You can see Wayne Newton perform in Las Vegas into 2024, but never at a karaoke bar

Frank Sinatra. Sammy Davis, Jr. Dean Martin. Don Rickles. All names from the heyday of Las Vegas, names that now are but grainy memories on YouTube.

And yet there's one Las Vegas icon you can still see perform live on the fabled Strip: Wayne Newton.

Newton, 81, recently announced he would continue his ongoing residency at the Flamingo Hotel through next summer. The 62 dates span January 13 to June 12, 2024. Tickets start at $82, not including fees, and are available at caesars.com/shows.

"The residency is what I've been doing my whole life in Vegas," Newton told TODAY hosts Tuesday. "I live there, so why leave, because I'd have to get a job somewhere."

Newton's Vegas career started in 1959, when the then 15-year-old Phoenix-area high school student was offered an audition by a talent scout. Initially, Newton's act included his older brother Jerry. But he eventually went solo on the back of his first big hit, 1963's "Danke Schoen."

Since that auspicious start, Newton, who goes by the moniker Mr. Las Vegas, has performed 50,000 shows for upwards of 40 million people.

Asked by TODAY anchors about his favorite Vegas memory, Newton recalled a gig he played to help open the city's T-Mobile Arena in 2016.

"I was one of acts in that show, and I thought, 'what kind of show do I do?' So I decided to do tribute to all those people, Frank and Dean and Sam and Bobby Darin," he said. "I did songs from each of those people, they were all friends of mine. I closed it with (Sinatra's staple), 'My Way.' While I was singing, everybody in the audience turned on the lights on their phones and the lighting guy turned off the lights. I was crying."

Newton's current act typically finds him pulling out some of the 13 instruments that he plays, including the fiddle. But one thing Newton won't ever be caught doing is walking into a karaoke bar.

"I was blessed and cursed with perfect pitch," he told TODAY. "So If anyone is singing around me who is not on tune, it's pain. I do not karaoke because I could not last through it."

In his show, Newton often takes breaks to tell stories about his six-decade-plus career and the mostly departed friends he met. Videos play of Newton with legends such as comedians Jack Benny and Jackie Gleason, Elvis, Sinatra and his Rat Pack, and show host Ed Sullivan. There is also a medley with the late Glen Campbell.

Newton told Las Vegas Review-Journal entertainment columnist John Katsilometes that his show is considered a “bucket list” experience for those looking to go back in time.

“We have had a lot more younger people, and especially a lot more younger guys, come to the show lately,” Newton said. “They want to experience what Las Vegas used to be like.”

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