{"id":1979406,"date":"2023-07-21T11:19:05","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T15:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/legendary-crooner-tony-bennett-dies-at-age-96\/"},"modified":"2023-07-21T11:21:05","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T15:21:05","slug":"legendary-crooner-tony-bennett-dies-at-age-96","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/legendary-crooner-tony-bennett-dies-at-age-96\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Bennett, iconic singer, passes away at 96."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flegendary-crooner-tony-bennett-dies-at-age-96%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1979406&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Tony Bennett: A Legendary Crooner<\/h2>\n<p>Tony\u2064 Bennett, the eminent and timeless stylist whose\u200d devotion to classic American songs and \u200cknack\u200b for creating new standards such as \u201cI Left \u200bMy Heart In San Francisco\u201d graced a decadeslong career that brought \u2064him admirers from Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga, died Friday. He was 96, just two weeks short of his birthday.<\/p>\n<p>Publicist Sylvia Weiner confirmed Bennett\u2019s death to \u2062The Associated Press, saying he died in his hometown \u200dof New York.<\/p>\n<p>There was no specific cause, but Bennett had been diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>The last of the great saloon singers of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nbc-poll-shows-gop-becoming-party-of-blue-collar-workers\/\" title=\"NBC Poll Shows GOP Becoming Party Of Blue-Collar Workers\">mid-20th century<\/a>, Bennett often \u200csaid his lifelong ambition was to\u2063 create \u201ca hit catalog rather than hit records.\u201d He released more than 70 \u2063albums, bringing him 19 competitive Grammys \u2014\u2063 all but two after he reached his 60s \u2014 and \u200cenjoyed deep and lasting affection from fans and fellow artists.<\/p>\n<p>Bennett didn\u2019t tell his own story when performing;\u200c he let \u2064the music speak instead \u200b\u2014 the Gershwins and Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike \u2062his \u2062friend and mentor Sinatra, he would interpret a song rather than embody it. If his singing and public life lacked the high drama of Sinatra\u2019s, Bennett appealed with an easy, courtly manner and an uncommonly rich and durable voice \u2014 \u201cA tenor who sings like a baritone,\u201d he \u2063called himself \u2014 that made him a master\u2064 of caressing a ballad or brightening an\u200d up-tempo number.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI enjoy entertaining the audience, making them forget their problems,\u201d he told The Associated Press\u200b in 2006. \u201cI think people \u2026 are touched \u2064if they hear\u2063 something\u2063 that\u2019s sincere and honest and maybe has a little sense of humor. \u2026 I just like to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/speaking-truth-to-power-magazine-reveals-how-journos-are-rooting-for-wh-press-secretary-jen-psaki\/\" title=\"Speaking Truth to Power: Magazine Reveals How Journos Are \u2018Rooting\u2019 for WH Press Secretary Jen Psaki\">make people feel good<\/a> \u2063when I perform.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Sinatra&#8217;s Praise<\/h3>\n<p>Bennett was praised \u200coften by his peers, but never more meaningfully than by what Sinatra said in a\u200c 1965 Life magazine interview: \u201cFor my\u200c money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. \u2062He excites me when I watch him. He moves me.\u2064 He\u2019s the singer \u200cwho gets across what the \u200dcomposer has in mind, and\u2062 probably a little more.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He not\u2062 only\u200c survived the rise of rock music but endured so long and so well that he gained new fans and collaborators, some young enough to be his grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p>In 2014, at \u200bage \u206488, Bennett broke his own record as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/legendary-singer-tony-bennett-dead-at-96\/\" title=\"Tony Bennett, iconic singer, passes away at 96.\">oldest living performer<\/a> with a No. 1 album\u200c on \u200dthe Billboard 200 chart for\u200b \u201cCheek to Cheek,\u201d his duets project with \u200dLady Gaga.<\/p>\n<p>Three years earlier, he topped the charts with \u201cDuets II,\u201d featuring such contemporary stars\u2063 as Gaga, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/carrie-underwood-enrages-leftists-apparent-opposition-mask-mandates-kids\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Carrie Underwood<\/a> and Amy Winehouse, in her last studio recording. His rapport with Winehouse was captured in the Oscar-nominated documentary \u201cAmy,\u201d\u200b which showed Bennett patiently encouraging the insecure young singer through a performance\u2063 of \u201cBody and Soul.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-embed\">\n<\/div>\n<p>His final album, the\u200c 2021 release \u201cLove for Sale,\u201d\u200d featured duets with\u200b Lady Gaga on the title track, \u201cNight and Day\u201d and other\u200d Porter songs.<\/p>\n<p>For Bennett,\u200b one of the few performers to move easily \u2063between pop and jazz, such collaborations were part of his crusade to expose new audiences\u200d to what he called the Great American Songbook.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo\u2063 country has given\u2064 the world such great music,\u201d\u200d Bennett said in a 2015 interview with \u2064Downbeat Magazine. \u201cCole Porter, Irving \u200cBerlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern. Those songs will never die.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, his\u2064 most famous contribution came through two unknowns, George Cory and Douglass Cross, who in the early \u201960s provided Bennett with his signature song\u200c at a time his career was in a lull. \u2063They gave Bennett\u2019s musical director, pianist Ralph Sharon, some sheet music that he stuck in \u2063a dresser drawer and forgot about until he was packing for a tour that included a stop\u200d in San Francisco.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRalph saw some sheet music in his \u2062shirt drawer \u2026 and on top of the pile was a song called \u2018I Left My Heart In San Francisco.\u2019 Ralph thought it would be good material for San Francisco,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cWe were rehearsing and the bartender in the club in Little Rock, Arkansas, said, \u2018If you record that song,\u200d I\u2019m going to\u2063 be the first to buy it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Released in 1962 as the B-side of the single \u201cOnce Upon a Time,\u201d the reflective ballad became a grassroots phenomenon\u200c staying on the charts for more than two years and earning Bennett his first two Grammys, including\u200d record of the year.<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-embed\">\n<\/div>\n<p>By his early 40s, he was seemingly out of fashion. But\u2062 after turning 60, an age when even the most popular artists often settle for just pleasing their\u200c older fans, Bennett and his\u200b son and manager, Danny,\u200b found creative ways to market the singer to the MTV\u2063 Generation.<\/p>\n<p>He made \u200dguest appearances on \u201cLate\u200d Night with David Letterman\u201d and became \u2063a celebrity\u200b guest artist on \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/watch-simpsons-ran-trans-killing-joke-today-canceled-within-hour\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Simpsons<\/a>.\u201d \u200bHe wore a black T-shirt and sunglasses as a presenter with the Red Hot Chili Peppers\u2063 at the 1993 MTV Music Video Awards, and \u200dhis own video \u2063of \u201cSteppin\u2019 Out With My Baby\u201d\u2063 from his Grammy-winning Fred Astaire tribute album ended up on MTV\u2019s hip \u201cBuzz Bin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That led to an offer in 1994 \u200dto do an episode of \u201cMTV Unplugged\u201d with special guests Elvis \u200bCostello and k.d. lang. The \u200cevening\u2019s performance resulted in the album, \u201cTony Bennett: MTV Unplugged,\u201d which won two Grammys, including album of the year.<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-embed\">\n<\/div>\n<p>Bennett would win Grammys for his tributes to female vocalists (\u201cHere\u2019s to the Ladies\u201d), Billie Holiday\u2062 (\u201cTony Bennett on Holiday\u201d), and Duke Ellington (\u201cBennett Sings Ellington\u2064 \u2014 Hot &#038; Cool\u201d). He also won Grammys for his collaborations with other singers: \u201cPlayin\u2019 With My Friends \u2014 Bennett Sings the Blues,\u201d and his Louis Armstrong tribute, \u201cA Wonderful World\u201d with lang, the first full album he had ever \u200crecorded with another singer.<\/p>\n<p>He celebrated his 80th birthday with \u201cDuets: An American Classic,\u201d featuring Barbra Streisand, Paul McCartney and \u2064Stevie Wonder among others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re all \u200dgiants in the industry, and all of a sudden they\u2019re \u2062saying to me \u2018You\u2019re the master,\u2019\u201d Bennett told the AP in 2006.<\/p>\n<p>Long associated with \u2064San Francisco, Bennett would\u2064 note that his\u2062 true home was\u2063 Astoria, the working-class community in the New \u2063York City \u200bborough of Queens, where he grew up during the Great Depression. The singer \u2063chose his old neighborhood as the site for the \u200b\u201cFame\u201d-style public high school, the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, that he and\u2063 his\u2062 third wife, Susan Crow Benedetto, a\u2063 former teacher, helped found in 2001.<\/p>\n<p>The school is not far from the birthplace of the man who was once Anthony Dominick \u200bBenedetto. His father was an\u2064 Italian immigrant who inspired his love of singing, but he died when Anthony was 10. Bennett credited his\u200d mother, Anna, with teaching him a\u2062 valuable lesson\u200c as he watched her\u200c working at home, supporting her three \u2063children as a seamstress doing piecework after his father died.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were very impoverished,\u201d Bennett said in a 2016 \u2064AP interview. \u201cI saw her working and every once\u2063 in a while she\u2019d take a dress and throw\u200b it over her \u200bshoulder and she\u2019d say, \u2018Don\u2019t \u2064have me work on a bad dress. I\u2019ll only work on good dresses.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He studied commercial art in high school, but had to drop out to help support his family. The \u2062teenager got a job as a copy boy\u200d for the AP, performed as a\u200b singing waiter and competed in amateur shows.<\/p>\n<p>A combat infantryman during World War II, he served as\u2064 a\u2063 librarian\u2062 for the Armed Forces Network\u200b after the war and \u200bsang with an army big band in occupied Germany. \u200dHis earliest recording is a 1946 air check from Armed \u200dForces Radio of the blues \u201cSt. James Infirmary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bennett took advantage of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/ilhan-omar-pushes-gi-bill-covers-everyone-veteran-sets-straight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GI \u200cBill<\/a> to attend\u2062 the American Theater Wing, which later\u2064 became The Actors\u200b Studio. His acting lessons helped him develop his phrasing and learn how to tell\u2063 a story. He learned \u2062the more \u2063intimate Bel Canto vocal technique which helped him sustain and extend the expressive range of his voice. And \u200bhe took to heart the advice of his vocal coach, Miriam Spier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe said please don\u2019t imitate \u200bother singers because you\u2019ll just be one of the chorus whoever you imitate whether it\u2019s Bing\u2063 Crosby \u200bor Frank Sinatra and won\u2019t develop an original \u200csound,\u201d Bennett recalled in the 2006 AP interview. \u201cShe said imitate musicians that \u2064you like, find out how they phrase. \u200bI was particularly influenced \u200bby the jazz musicians like (pianist) Art Tatum and (saxophonists) Lester Young and Stan Getz.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 1947, Bennett made \u2063his\u200d first recording, the Gershwins\u2019 standard \u201cFascinatin\u2019 Rhythm\u201d \u2062for a small label under the\u2064 stage name Joe Bari. The following year he gained notice when he finished behind Rosemary Clooney on the radio show \u201cArthur Godfrey\u2019s Talent Scouts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bennett\u2019s big break came in 1949 when \u200bsinger Pearl Bailey invited \u200dhim \u2062to join her revue\u200c at a Greenwich Village club. Bob Hope dropped by one night and was so impressed that he offered the young singer a spot opening his shows at the famed Paramount Theater, where teens had swooned for\u200c Sinatra.\u200b But the comedian didn\u2019t\u200d care for his stage name and thought his real name was too long for the marquee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe thought for a moment, then he said, \u2018We\u2019ll call you Tony Bennett,\u2019\u201d the\u200d singer wrote in his autobiography, \u201cThe \u200dGood Life,\u201d published in \u200d1998.<\/p>\n<p>In \u20621950, \u2062Mitch Miller, the head of Columbia Records\u2019 pop singles division, signed \u200cBennett and released the single, \u201cThe Boulevard of Broken Dreams,\u201d\u200b a semi-hit. Bennett was on the verge of being\u2063 dropped from the label in 1951 when he had his first No. 1 on the pop charts with \u201cBecause \u2062of You.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More hits followed, including \u201cRags to Riches,\u201d \u201cBlue Velvet,\u201d and Hank Williams\u2019 \u201cCold, Cold \u2064Heart,\u201d the first\u2062 country song to become an\u2064 international pop hit.<\/p>\n<p>Bennett found himself frequently clashing \u200dwith\u200d Miller, who pushed him to sing Sinatra-style ballads\u2062 and gimmicky novelty songs. But Bennett took advantage of the young LP\u2064 album format, starting in 1955 with \u201cCloud 7,\u201d\u200d featuring\u2063 a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/legendary-crooner-tony-bennett-dies-at-age-96\/\" title=\"Tony Bennett, iconic singer, passes away at 96.\">small jazz combo\u2062 led<\/a> by guitarist Chuck Wayne.<\/p>\n<p>Bennett\u200d reached out to the jazz audience with such innovative albums as the 1957 \u201cThe Beat of\u2063 My Heart,\u201d an album of standards that paired him with such jazz percussion \u2062masters as \u200cChico Hamilton, and Art Blakey.<\/p>\n<p>He also became the first white male singer to\u2062 record with the \u2063Count Basie Orchestra, releasing two albums in 1958. Sinatra would later do the same.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic\">The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press \u2062story prior to publication. Therefore,\u2062 it may contain editorial bias\u2062 or may in some other way \u2064not\u200d meet our normal editorial\u2064 standards. \u2062It is provided to our readers as \u200ca service from The Western Journal.<\/p>\n<p>The\u200c post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/legendary-crooner-tony-bennett-dies-age-96\/\">Legendary Crooner Tony Bennett Dies at Age 96<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\">The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tony Bennett, the iconic singer known for his love of American classics and ability to craft new standards like &#8220;I Left My Heart In San Francisco,&#8221; passed away at 96. His remarkable career spanned decades, earning him fans from Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga. He died just two weeks before his birthday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":1979407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1979406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1979406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1979407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1979406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1979406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1979406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}