Tony Bennett, revered singer whose career spanned 70 years, dies at 96
Tony Bennett, a singer who was among America’s last crooners in a career that spanned seven decades, has died, according to The Associated Press. He was 96.
Bennett died Friday, July 21, in New York, his publicist told The New York Times and the AP. A cause of death was not listed.
Born in Queens, New York, in 1926, Bennett developed a love for music while attending high school in Manhattan, drawing inspiration from Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong and James Durante.
Bennett was drafted and enlisted with the United States Army at the tail end of World War II. He described his three months fighting along the front lines in France and Germany as a “front-row seat in hell,” PBS reported.
He stayed in Europe after Germany surrendered, entertaining troops while singing with a Special Services band, Today reported. He got his break in 1950 after he had returned to New York, but he found out his stage name of Joe Bari was not going to cut it.
“I got a job on Bob Hope’s bill at the Paramount, and just before I’m going on, Hope tells me the name’s no good. Joe Bari’s no good,” Bennett wrote in his autobiography. “He asks what my real name is. I say Anthony Benedetto. That doesn’t do it for him either. So he goes out and says to the audience, ‘And here’s a new singer, Tony Bennett!’ He had to introduce me twice ’cause I didn’t know who he was talking about.”
Under the name Tony Bennett, the crooner became an American sensation in the 1950s. Recording big-band and showtune hits, Bennett sang three No. 1 hits in the early part of the decade — “Because of You,” “Cold, Cold Heart” and “Rags to Riches.”
His signature song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” was released in 1962 and became known as one of the most significant songs of the 20th century. It earned him his first career Grammy in 1962.
“The song always just gets a beautiful reaction, as even though it is so tied to San Francisco, the song itself is really about coming home again and I think that feeling is something everyone relates to and why it has been so popular,” he told The Mercury News in 2019. “Even when I travel overseas, everyone knows all the lyrics and many times people will tell me they decided to visit San Francisco just because of that song.”
Bennett won 19 Grammy Awards and was honored with the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.
But in the 20 years that followed that award, he continued to make music, tour and top the charts. He formed a singing relationship with pop superstar Lady Gaga, first collaborating in 2011 on the song “The Lady is a Tramp.”
He eventually made two albums with Gaga, 2014’s “Cheek to Cheek” and 2021’s “Love for Sale,” and the two toured together to sold-out crowds.
Gaga told Parade in 2014 that she was struggling in her career before she began collaborating with Bennett, and she credits him with revitalizing her passion.
“The other day, Tony said, ‘I’ve never once in my career not wanted to do this.’ It stung. Six months ago I didn’t feel that way,” Gaga said. “I tell Tony every day that he saved my life.”
In 2021, Bennett revealed he had been battling Alzheimer’s disease since 2016. He retired from performing in 2021 “following doctor’s orders,” NPR reported.
In addition to his career as a singer, Bennett was also known for his humanitarian and charitable efforts. He has been vital in raising money for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and American Cancer Society and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
In 1999, he and his wife founded the nonprofit Exploring the Arts, which aims to “transform the lives of young people through arts education.”
“Tony Bennett has somehow kept his unique voice, with its beauty and range, its strength and style, and still in perfect pitch,” Former President Bill Clinton once said of Bennett. “But as talented as he is, Tony’s most impressive quality is his giving spirit.”
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