and Martin while studying at Kansas State University. “I’d have a radio station playing the oldies, and I’d sit there and study and listen,” he recalls. “I was always fond of the big band stuff.”

Besides paying tribute to the classic crooners, Wilt has sung with choral groups, church choirs, and musicals like “Cabaret,” “Evita” and “Kismet.” He has presented his one-man shows in Virginia and North Carolina, along with Maui.

Wilt will sing the songs of Bennett and Martin at 6 p.m. March 21 at the Maui Coffee Attic. Tickets are $15. He will perform songs by Sinatra at 7 p.m. March 22 at the Historic Iao Theater. Tickets range from $20 to $40.