Bennett began singing at an early age. He fought in the final stages of World War II as a U.S. Armyinfantryman in the European Theater. Afterward, he developed his singing technique, signed with Columbia Records and had his first number-one popular song with "Because of You" in 1951. Several popular tracks such as "Rags to Riches" followed in early 1953. He then refined his approach to encompass jazz singing. He reached an artistic peak in the late 1950s with albums such as The Beat of My Heart and Basie Swings, Bennett Sings. In 1962, Bennett recorded his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". His career and personal life experienced an extended downturn during the height of the rock music era. Bennett staged a comeback in the late 1980s and 1990s, putting out gold record albums again and expanding his reach to the MTV Generation while keeping his musical style intact.
Bennett continued to create popular and critically praised work into the 21st century. He attracted renewed acclaim late in his career for his collaboration with Lady Gaga, which began with the album Cheek to Cheek (2014); the two performers toured together to promote the album throughout 2014 and 2015. With the release of the duo's second album, Love for Sale (2021), Bennett broke the individual record for the longest run of a top-10 album on the Billboard 200 chart for any living artist; his first top-10 record was I Left My Heart in San Francisco in 1962. Bennett also broke the Guinness World Record for the oldest person to release an album of new material, at the age of 95 years and 60 days.
In February 2021, Bennett revealed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2016.[2] Due to the slow progression of his illness, he continued to record, tour, and perform until his retirement from concerts due to physical challenges, which was announced after his final performances on August 3 and 5, 2021, at Radio City Music Hall.[3]
Early life
1926–1943: Family and education
Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born on August 3, 1926,[4] at St. John's Hospital in Long Island City, Queens, in New York City.[5] His parents were grocer John Benedetto and seamstress Anna (Suraci) Benedetto, and he was the first member of his family to be born in a hospital.[6] In 1906, John had emigrated from Podargoni,[7] a rural eastern district of the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria. Anna had been born in the U.S. shortly after her parents also emigrated from the Calabria region in 1899.[6][7] Other relatives came over as well as part of the mass migration of Italians to America.[6][7] Tony grew up with an older sister, Mary, and an older brother, John Jr.[8] With a father who was ailing and unable to work, the children grew up in poverty.[9] John Sr. instilled in his son a love of art and literature, and a compassion for human suffering,[10] but died when Tony was ten years old.[9] The experience of growing up in the Great Depression and a distaste for the effects of the presidency of Herbert Hoover would make the child a lifelong Democrat.[11]
Bennett attended New York's School of Industrial Art where he studied painting and music[17] and would later appreciate their emphasis on proper technique.[18] But he dropped out at age 16 to help support his family.[19] He worked as a copy boy and runner for the Associated Press in Manhattan[20] and in several other low-skilled, low-paying jobs.[21] He mostly set his sights on a professional singing career, returning to performing as a singing waiter, playing and winning amateur nights all around the city, and enjoying a successful engagement at a Paramus, New Jersey, nightclub.[16][21]
As the German Army was pushed back to its homeland, Benedetto and his company saw bitter fighting in cold winter conditions, often hunkering down in foxholes as German 88 mm guns fired on them.[25] At the end of March, they crossed the Rhine and entered Germany, engaging in dangerous house-to-house, town-after-town fighting to clean out German soldiers;[25] during the first week of April, they crossed the Kocher River, and by the end of the month reached the Danube.[26] During his time in combat, Benedetto narrowly escaped death several times.[9] The experience made him a pacifist;[9] he would later write, "Anybody who thinks that war is romantic obviously hasn't gone through one",[24] and later say, "It was a nightmare that's permanent. I just said, 'This is not life. This is not life.'"[27] At the war's conclusion he was involved in the liberation of the Kaufering concentration camp, a subcamp of Dachau, near Landsberg, where some American prisoners of war from the 63rd Division had also been held.[26] He later wrote in his autobiography that "I saw things no human being should ever have to see."[28]
Benedetto stayed in Germany as part of the occupying force but was assigned to an informal Special Services band unit that would entertain nearby American forces.[9] His dining with a black friend from high school—at a time when the Army was still racially segregated—led to his being demoted and reassigned to Graves Registration Service duties.[29] Subsequently, he sang with the 314th Army Special Services Band under the stage name Joe Bari[30] (a name he had started using before the war, chosen after the city and province in Italy, and as a partial anagram of his family origins in Calabria).[31] He played with many musicians who would have post-war careers.[30]
Upon his discharge from the Army and return to the States in 1946, Benedetto studied at the American Theatre Wing on the GI Bill.[14] He was taught the bel canto singing discipline,[32] which would keep his voice in good shape for his entire career. He continued to perform wherever he could, including while waiting tables.[9] Based upon a suggestion from a teacher at the American Theatre Wing, he developed an unusual approach that involved imitating, as he sang, the style and phrasing of other musicians—such as that of Stan Getz's saxophone and Art Tatum's piano—helping him to improvise as he interpreted a song.[19][33] He made a few recordings as Bari in 1949 for a small outfit called Leslie Records, but they failed to sell.[34]
Bennett (right) with Chicago columnist and talk show host Irv Kupcinet, during the 1950s
Warned by Miller not to imitate Frank Sinatra[12] (who was just then leaving Columbia), Bennett began his career as a crooner of commercial pop tunes. His first big hit was "Because of You", a ballad produced by Miller with a lush orchestral arrangement from Percy Faith. It started out gaining popularity on jukeboxes, then reached number one on the pop charts in 1951 and stayed there for ten weeks,[35] selling over a million copies.[34] This was followed to the top of the charts later that year[35] by a similarly styled rendition of Hank Williams's "Cold, Cold Heart", which helped introduce Williams and country music in general to a wider, more national audience.[36] The Miller and Faith tandem continued to work on all of Bennett's early hits. Bennett's recording of "Blue Velvet" was also very popular and attracted screaming teenage fans at concerts at the famed Paramount Theater in New York (Bennett did seven shows a day, starting at 10:30 am)[37] and elsewhere.
A third number-one came in 1953 with "Rags to Riches". Unlike Bennett's other early hits, this was an up-tempo big band number with a bold, brassy sound and a double tango in the instrumental break; it topped the charts for eight weeks.[35]
Later that year, the producers of the upcoming Broadway musical Kismet had Bennett record "Stranger in Paradise" as a way of promoting the show during a New York newspaper strike.[38] The song reached the top, the show was a hit, and Bennett began a long practice of recording show tunes.[38] "Stranger in Paradise" was also a number-one hit in the United Kingdom a year and a half later.[39]
Once the rock and roll era began in 1955, the dynamic of the music industry changed and it became harder and harder for existing pop singers to do well commercially.[14] Nevertheless, Bennett continued to enjoy success, placing eight songs in the BillboardTop 40 during the latter part of the 1950s, with "In the Middle of an Island" (which he vehemently hated) reaching the highest at number nine in 1957.[40]
For a month in August–September 1956, Bennett hosted an NBC Saturday night television variety show, The Tony Bennett Show, as a summer replacement for The Perry Como Show.[41]Patti Page and Julius La Rosa had in turn hosted the two previous months, and they all shared the same singers, dancers, and orchestra.[41] In 1959, Bennett would again fill in for The Perry Como Show, this time alongside Teresa Brewer and Jaye P. Morgan as co-hosts of the summer-long Perry Presents.[42]
1954–1965: A growing artistry
In 1954, the guitarist Chuck Wayne became Bennett's musical director.[43] Bennett released his first long-playing album in 1955, Cloud 7. The album was billed as featuring Wayne and showed Bennett's leanings towards jazz. In 1957, Ralph Sharon became Bennett's pianist, arranger, and musical director,[44] replacing Wayne. Sharon told Bennett that a career singing "sweet saccharine songs like 'Blue Velvet'" would not last long, and encouraged Bennett to focus even more on his jazz inclinations.[12][45]
Bennett also built up the quality and, therefore, the reputation of his nightclub act; in this he was following the path of Sinatra and other top jazz and standards singers of this era.[14] In June 1962, Bennett staged a highly promoted concert performance at Carnegie Hall, using a stellar lineup of musicians including Al Cohn, Kenny Burrell, and Candido, as well as the Ralph Sharon Trio. Carnegie Hall had not featured a male pop performer until then (only Judy Garland one year before that).[47] The concert featured 44 songs, including favorites like "I've Got the World on a String" and "The Best Is Yet To Come". It was a big success and like Garland's, the concert was recorded for posterity, further cementing Bennett's reputation as a star both at home and abroad.[12][48] Bennett also appeared on television, and in October 1962 he sang on the initial broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.[49]
"For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He's the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more."
The next year brought the Beatles and the British Invasion, and with them still more musical and cultural attention to rock and less to pop, standards, and jazz. Over the next couple of years, Bennett had minor hits with several albums and singles based on show tunes; his last top-40 single was the number 34 "If I Ruled the World" from the musical Pickwick in 1965,[40] but his commercial fortunes were clearly starting to decline. An attempt to break into acting with a role in the poorly received 1966 film The Oscar met with middling reviews for Bennett; he did not enjoy the experience and did not seek further roles.[51][52]
A firm believer in the Civil Rights Movement,[32] Bennett participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.[53] He performed in the "Stars for Freedom" rally the night before Martin Luther King's "How Long, Not Long" speech.[54] At the conclusion of the march, Bennett was driven to the airport by Viola Liuzzo, a mother of five from Detroit, who was murdered later that day by the Ku Klux Klan.[54]
Bennett refused to perform in apartheid South Africa.[17]
1965–1979: Years of struggle
Bennett performing in 1966
Ralph Sharon and Bennett parted ways in 1965.[44] There was great pressure on singers such as Lena Horne and Barbra Streisand to record "contemporary" rock songs and, in this vein, Columbia Records' Clive Davis suggested that Bennett do the same.[14] Bennett was very reluctant and, when he tried, the results pleased no one. This was exemplified by Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today! (1970),[14] before which Bennett became physically ill at the thought of recording.[55] It featured covers of Beatles and other current songs and a psychedelic art cover.[55][56]
Years later, Bennett would recall his dismay at being asked to do contemporary material, comparing it to when his mother was forced to produce a cheap dress.[57] By 1972, he had departed Columbia for the Verve division of MGM Records (Philips in the UK) and relocated for a stint in London, where he hosted a television show from the Talk of the Town nightclub in conjunction with Thames Television, Tony Bennett at the Talk of the Town.[58][59][60] With his new label, he tried a variety of approaches, including some more Beatles material, but found no renewed commercial success, and in a couple more years he was without a recording contract.[14][61]
Taking matters into his own hands, Bennett started his own record company, Improv.[14] He recorded some songs that would later become favorites, such as "What is This Thing Called Love?", and made two well-regarded albums with jazz pianist Bill Evans, The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (1975) and Together Again (1976),[48] but Improv lacked a distribution arrangement with a major label and by 1977, it was out of business.[14][62]
As the decade neared its end, Bennett had no recording contract, no manager, and was not performing many concerts outside of Las Vegas.[19] He had developed a drug addiction, was living beyond his means, and had the Internal Revenue Service trying to seize his Los Angeles home.[19][62]
1979–1989: Turnaround
After a near-fatal cocaineoverdose in 1979, Bennett called his sons Danny and Dae for help. "Look, I'm lost here", he told them. "It seems like people don't want to hear the music I make."[19]
Danny and Dae's band, Quacky Duck and His Barnyard Friends, had foundered and the former realized he was not musically talented but had a head for business. His father, on the other hand, had tremendous musical talent, but had trouble sustaining a career from it and had little financial sense. Danny signed on as his father's manager.[62]
Danny got his father's expenses under control, moved him back to New York City, and began booking him in colleges and small theaters to get him away from a "Vegas" image.[19][62] After some effort, a successful plan to pay back the IRS debt was put into place.[62] The singer had also reunited with Ralph Sharon as his pianist and musical director[44] (and would remain with him until Sharon's retirement in 2002).[45] By 1986, Tony Bennett was re-signed to Columbia Records, this time with creative control, and released The Art of Excellence. This became his first album to reach the charts since 1972.[14]
Henry Mancini's theme song "Life in a Looking Glass" from the Blake Edwards motion picture "That's Life" (1986), sung by Bennett, received a nomination at the Oscars for Best Original Song.[63]
1990–2006: Established career
Danny Bennett felt that younger audiences who were unfamiliar with his father would respond to his music if given a chance.[64] No changes to Tony's formal appearance, singing style, musical accompaniment (The Ralph Sharon Trio or an orchestra), or song choice (generally the Great American Songbook) were necessary or desirable.[14][65] Accordingly, Danny began regularly to book his father on Late Night with David Letterman, a show with a younger, "hip" audience.[64] This was subsequently followed by appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Sesame Street, The Simpsons, Muppets Tonight, and various MTV programs.[17][19] In 1993, Bennett played a series of benefit concerts organized by alternative rock radio stations around the country.[64] The plan worked; as Tony later remembered, "I realized that young people had never heard those songs. Cole Porter, Gershwin—they were like, 'Who wrote that?' To them, it was different. If you're different, you stand out."[19]
During this time, Bennett continued to record, first putting out the acclaimed look-back Astoria: Portrait of the Artist (1990), then emphasizing themed albums such as the Sinatra homage Perfectly Frank (1992) and the Fred Astaire tribute Steppin' Out (1993). The latter two both achieved gold status and won Grammys for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance (Bennett's first Grammys since 1962) and further established Bennett as the inheritor of the mantle of a classic American great.[64]
As Bennett was seen at MTV Video Music Awards shows side by side with the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Flavor Flav, and as his "Steppin' Out with My Baby" video received MTV airplay,[64] it was clear that, as The New York Times said, "Tony Bennett has not just bridged the generation gap, he has demolished it. He has solidly connected with a younger crowd weaned on rock. And there have been no compromises."[66]
The new audience reached its height with Bennett's appearance in 1994 on MTV Unplugged.[62] (He quipped on the show, "I've been unplugged my whole career.") Featuring guest appearances by rock and country stars Elvis Costello and k.d. lang (both of whom had an affinity for the standards genre), the show attracted a considerable audience and much media attention.[64] The resulting MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett album went platinum and, besides taking the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Grammy award for the third straight year, also won the top Grammy prize of Album of the Year.[12][67]
Following his comeback, Bennett financially prospered; by 1999, his assets were worth $15 to 20 million. He had no intention of retiring, saying in reference to masters such as Pablo Picasso, Jack Benny, and Fred Astaire: "right up to the day they died, they were performing. If you are creative, you get busier as you get older." He continued to record and tour steadily, playing a hundred shows a year by the end of the 1990s.[62] In concert, he often made a point of singing one song (usually "Fly Me to the Moon") without any microphone or amplification, demonstrating his skills at vocal projection.[65][68][69] One show, Tony Bennett's Wonderful World: Live From San Francisco, was made into a PBS special. He conceptualized and starred in the first episode of the A&E Network's popular Live by Request series, for which he won an Emmy Award.[62][67] He made cameo appearances as himself in films such as The Scout, Analyze This, and Bruce Almighty.[70]
In 1998, Bennett performed on the final day of a mud-soaked Glastonbury Festival in an immaculate suit and tie,[71] his whole set on this occasion consisting of songs about the weather. His autobiography The Good Life was also first published in 1998. A series of albums, often based on themes (such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, blues, or duets), met with largely positive reviews.[67]
For his contribution to the recording industry, Bennett was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street.[72] Bennett was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997, was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001, and received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2002.[73] In 2002, Q magazine named Bennett in its list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die".[74] On December 4, 2005, Bennett was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor.[67] Later, a theatrical musical revue of his songs, called I Left My Heart: A Salute to the Music of Tony Bennett was created and featured some of his best-known songs such as "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", "Because of You", and "Wonderful".[75] The following year, Bennett was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.[76]
Danny Bennett continued to be Tony's manager while Dae Bennett is a recording engineer who worked on a number of Tony's projects and who opened Bennett Studios in Englewood, New Jersey in 2001, now shuttered due to the downturn of major label budgets combined with skyrocketing overhead. Tony's younger daughter Antonia is an aspiring jazz singer who opened shows for her father.[19]
In September 2011, Bennett appeared on The Howard Stern Show and named American military actions in the Middle East as the root cause of the September 11 attacks.[27] Bennett also claimed that former President George W. Bush personally told him at the Kennedy Center in December 2005 that he felt he had made a mistake invading Iraq, to which a Bush spokesperson replied, "This account is flatly wrong."[87] Following bad press resulting from his remarks, Bennett clarified his position, writing: "There is simply no excuse for terrorism and the murder of the nearly 3,000 innocent victims of the 9/11 attacks on our country. My life experiences, ranging from the Battle of the Bulge to marching with Martin Luther King, made me a life-long humanist and pacifist, and reinforced my belief that violence begets violence and that war is the lowest form of human behavior."[88]
In September 2011, Bennett released Duets II, a follow-up to his first collaboration album, in conjunction with his 85th birthday. He sang duets with seventeen prominent singers of varying techniques, including Aretha Franklin, Willie Nelson, Queen Latifah, and Lady Gaga.[89] Bennett appeared on the season 2 premiere of the television procedural Blue Bloods performing "It Had To Be You" with Carrie Underwood.[90] His duet with Amy Winehouse on "Body and Soul"—reportedly the last recording she made before her death[91]—charted on the lower reaches of the Billboard Hot 100, making Bennett the oldest living artist to appear there, as well as the artist with the greatest span of appearances.[92] The single did well in Europe, where it reached the top 15 in several countries. The album then debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making Bennett the oldest living artist to reach that top spot, as well as marking the first time he had reached it himself.[93] A model of Koss headphones, the Tony Bennett Signature Edition (TBSE1), was created for this milestone[94] (Bennett having been one of the early adopters of the Koss product back in the 1960s).[95] In November 2011, Columbia released Tony Bennett – The Complete Collection, a 73-CD plus 3-DVD set, which although not absolutely "complete", finally brought forth many albums that had not had a previous CD release, as well as some unreleased material and rarities.[59][96] In December 2011, Bennett appeared at the Royal Variety Performance in Salford in the presence of Princess Anne.[97]
In September 2014, Bennett performed for the first time in Israel, with his jazz quartet at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv, receiving a standing ovation. He also made a surprise cameo appearance on stage with Lady Gaga at Hayarkon Park, Tel Aviv, the previous evening.[103] The performance took place days before the release that month of the two stars' much-delayed collaborative effort and resultant Grammy-winning album, Cheek to Cheek, which debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, extending the 88-year-old Bennett's record for the oldest artist to do so,[104] which earned him the Guinness World Records for "oldest person to reach No.1 on the US Album Chart with a newly recorded album", at the age of 88 years and 69 days.[105] In October 2014, Bennett and Lady Gaga released the concert special Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live!,[106] and at the end of the year, they kicked off their co-headlining Cheek to Cheek Tour.[107] The pair also appeared in a Barnes & Noble commercial.[108]
On August 19, 2016, shortly after his 90th birthday, Bennett was honored by the unveiling of an 8-foot tall statue in his likeness in front of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. With Senator Dianne Feinstein, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and several San Francisco mayors in attendance, Bennett was serenaded by a young-adult choir singing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". Bennett had first sung the song at the hotel in 1961. That same year, he performed at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 24 and the Rockefeller Center tree lighting on November 30. On December 20, 2016, NBC televised a special concert in honor of his 90th birthday, called Tony Bennett Celebrates 90: The Best Is Yet to Come.[111] In September 2018, Bennett re-recorded the George Gershwin song "Fascinating Rhythm", after 68 years and 342 days, according to the Guinness World Records adjudicator, earning the title of "longest time between the release of an original recording and a re-recording of the same single by the same artist".[112][113] The song appeared on the collaborative album Love Is Here to Stay with Diana Krall that was released on September 14.[114]
Bennett's final album, Love for Sale, another collaborative record with Lady Gaga, was released on September 30, 2021. The record received generally favorable reviews, and debuted at number eight in the United States.[115][116]Alexis Petridis called Bennett's performance on the album "pretty remarkable" despite the singer's age and health condition in his review for The Guardian.[117] Bennett broke the individual record for the longest span of top-10 albums on the Billboard 200 chart for any living artist; his first top-10 record was I Left My Heart in San Francisco in 1962.[118] Bennett also broke the Guinness World Record for the oldest person to release an album of new material, at the age of 95 years and 60 days.[119]
Bennett's final live performances were on August 3 and 5, 2021, when he presented a pair of shows with Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall. On August 12, 2021, nine days after his 95th birthday, Bennett's retirement from concerts was announced by his son and manager Danny Bennett. Danny stated that though his father remained a capable singer, he was becoming physically frail and risked a major fall if he continued touring.[120] A television special, One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga debuted on November 28, 2021, on CBS, which contained select performances from the two final concerts.[121] Bennett's last televised performance was also with Gaga on December 16, 2021, on MTV Unplugged. The special was filmed the previous July in front of an intimate studio audience in New York City, and included duets from Love for Sale.[122][123] A documentary called The Lady and the Legend, which will include footage from the making of Bennett and Lady Gaga's two collaborative albums is scheduled to be available on Paramount+ in September 2023.[121][124]
Despite his retirement, as of early 2022, Bennett still continued to rehearse with his music director three times a week, Danny Bennett said in an interview.[125]
Artistry
Painting
Bennett also had success as a painter, done under his real name of Anthony Benedetto, or just Benedetto.[126] He followed up his childhood interest with professional training, work, and museum visits throughout his life. He sketched or painted every day, often of views out of hotel windows when he was on tour.[67]
He exhibited his work in numerous galleries around the world.[67] He was chosen as the official artist for the 2001 Kentucky Derby, and was commissioned by the United Nations to do two paintings, including one for its fiftieth anniversary.[67] His painting Homage to Hockney (for his friend David Hockney, painted after Hockney drew him) is on permanent display at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio.[126] His Boy on Sailboat, Sydney Bay is in the permanent collection at the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park in New York City, as is his Central Park at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.[67] His paintings and drawings have been featured in ARTnews and other magazines, and have sold for as much as $80,000 a piece.[17][62] Many of his works were published in the art book Tony Bennett: What My Heart Has Seen in 1996. In 2007, another book involving his paintings, Tony Bennett in the Studio: A Life of Art & Music, became a bestseller among art books.[37]
Musical style
Regarding his choices in music, Bennett reiterated his artistic stance in a 2010 interview:
I'm not staying contemporary for the big record companies, I don't follow the latest fashions. I never sing a song that's badly written. In the 1920s and '30s, there was a renaissance in music that was the equivalent of the artistic Renaissance. Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer and others just created the best songs that had ever been written. These are classics, and finally they're not being treated as light entertainment. This is classical music.[127]
Awards and legacy
Bennett won 20 Grammy Awards (including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award),[128][129] as follows (years shown are the year in which the ceremony was held and the award was given, not the year in which the recording was released):
The Tony Bennett concert show as seen by the audience, with no stage set, visual effects or advanced lighting schemes. Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, September 2005.
A Guinness World Record for "oldest person to reach No.1 on the US Album Chart with a newly recorded album", at the age of 88 years 69 days, for Cheek to Cheek
A Guinness World Record for "the longest time between the release of an original recording and a re-recording of the same single by the same artist" for re-recording "Fascinating Rhythm" 68 years and 342 days after the original recording.
With the release of Love for Sale, Bennett broke a Guinness World Records title for being the oldest person to release an album of new material at the age of 95 years and 60 days. On April 3, 2022, he became the second-oldest person to win a Grammy Award, when he shared the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammy with Lady Gaga for Love for Sale, aged 95 years, 8 months, and 1 day.
Bennett released over 70 albums during his career, almost all for Columbia Records. The biggest selling of these in the U.S. were I Left My Heart in San Francisco, MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett, and Duets: An American Classic, all of which went platinum for shipping one million copies.[147] Eight other albums of his went gold in the U.S., including several compilations.[147] Bennett also charted over 30 singles during his career, with his biggest hits all occurring during the early 1950s, and none charting between 1968 and 2010.
On February 12, 1952,[148] Bennett married Ohio art student and jazz fan Patricia Beech, whom he had met the previous year after a nightclub performance in Cleveland.[34] Two thousand female fans dressed in black gathered outside the ceremony at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, New York, in mock mourning.[17] The couple had two sons, D'Andrea (Danny, b. 1954) and Daegal (Dae, b. 1955).[149] Bennett and his wife Patricia separated in 1965, their marriage a victim of Bennett's spending too much time on the road, among other factors.[17] In 1969, Patricia sued him for divorce on grounds of adultery.[150] In 1971, their divorce became official.[151]
Bennett had become involved with aspiring actress Sandra Grant while filming The Oscar in 1965. The couple lived together for several years and on December 29, 1971, they quietly married in New York.[152] They had two daughters, Joanna (b. 1970) and Antonia (b. 1974),[153] and moved to Los Angeles.[154] The two were married until 1983.[155]
In the late 1980s, Bennett entered into a long-term romantic relationship with Susan Crow, a former New York City schoolteacher.[156]
Bennett and Crow founded Exploring the Arts, a charitable organization dedicated to creating, promoting, and supporting arts education. At the same time, they founded (and named after Bennett's friend) the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, a public high school dedicated to teaching the performing arts. The school opened in 2001 and has a very high graduation rate.[9] On June 21, 2007, Bennett married Crow in a private civil ceremony in New York that was witnessed by Mario Cuomo, the former governor of New York.[157][158]
Illness and death
In February 2021, an article in AARP Magazine revealed that Bennett had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2016, though he continued to perform and record until the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.[159] He briefly resumed performing in 2021 for his farewell performances. Bennett's twice-weekly singing practices are thought to have kept his brain stimulated and spared him from symptoms such as disorientation, depression, and a detachment from reality.[159] His neurologist told AARP that, prior to the pandemic, the singer's touring schedule "kept him on his toes and also stimulated his brain in a significant way".[160] Bennett recorded tracks with Lady Gaga from 2018 until early 2020 for their 2021 album Love for Sale, despite at times being "lost and bewildered" during recording sessions.[159]
In announcing Bennett's retirement in August 2021, Danny Bennett stated that the Alzheimer's was mainly affecting his father's short-term memory and that he would often forget he had just performed after a concert; his long-term memory remained intact and he could still fully remember all the lyrics to his repertoire when performing.[120]
Bennett died at his home in New York City on July 21, 2023, following a seven-year battle with Alzheimer's disease. His family said he kept singing to the end, lastly "Because of You".[161][162][54] He was hailed as the "champion" and "legendary interpreter" of the Great American Songbook.[54][163]
^ abcEvanier, All the Things You Are, p. 29. "Tony Bennett's paternal grandfather, Giovanni Benedetto, grew up in the village of Podargoni, above Reggio Calabria. The family were poor farmers, producing figs, olive oil, and wine grapes. His mother's family, the Suracis, also farmed in Calabria. Neither side of the family could read or write."
^ abcdWhitburn, The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, p. 35.
^ abBrooks and Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, p. 1407.
^McNeil, Alex (1996). Total Television: A Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present (Revised ed.). Penguin Books. ISBN0-14-024916-8. p. 653.
^"Chuck Wayne". billcrowbass.com. 1997. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
^"Tony Bennett". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. November 19, 2019. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present (9th ed.). Ballantine Books. ISBN978-0-345-49773-4.
Artikel ini sebatang kara, artinya tidak ada artikel lain yang memiliki pranala balik ke halaman ini.Bantulah menambah pranala ke artikel ini dari artikel yang berhubungan atau coba peralatan pencari pranala.Tag ini diberikan pada Maret 2016. SMP Negeri 2 PaluInformasiRentang kelasVII, VIII, IXKurikulumKurikulum Tingkat Satuan PendidikanAlamatLokasiJl. Monginsidi 4, Palu, Sulawesi TengahMoto SMP Negeri (SMPN) 2 Palu, merupakan salah satu Sekolah Menengah Pertama Negeri yang ada di Provinsi Sulaw…
Gambar sampul volume pertama versi Blu-ray. Slam Dunk adalah sebuah seri anime yang diadaptasi dari manga berjudul sama karya Takehiko Inoue.[1] Ceritanya mengisahkan tentang seorang anak laki-laki bernama Hanamichi Sakuragi yang jatuh cinta pada seorang gadis bernama Haruko Akagi, dan memutuskan untuk bergabung dengan Klub Basket SMA Shohoku demi menarik perhatiannya, meskipun Haruko menyukai pemain Shohoku yang lain, Kaede Rukawa. Saat Sakuragi mulai mempelajari cara bermain basket, di…
Artikel ini sebatang kara, artinya tidak ada artikel lain yang memiliki pranala balik ke halaman ini.Bantulah menambah pranala ke artikel ini dari artikel yang berhubungan atau coba peralatan pencari pranala.Tag ini diberikan pada November 2022. Gentaro SuzukaInformasi pribadiNama lengkap Gentaro SuzukaTanggal lahir 10 Agustus 1986 (umur 37)Tempat lahir Prefektur Chiba, JepangPosisi bermain BekKarier senior*Tahun Tim Tampil (Gol)2009–2014 YSCC Yokohama * Penampilan dan gol di klub senior …
Stefano Fiore Fiore nel 2008 Nazionalità Italia Altezza 177 cm Peso 70 kg Calcio Ruolo Allenatore (ex centrocampista) Termine carriera 1º luglio 2011 - giocatore Carriera Giovanili 1993 Cosenza Squadre di club1 1993-1994 Cosenza11 (1)1994-1995 Parma8 (1)1995-1996→ Padova24 (1)1996-1997→ Chievo38 (2)1997-1999 Parma54 (2)1999-2001 Udinese67 (18)2001-2004 Lazio95 (17)2004-2005 Valencia20 (2)2005-2006→ Fiorentina38 (6)2006-2007→ …
Motor vehicle Venucia T70OverviewManufacturerVenucia (Dongfeng Nissan)Also calledVenucia T70XProduction2014–2020AssemblyWuhan, ChinaBody and chassisClassCompact crossover SUVBody style5-door station wagonLayoutFront-engine, front-wheel-drivefour-wheel-drive (T70X)PlatformRenault–Nissan C platformRelatedNissan QashqaiPowertrainEngineGasoline:1.6 L HR16DE I41.8 L MR18DE I4Transmission5-speed manual5-speed automaticCVT automaticDimensionsWheelbase2,630 mm (103.5 in)Length4,5…
Not to be confused with Kisumu. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: Kisumu County – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) County in KenyaKisumu County KisumuCountyKisumuThe skyline of Kisumu City from Lake VictoriaNickname: …
Disambiguazione – Se stai cercando altri significati, vedi Fiore (disambigua). Disambiguazione – Fiori rimanda qui. Se stai cercando altri significati, vedi Fiori (disambigua). Un'ape in un fiore Il fiore è l'organo riproduttivo delle angiosperme, nel quale si sviluppano i gametofiti, avviene la fecondazione e si sviluppa il seme. Il fiore è composto da una serie di organi laterali (omologhi delle foglie e brattee) che hanno perso la funzione fotosintetica e acquisito una funzione …
Biology research scientist, focused on DNA Maclyn McCartyMaclyn McCarty with Francis Crick and James D WatsonBorn(1911-06-09)June 9, 1911South Bend, IndianaDiedJanuary 2, 2005(2005-01-02) (aged 93)Known forRole in the discovery that DNA is the carrier of genesAwardsEli Lilly and Company-Elanco Research Award 1946Robert Koch Prize (Gold, 1981)Wolf Prize for Medicine (1990) Maclyn McCarty (June 9, 1911 – January 2, 2005)[1] was an American geneticist, a research scientist descr…
Persesi SiantarNama lengkapPersatuan Sepakbola Pematang SiantarJulukanLaskar Sang NaualuhBerdiri1962; 62 tahun lalu (1962)StadionStadion Sang NaualuhPematangsiantar, Sumatera UtaraPemilikPemkot PematangsiantarManajerJonner Binton SilaenPelatihHazmin FathLigaLiga 3 Kostum kandang Kostum tandang Persatuan Sepakbola Pematang Siantar (atau Persesi Siantar) adalah tim sepak bola Indonesia yang bermarkas di Stadion Sang Naualuh, Kota Pematang Siantar, Sumatera Utara. Tim ini berkompetisi di Liga …
American scientist (1879–1970) Francis Peyton RousFrancis Peyton RousBornOctober 5, 1879Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.DiedFebruary 16, 1970(1970-02-16) (aged 90)New York City, U.S.Alma materJohns Hopkins UniversityKnown forOncovirusesSpouseMarion Eckford de KayChildrenThree daughters, including MarionAwards ForMemRS (1940)[1] Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (1958) National Medal of Science (1965) Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (1966) Nobel Prize in …
Stasiun Myōon-dōri妙音通駅Lokasi3-9 Myōon-dōri, Mizuho, Nagoya, Aichi(名古屋市瑞穂区妙音通三丁目9)JepangOperatorBiro Transportasi Kota NagoyaJalurJalur MeijōLayanan Pemberhentian bus Informasi lainKode stasiunM24SejarahDibuka1974Penumpang20091938 per hari Sunting kotak info • L • BBantuan penggunaan templat ini Stasiun Myōon-dōri (妙音通駅code: ja is deprecated , Myōon-dōri-eki) adalah sebuah stasiun metro bawah tanah yang terletak di Mizuho-ku, Na…
Facility in Oxford, United Kingdom JETJoint European TorusJET in 1991Device typeTokamakLocationOxfordshire, UKAffiliationCulham Centre for Fusion EnergyTechnical specificationsMajor radius2.96 m (9 ft 9 in)Minor radius1.25 m (4 ft 1 in)Plasma volume100 m3Magnetic field3.45 T (34,500 G) (toroidal)Heating power38 MWPlasma current3.2 MA (circular), 4.8 MA (D-shape)HistoryYear(s) of operation1983–2023 The Joint European Torus (JET) was a …
Coupe de Luxembourg 2017-2018 Competizione Coupe de Luxembourg Sport Calcio Edizione 93ª Organizzatore FLF Date dal 10 settembre 2017al 27 maggio 2018 Luogo Lussemburgo Partecipanti 104 Formula Eliminazione diretta Risultati Vincitore RU Luxembourg(1º titolo) Secondo Hostert Cronologia della competizione 2016-2017 2018-2019 Manuale La Coppa di Lussemburgo 2017-2018 è stata la 93ª edizione della coppa nazionale lussemburghese. La competizione è iniziata il 10 settembre 2017 e s…
Pamona TimurKecamatanPeta lokasi Kecamatan Pamona TimurNegara IndonesiaProvinsiSulawesi TengahKabupatenPosoPemerintahan • CamatRolex Taropo[1]Populasi • Total10,727 jiwa jiwaKode Kemendagri72.02.05 Kode BPS7204031 Luas701,95 km2Desa/kelurahan13 Pamona Timur adalah sebuah kecamatan di Kabupaten Poso, Sulawesi Tengah, Indonesia. Suku asli di daerah ini adalah suku Onda'e, salah satu sub-suku Pamona. Subsuku yang lain adalah suku Wingkendano, Lage, Pebato, Lamoe…
American politician (1929–2011) Marty MartínezMember of theU.S. House of Representativesfrom CaliforniaIn officeJuly 13, 1982 – January 3, 2001Preceded byGeorge E. DanielsonSucceeded byHilda SolisConstituency30th district (1982–93)31st district (1993–2001)Member of the California State Assemblyfrom the 59th districtIn officeDecember 1, 1980 - July 15, 1982Preceded byJack R. FentonSucceeded byCharles Calderon Personal detailsBorn(1929-02-14)February 14, 1929Walsenburg, Colorado,…
Untuk kurator museum Amerika (1852–1933), lihat Benjamin Ives Gilman. Ben Gilman Ketua Komite Dewan Hubungan InternasionalMasa jabatan3 Januari 1995 – 3 Januari 2001PendahuluLee H. HamiltonPenggantiHenry HydeAnggota Dewan Perwakilan ASdari New YorkMasa jabatan3 Januari 1973 – 3 Januari 2003PendahuluOgden ReidPenggantiJohn E. SweeneyDaerah pemilihanDistrik ke-26 (1973–1983)Distrik ke-22 (1983–1993)Distrik ke-20 (1993–2003)Anggota Majelis Negara Bagian New York dari d…
American politician (born 1948) Earl BlumenauerMember of the U.S. House of Representativesfrom Oregon's 3rd districtIncumbentAssumed office May 21, 1996Preceded byRon WydenPortland City CommissionerIn officeJanuary 5, 1987 – May 25, 1996Preceded byMildred SchwabSucceeded byErik StenMember of the Multnomah County Board of County CommissionersIn office1979–1987Member of the Oregon House of Representativesfrom the 11th districtIn officeJanuary 8, 1973 …
Human rights in Poland are enumerated in the second chapter of its Constitution, ratified in 1997. Poland is a party to several international agreements relevant to human rights, including the European Convention on Human Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Helsinki Accords, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Human rights in Poland are not al…