Legendary American singer Tony Bennett dies at the age of 96

New York:

Tony Bennett, the latest in a generation of classic American crooners whose ceaselessly cheerful spirit spanned generations to make him a seven-decade hitmaker, died in New York on Friday. He turned 96.

Growing up in an era when big bands defined American pop music, Bennett achieved an unlikely second act when he began to win over young audiences in the 1990s — not by reinventing himself, but by showing his sheer joy in propagating the norms.

And then, at age 88, in 2014 Bennett became the oldest person ever to reach number one on the US album sales chart through a collection of duets with Lady Gaga – who became his friend and tour mate, but just one of a long list of younger stars rushing to work with the singing great.

Bennett’s publicist, Sylvia Weiner, announced his death.

Compared to Frank Sinatra since the start of his career, Bennett first tried to distance himself, but eventually followed much the same path as other crooners of old – singing in nightclubs, on television and for movies, though his attempts at acting soon ended.

His gift turned out to be his stage presence.

With a welcoming smile and smart suit, he sang with verve and smooth vibrato in a strong, clearly pronounced voice, which he kept in shape by training from the operatic Bel Canto tradition.

Beginning with his recording of the movie song “Because of You” in 1951, Bennett sang dozens of hits, including “Rags to Riches,” “Stranger in Paradise,” and, in what would become his signature tune, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” earning him two of the 19 Grammy Awards of his career.

But the British invasion led by The Beatles initially took its toll on the singer, whose music suddenly sounded strange and old-fashioned. He nearly died of a cocaine overdose in 1979 before sobering up and eventually reviving his career.

“When rap came on, or disco, whatever the new fashion was at the time, I wasn’t trying to find something that fit the style of the whole music scene,” Bennett told British culture magazine Clash.

“I just stayed myself and sang honestly and just tried to be honest with myself – never compromise, just do the best songs I could think of for the audience.

“And luckily it paid off.”

– Singing like tough youth –

Tony Bennett – his stage name came after advice from showbiz A-lister Bob Hope – was born Anthony Dominick Benedetto in the Astoria neighborhood of New York’s Queens borough.

His father was a struggling grocer who emigrated from the Calabria region of southern Italy, where his mother also traced her ancestry.

Showing early promise as an entertainer, he sang alongside legendary New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia at the age of nine when he ceremoniously opened the Triborough Bridge, now known as the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge.

But his father’s death at age 10, at a time when the United States was still struggling to emerge from the Great Depression, prompted him to drop out of school and earn money by singing in Italian restaurants and painting caricatures, among other things, which remained a lifelong side career.

During World War II, Bennett was drafted into the 63rd Infantry Division and sent to France and Germany. But he was demoted after berating a Southern officer who objected to Bennett dining with an African-American friend in the then racially segregated military.

As punishment, Bennett spent his time digging up bodies and shipping them. But after the Allied victory, Bennett found an unexpected breakthrough in music while waiting with his fellow troops in Wiesbaden, Germany to return home.

While the city’s opera house was still intact, a US Army band performed a weekly show that was broadcast on military radio across Germany. Bennett was hired as the band’s librarian and soon made an impact with his voice, becoming one of four vocalists.

“During this period in the army, I enjoyed the most musical freedom I ever had in my life,” Bennett later wrote in his autobiography, “The Good Life.”

“I could sing all I wanted, and no one was there to tell me otherwise,” he wrote.

– Speaking out against racism and war –

When he returned to the United States, he took formal singing lessons through the GI Bill, which covered education costs for returning troops.

His experiences made Bennett a lifelong liberal. He was particularly enraged in the 1950s when he played in Miami with jazz pioneer Duke Ellington, who was barred from attending a press party due to segregation at the hotel.

In a then risky move for a popular entertainer, he accepted an invitation from singer Harry Belafonte to join civil rights icon Martin Luther King in the 1965 march from Selma, Alabama in support of equal voting rights for African Americans.

He later wrote in his memoirs that the hostility of the white state troopers reminded him of Nazi Germany.

He was also an outspoken opponent of war, sometimes causing controversy.

“The first time I saw a dead German, I became a pacifist,” he told popular radio host Howard Stern days after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

– Late in life, still cool –

Bennett was married three times and had four children, including Antonia Bennett, who has followed his path as a singer of pop and jazz standards.

But his son Danny Bennett played the most important role in his father’s career, aggressively courting MTV and other players in the pop world as a manager for his father.

By the early 1990s, Bennett—his style and appearance had changed little from the 1960s, save for more gray hair—appeared in music videos on MTV and sang warm-up at concerts by alternative rock giants such as Smashing Pumpkins and Porno for Pyros.

Proof that Bennett was back came in 1993 when he presented an award at the MTV Video Music Awards alongside the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who praised his cool factor and playfully sang part of “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

His career continued to grow and ten years later he released three successful albums of duets. On one, “Body and Soul,” he sang with Amy Winehouse in her last recording before she died in 2011 at age 27.

He celebrated his 90th birthday with a star-studded concert at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, which was turned into a television special and album.

The title is taken from a song popularized by Bennett: “The Best Is Yet to Come.”

Bennett toured the United States and Europe in his last decade, playing his last public performance before the coronavirus pandemic halted touring in New Jersey on March 11, 2020.

Soon after, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016. He had kept his condition quiet for years.

When he turned 95, Bennett played two more birthday concerts, again at Radio City Music Hall, with Lady Gaga—shows billed as his farewell to New York.

He subsequently canceled the rest of his 2021 tour dates on “doctor’s orders”.

“And let the music play as long as there’s a song to sing / And I’ll stay younger than spring,” he sang on the first of his farewell shows, in a rendition of his ballad “This Is All I Ask.”

“You were a good audience,” Bennett said before his encore. “I love this audience.”

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