““A front row seat to hell,” is how Bennett described his march through France and Germany as a front-line soldier in World War II.” It just shows you, when people love one another, how many things really work out.” “It was sad not to have a father, and very confusing. “It was different,” he said of his childhood after his father’s death during the Great Depression. The children moved to Astoria Queens with their mother, who continued mending dresses, charging a penny per dress. Bennett was nine years old when his father died at the age of 41. was forced to sell his grocery store, and the Benedetto family fell into poverty. Shortly before their father became ill and succumbed to heart disease, John Sr. Tony shared a flat above his father’s grocery store with his parents and an older brother and sister-John Jr. 3, 1926, to John Benedetto Sr., a grocer, who emigrated from Reggio Calabria, Italy, and Anna Suraci Benedetto, an American-born Italian seamstress. So, I put my energy on interpreting the music-American music-and trying to do what the composer has in mind.”Īnthony Dominick Benedetto was born in New York City on Aug. And, I’d hate to match my talent against theirs when it comes to the craftsmanship of writing the songs. That’s very ambitious, but there’s only a few Charlie Chaplins around, and there’s only a few Cole Porters around. “Today, we’re kind of bent on the fact that popular musicians should also compose their own songs. “To me, there’s a great minimization of interpreters, but to me interpreters make songs live-Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole-they interpreted,” he explained. He didn’t buy into the pressure or critical requirement to be a singer/songwriter. “I like to cut straight on interpretation,” he said in a 1982 interview. Time and again, he called himself an interpreter. ![]() There is no mystery around what kind of singer Tony Bennett was. What a high level of popular music! As long as we’re existing on this planet, our songs will become more and more amplified.” They know Cole Porter’s ‘Night and Day.’” To him, “These are not old songs, they’re great songs, and I also think of them as America’s folk songs. No matter where I go in the world-France, any foreign country-if I sing ‘Dancing in the Dark’ by Arthur Schwartz, everybody knows that song. I go to places as far off as Japan, Manila, Australia. ![]() They are the greatest ambassadors of the United States for the United States. “I’m in love with the music that they wrote, but they contributed to the United States. The composers of the 1930s were a continuous wellspring for his interpretations in a career that spanned over seventy years. But, I love the music of Gershwin, Harold Arlen, and Irving Berlin, Arthur Schwartz.” This is what I do-I’m very influenced by the jazz artists. I’m an Italian, of Italian descent, and I sing Black and Jewish music. I’ve had some wonderful teachers, very bright and very with it. “In New York City, the schooling you get is usually from a Black teacher or a Jewish teacher, and in my life, I’ve gotten to love the teachers I had. “I’m from New York City,” he explained in a 1983 interview. charts (he also set the record for the longest lapse between top 20 albums in the U.K).Ī true musical patriot, Bennett delved deep into America’s melting pot of song. In 2014, he and Lady Gaga recorded Cheek to Cheek, an album released when Bennett was 88 years old, making him the oldest person to ever top the U.S. ![]() That wasn't his only time at the Guinness rodeo. Long enough, in fact, to get him into the Guinness Book of World Records just for longevity alone: “longest time between the release of an original recording and a re-recording of the same single by the same artist.” Almost 69 years passed before he revisited George and Ira Gershwin’s 1924 standard “Fascinating Rhythm.” Bennett originally recorded the song in 1949 and again in 2018 with Diana Krall. Tony Bennett’s voice made people smile for a very long time. But what you were likely to think, and what the singer wanted you to think, was, what a great song. Listening to him sing, you might not think, what a great artist. He had all the things they do teach too, the phrasing and pitch and timing, but he never flaunted those skills. There was a contagious joy in his voice, and a kind of enviable contentment, things they don’t teach in music school. Everyone loved Tony Bennett for the same reason he loved Louis Armstrong: “The minute you heard him, just the first two bars, everyone started smiling.
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