![]() The evening’s performance resulted in the album, “Tony Bennett: MTV Unplugged,” which won two Grammys, including album of the year.īennett would win Grammys for his tributes to female vocalists (“Here’s to the Ladies”), Billie Holiday (“Tony Bennett on Holiday”), and Duke Ellington (“Bennett Sings Ellington - Hot & Cool”). That led to an offer in 1994 to do an episode of “MTV Unplugged” with special guests Elvis Costello and k.d. He made guest appearances on “Late Night with David Letterman” and became a celebrity guest artist on “The Simpsons.” He wore a black T-shirt and sunglasses as a presenter with the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the 1993 MTV Music Video Awards, and his own video of “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” from his Grammy-winning Fred Astaire tribute album ended up on MTV’s hip “Buzz Bin.” But after turning 60, an age when even the most popular artists often settle for just pleasing their older fans, Bennett and his son and manager, Danny, found creative ways to market the singer to the MTV Generation. Released in 1962 as the B-side of the single “Once Upon a Time,” the reflective ballad became a grassroots phenomenon staying on the charts for more than two years and earning Bennett his first two Grammys, including record of the year.īy his early 40s, he was seemingly out of fashion. “We were rehearsing and the bartender in the club in Little Rock, Arkansas, said, ‘If you record that song, I’m going to be the first to buy it.’” “Ralph saw some sheet music in his shirt drawer … and on top of the pile was a song called ‘I Left My Heart In San Francisco.’ Ralph thought it would be good material for San Francisco,” Bennett said. They gave Bennett’s musical director, pianist Ralph Sharon, some sheet music that he stuck in a dresser drawer and forgot about until he was packing for a tour that included a stop in San Francisco. Ironically, his most famous contribution came through two unknowns, George Cory and Douglass Cross, who in the early ’60s provided Bennett with his signature song at a time his career was in a lull. His rapport with Winehouse was captured in the Oscar-nominated documentary “Amy,” which showed Bennett patiently encouraging the insecure young singer through a performance of “Body and Soul.” Three years earlier, he topped the charts with “Duets II,” featuring such contemporary stars as Gaga, Carrie Underwood and Amy Winehouse, in her last studio recording. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart for “Cheek to Cheek,” his duets project with Lady Gaga. In 2014, at age 88, Bennett broke his own record as the oldest living performer with a No. ![]() He not only 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. He’s the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more.” … I just like to make people feel good when I perform.”īennett was praised often by his peers, but never more meaningfully than by what Sinatra said in a 1965 Life magazine interview: “For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. “I think people … are touched if they hear something that’s sincere and honest and maybe has a little sense of humor. ![]() “I enjoy entertaining the audience, making them forget their problems,” he told The Associated Press in 2006. If his singing and public life lacked the high drama of Sinatra’s, Bennett appealed with an easy, courtly manner and an uncommonly rich and durable voice - “A tenor who sings like a baritone,” he called himself - that made him a master of caressing a ballad or brightening an up-tempo number. ![]() Unlike his friend and mentor Sinatra, he would interpret a song rather than embody it. The last of the great saloon singers of the mid-20th century, Bennett often said his lifelong ambition was to create “a hit catalog rather than hit records.” He released more than 70 albums, bringing him 19 competitive Grammys - all but two after he reached his 60s - and enjoyed deep and lasting affection from fans and fellow artists.īennett didn’t tell his own story when performing he let the music speak instead - the Gershwins and Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern. ![]()
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