He was born Anthony Benedetto, but Bob Hope told him that was too long to fit on a marquee and renamed him Tony Bennett. In his 96 years he was known and befriended by a century’s worth of notable musicians and show-biz figures, from Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga. He died Friday, several years after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Bennett had hits throughout the 1950s, first as a crooner and later as a jazz singer, but he soared to stardom in 1963, when he won two Grammy Awards for “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” His career declined as rock came to dominate the charts, but he made a comeback in the ’80s as younger generations began to discover the Great American Songbook and appreciate his jazz-inflected renditions.
His New York Times obituary noted that he didn’t have the greatest set of pipes – back in 1962 their reviewer at Bennett’s breakthrough Carnegie Hall concert wrote, “The voice that is the basic tool of Mr. Bennett’s trade is small, thin and somewhat hoarse, but he uses it shrewdly and with a skillful lack of pretension.”
Frank Sinatra was more generous in his assessment a few years later. “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.”
Bennett’s comeback never really waned. In recent years he made albums that paired him with singers young enough to be his grandchildren, including two LPs with Lady Gaga. This one was on the second, “Love For Sale,” released in 2021.
