Tony Bennett: World-famous crooner's indomitable spirit is gone but not forgotten

Tony Bennett: World-famous crooner's indomitable spirit is gone but not forgotten

Tony Bennett has died aged 96.

Bennett, who had Alzheimer's disease for the last seven years of his life, enjoyed a decades-long career and duets with stars including Frank Sinatra and Lady Gaga.

Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto in 1926 in Long Island City, Queens, to say he came from humble beginnings would almost be an understatement. His father, a grocer, died when he was 10, leaving his mother, a seamstress, to make dresses for a living during the Great Depression.

Music and art came naturally to a young Bennett. At the age of five, he began drawing chalk pictures on the pavements of his home town in Astoria, and by aged 10 he had started signing, having performed at the opening of the Triborough Bridge.

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  Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney performed regularly during the early episodes of the CBS TV music show, Songs for Sale, in the 1950s. Getty Images

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  Tony Bennett, right, at a music studio with jazz drummers Candido Camero, Art Blakey and a bassist, in 1957. Getty Images

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  Tony Bennett and a group of chorus girls during a rehearsal for the Royal Variety Show in London, the UK, in November 1965. Getty Images

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  Tony Bennett performing live on stage in 1965. Getty Images

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  Tony Bennett with his mother in New York in December 1968. Getty Images

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  Tony Bennett alongside dancing girls who appeared in his show at the London Palladium in October 1970. Getty Images

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  American jazz musician Louis Armstrong with a portrait of himself which was drawn by Tony Bennett. They are at the Savoy Hotel, London, in October 1970. Getty Images

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  Tony Bennett autographs a copy of his LP Get Happy with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for a fan in London, February 1972. Getty Images

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  Tony Bennett with his wife Sandra and their daughter Joanna at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub in Fleet Street, London, in January 1972. Getty Images

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  Diana Ross and Tony Bennett at the premiere of the film Lady Sings the Blues in London, April 1973. Getty Images

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  Tony Bennett holding one of his paintings, which he created under the name Anthony Benedetto, in November 1977. Getty Images

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  Tony Bennett autographs a record in Stockholm in 1988. AFP

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  Tony Bennett and comedienne Carol Burnett after he won an Emmy Award in September 1996. Reuters

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  Tony Bennett and daughters Joanna, left, and Antonia, right, before the 39th Grammy Awards in New York, February 1997. Reuters

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  From left, British singer Charlotte Church, Tony Bennett, former US President George W Bush and Reba McEntire at the National Building Museum in Washington, December 2001. Reuters

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  From left, Tony Bennett, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise and Patti LaBelle at a press conference before the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway, in December 2004. Reuters

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  Tony Bennett and Stevie Wonder accept the Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for For Once In My Life at the Grammy Awards in February 2007. Reuters

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  Tony Bennet at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in April 2007. Getty Images

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  Tony Bennett and Christina Aguilera at the Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, in September 2007. Reuters

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  From left, rapper LL Cool J, Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas, Jennifer Lopez and Tony Bennett at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California, in December 2007. Reuters

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  Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse attend at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in July 2010. Getty Images

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  Tony Bennett with fans before Game 1 of Major League Baseball's World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers in San Francisco, October 2010. Reuters

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  Tony Bennett and the parents of the late Amy Winehouse, Mitch and Janis Winehouse, accept the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance in Los Angeles, February 2012. AFP

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  Tony Bennett and his wife Susan Crow arrive for the Kennedy Centre Honours in Washington, December 2013. Bennett was one of the 2005 Kennedy Centre honourees. Reuters

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  Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga perform at Radio City Music in New York, August 2021. Getty Images

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  Diana Krall and Tony Bennett arrive at the 61st Grammy Awards, February 2019. Reuters

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  Tony Bennett arrives for Tony Bennett Celebrates 90: The Best Is Yet to Come at the Radio City Music Hall, New York, in September 2016. Reuters

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  Tony Bennett before an opening of his art exhibition in New York, in May 2017. Reuters

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  Lady Gaga performs Do I Love You from her album Love for Sale with Tony Bennett. An image of the two singers is displayed above at the Grammy Awards, April 2022. Reuters

When he turned 18, he was drafted into the army during the Second World War, an experience that led to him to despise violence. “Fighting is the lowest form of human behaviour,” he wrote in his memoir The Good Life. “It’s amazing to me that with all the great teachers of literature and art, and all the contributions that have been made on this very precious planet, we still haven’t evolved a more humane approach to the way we work out our conflicts.”

After his discharge from the army and return to the US in 1946, Bennett would perform under the stage name Joe Bari. He got his first big break in 1949 when singer Pearl Bailey asked him to be the opening act for her show in Greenwich Village. Comedian and actor Bob Hope, who was there that evening, discovered him while he was performing under the stage name Joe Bari. It was Hope who shortened his given name to Tony Bennett, as it was more memorable, and the rest, as they say, is history.

In 1950, Bennett signed to Columbia Records, and by 1951, he had released his first major hit, a pop-jazz number called Because of You, which reached No 1 in the Billboard Best Selling Pop Singles chart and stayed there for eight weeks.

In the years that followed, his natural talent, husky baritone vocals and charisma led to his spectacular rise. Whether it was because of his rendition of Cold, Cold Heart, a recording to Blue Velvet or his Rags to Riches, Bennett became a household name.

It did help that he had amassed some pretty big fans along the way. In a 1965 interview with Life magazine, Frank Sinatra said: “For my money, Tony Bennett’s the best in the business," a quote Bennett attributed to his rise in popularity.

“He [Sinatra] was 10 years older than I was and he was my idol, and when he announced that I was his favourite singer, it made all of his fans come and check me out," Bennett said in an interview with the Guardian in 2013. "I've been sold out ever since.”

In 1962, he did a rendition of I Left My Heart in San Francisco, which would go on to become his signature song. But Bennett also suffered through some lows. The 1970s brought with them a lull, as rock 'n' roll took over other music genres resulting in Bennett parting ways with Columbia Records. It led to a time of financial instability for the artist, and he became addicted to drugs.

But if there was one thing that set Bennett aside, it was his ability to bounce back. By 1986, recognising that he needed help, Bennett signed up his son Danny as his manager. Thus began his revival. He resigned to Columbia and shot back into the limelight with music that stuck to his jazz roots.

He became popular with younger audiences, and his 1994 album MTV Unplugged reached platinum record status in the US and in 1995, won Bennett Grammy Awards for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance and Album of the Year.

He will also be fondly remembered by millennials and Gen Z as the musician who became Lady Gaga’s role model, releasing the album Cheek to Cheek – another Grammy Award-winning album.

He also collaborated with major younger artists. Lady Gaga makes an appearance on the 2011 album Duets II, on which Bennett sang with a host of celebrities including John Mayer, Michael Buble, Norah Jones, Carrie Underwood and Amy Winehouse.

The album won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album that year, while Bennet and Amy Winehouse won the Grammy for Best pop duo. The album also earned Bennett, the 85, the title of oldest living musician to debut at No 1 on the Billboard 200.

Age was certainly not a deterrent for the musician who released 60 albums, won 19 Grammys plus one Lifetime Achievement Award and sold 50 million records worldwide throughout his career.

Bennett worked with Lady Gaga again, releasing the collaborative album Cheek to Cheek in 2014.

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga perform live at Radio City Music Hall on August 5, 2021 in New York City. Getty Images for LN

Even after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in 2016 (it was only announced to the public in 2021), Bennett continued to make music and perform.

In fact, in the years after the diagnosis, Bennett worked with Lady Gaga once more on a follow-up album, Love for Sale, which was released in 2021.

Gaga, who was aware of his condition at the time of recording the album, called the project “just another gift he can give to the world”.

He is survived by his wife Susan Crow and four children.