![]() ![]() Perfectly Frank (1992) – a tribute to his idol Sinatra – topped the US Billboard’s jazz charts, while 1994’s MTV Unplugged saw Bennett win a Grammy for album of the year. His 1986 comeback album, The Art of Excellence, was a hit from which he never looked back. Ditching the Las Vegas circuit for New York and reuniting with his early 60s pianist and musical director Ralph Sharon proved to be masterstrokes. The turning point in his life came when Bennett hired his son Danny to be his manager. Yet two albums recorded with pianist Bill Evans would be key to his later re-emergence as a central figure in US music. The following decade saw him face a number of personal problems, including the end of his second marriage and serious drug addiction. The song won Bennett two Grammy awards and became a 20th-century pop standard.īennett’s style, however, was already looking outdated as the British invasion swept the US charts, and he struggled for relevance during the 1960s. In 1962 he reached superstar status thanks to his version of the 1953 song I Left My Heart in San Francisco. Tony Bennett's most memorable duets – video obituary ![]() Bennett became a teen idol, and when he married his first wife, Patricia Beech, in 1952, 2,000 female fans dressed in black to “mourn” the event outside the New York ceremony. ![]() The hits continued throughout the decade with songs such as Blue Velvet, Rags to Riches and material that looked towards the swinging sound of his childhood hero Frank Sinatra. His breakthrough came in 1951 with his first No 1, Because of You. “It’s legalised murder,” he said during a 2013 Guardian interview.īut he continued to sing while in Germany as part of the occupying force, and in 1949, after returning home, his singing career could begin properly, first under the name Joe Bari and then as Tony Bennett. As a teenager he became a singing waiter, earning money for the family before enrolling to study music and painting at New York’s School of Industrial Art.īennett was drafted into the US army in 1944 to fight in France and Germany during the final year of the second world war. His father died when he was 10 years old, although he was already singing professionally by that point. Photograph: APīorn Anthony Dominick Benedetto in 1926 to Italian immigrants, Bennett had an impoverished upbringing in Queens, New York. Tony Bennett is mobbed by fans in October 1951. Kind, loving, talented and generous, he never let us down.” Nancy Sinatra was among the artists paying tribute, saying: “Tony was one of the most splendid people who ever lived. Tony’s eternal voice, charm, warmth, soul, & spirit changed the world & brightened the lives of millions.” His former label Columbia marked his death by saying: “He will forever be a cornerstone of our history & the Columbia Records family. It was a No 1 record in the US and made Bennett the oldest living act to reach the top spot, a record he already held thanks to his 2011 album Duets II. He proved his relevance in 2014 by collaborating with Lady Gaga on the album Cheek to Cheek, which saw the pair tackle a series of jazz standards. He wrote on Twitter: “Life is a gift – even with Alzheimer’s.” It was revealed that while his cognitive function was impaired, he was still able to sing a whole range of his repertoire.īennett’s ability to perform across the genres of pop, big band and jazz won him plaudits and a conveyor belt of willing collaborators. In 2020, it was announced that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2016. ![]()
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