Tony Bennett, American popular singer known for his smooth voice and interpretive abilities with songs in a variety of genres, has died at the age of 96 of Alzheimer’s Disease.
He was active in the music industry for over seven decades and has amassed many awards for his work, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
Bennett’s popularity spanned generations and in recent years he became a favorite with “Generation X” via his memorable appearance in 1993 on the MTV show Unplugged as well as his performances with younger stars like Lady Gaga and Amy Winehouse.
The album of this performance, MTV Unplugged (1994), earned two Grammy Awards and remained at the top of the jazz charts for 35 weeks.
Born in Astoria, Queens, as Anthony Dominick Benedetto on August 3, 1926, he was named an NEA Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree, and is the founder of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, New York. Bennett has sold more than 50 million records worldwide.
Bennett began singing at an early age. He fought in the final stages of World War II as a U.S. Army infantryman 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.
The last of the great “crooners,” Bennett was praised and admired by the greats of his profession,never more meaningfully than by what Sinatra said in a 1965 Life magazine interview: “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.”
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 of 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, which has become a classic, 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.
Tony Bennett had a great appreciation of his audience. “I enjoy entertaining the audience, making them forget their problems,” he told The Associated Press in 2006. “I think people … are touched if they hear something that’s sincere and honest and maybe has a little sense of humor. … I just like to make people feel good when I perform.”
In February 2021, it was revealed that Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016. 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. After a 7-year long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, Bennett passed away on the 21st July 2023.
