He was 96 years old. A difficult life amidst war and precarious jobs. Then success, which lasted a lifetime. Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga
Photo: Larry Busaka/Getty Images for NARAS
Tony Bennett has passed away, the singer who was able to reinvent himself and was appreciated and loved even by the latest generations. He was 96 years old. His press office confirms this. The cause of death was not specified, but in 2016 the singer was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, followed by memory loss.
Bennett became one of America’s most popular singers in the years immediately following Frank Sinatra’s first hit. Throughout his career, he has helped bring jazz into the mainstream through collaborations with major artists such as Count Basie.
He has won 18 Grammys in his remarkable eighty-year career, including his special album of the year. mtv unplugged from 1994 which included collaborations with Elvis Costello and KD Lange. he even won a grammy for it cheek to cheekHis 2014 collaboration with Lady Gaga, and their duets have become history: Paul McCartney, Elton John, Dixie Chicks, Sting, Bono, John Legend, Billy Joel.
Born Anthony Dominic Benedetto on August 3, 1926, in Queens, New York, Bennett attended the High School of Industrial Arts in New York. He dropped out of school to help support his family during the Depression, eventually finding work as a waiter and singer. Enlisted in the United States Army in 1944 in the final stages of World War II, he found himself able to dig holes and avoid German bullets. “We sometimes heard the Germans whispering to each other,” he wrote in his 2016 memoir. just getting started, co-written with Scott Simon. “I’m sure they could hear us too… We just wanted to get through the night alive. We woke up when those huge, loud shells exploded and we heard screams.” His battalion helped liberate a concentration camp near the infamous Dachau, Germany.
In the military, he also had his first harrowing encounter with racial prejudice: separate mess halls for black and white soldiers. After having dinner with a fellow soldier – a black friend from high school – Bennett was demoted from corporal to private and reassigned to a lower rank. He wrote in his memoir, “It was another remarkable example of the degree of prejudice that prevailed in the military during World War II.” the good life,
Returning from the war, he began singing in New York clubs and gradually achieved great success. is their first single because of you Since 1951. his most famous song is poignant i left my heart in san franciscoWritten by George Corrie and Douglas Cross and originally the B-side of the single Once upon a time,
But even in old age, his career never stopped: in March 2011, Bennett recorded a duet with Amy Winehouse, body and soul, for the second duet album. Four months later, Amy died. “Of all the young actors I have met in the current scenario in the last 10 or 15 years, he is truly the best. He is a true jazz artist. I wanted to talk to him about drugs, but unfortunately I never got the chance to talk to him the way I wanted to.”
In 2014, Bennett, now a senior pop politician, teamed up with devoted fan Gaga for the first of two collaborations, cheek to cheek, The pairing seemed unusual, but Gaga’s love of the American Songbook made it a great deal: The album won a Grammy Award.
Bennett, who lived in New York City, was also an avid painter. In the following years, he recorded a duet album with Diana Krall (love is here to stay) and recently finished a second album with Gaga, which will be released in 2021. He is survived by his third wife, Susan, whom he met in 1985 and married in 2007.