Tony Bennett
Jazz and pop vocalist, painter, activist
Born: August 3, 1926, in Queens, New York
Died: July 21, 2023, in New York City
New Jersey Hall of Fame, Class of 2011: Arts & Entertainment
One of the most enduring stars in American entertainment, Tony Bennett touched the hearts of multiple generations and won global accolades during an eight-decade career. His admirers ranged from Frank Sinatra to Elvis Costello.
The son of an immigrant grocer and a seamstress mother, the future star was born Anthony Domenick Benedetto. Bennett’s father died when he was 10, leaving Bennett’s mother to raise her three children in poverty.
Bennett had an early love for music. By age 13, he was already earning money as a singing waiter at Italian restaurants around his Astoria, Queens, neighborhood. He studied music and painting at New York’s School of Industrial Art, but dropped out at 16 to help support his family. He worked odd jobs and continued singing at night. His amateur-night appearances led to an engagement at a nightclub in Paramus, New Jersey.
At 18, Bennett was drafted into the U.S. Army and experienced combat as an infantryman in France and Germany during the final months of World War II. Returning home, he studied singing at the American Theatre Wing under the GI Bill. Eager to restart his career as a vocalist, Bennett made several recordings and began appearing in clubs around New York under the name Joe Bari.
Bennett’s break came in 1949, when he landed a gig opening for the singer Pearl Bailey at a nightclub in Greenwich Village. One night, the entertainer Bob Hope came to the show. Impressed, Hope invited Bennett to open for him at the Paramount Theater—provided he drop the Joe Bari moniker. Anthony Benedetto didn’t cut it either, so Hope dubbed him Tony Bennett.
In 1950, Bennett signed with Columbia Records and his career began to take off. Within a year, he enjoyed his first No. 1 single, the string-laden ballad “Because of You.” As the decade unfolded, Bennett became increasingly popular as an interpreter of the Great American Songbook. He began touring, played Las Vegas, made numerous TV appearances, and revealed his jazzier side on several recordings with the Count Basie Orchestra.
Bennett’s career hit its first peak in 1961 when he recorded the sentimental pop tune “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” and introduced it live at a show in the titular city by the bay. The recording, which showcased Bennett’s vocal warmth and impeccable phrasing, was a huge global hit and earned Bennett his first two Grammy Awards, including record of the year. It would become the New Yorker’s signature song—one he never tired of performing.
By the mid-1960s, musical tastes were changing, but Bennett stuck to his guns. Resisting the rock ‘n’ roll bandwagon, he continued in the jazz-and-standards vein. Finally, by the end of the decade, he agreed to cut an album of contemporary hits, including several Beatles tunes—an artistically messy decision he long regretted.
Still, Bennett was not immune to the changing times. During the 1960s, he used his fame to back social causes, most notably performing in 1965 in support of the Civil Rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama, at the behest of Harry Belafonte.
The 1970s were a low point for Bennett. He made several critically acclaimed recordings with the pianist Bill Evans, but for the most part his music seemed out of step with the times. By the end of the decade he had developed a drug habit and was in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service.
In the 1980s and ’90s, Bennett resurrected his career with the help of his sons Danny, who became his manager, and Dae, who captured much of his father’s music in his recording studio in Englewood, New Jersey. (Both sons grew up in a home Bennett purchased in Englewood.) With Danny’s guidance, Bennett made a huge leap across the generation gap, guesting regularly on youth-oriented TV shows and ultimately appearing in 1994 on “MTV Unplugged.” But even while he was rubbing musical elbows with rappers and rockers, Bennett continued to favor the standards of Cole Porter and George Gershwin.
In 2006, Bennett celebrated his 80th birthday with a duets album that paired him with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Bono, Tim McGraw, and Elton John. The tunes were all standards and the album was a hit and a Grammy-winner. He reprised the duets concept in 2011, this time including younger generation stars Lady Gaga, John Mayer and Amy Winehouse. The album debuted at No. 1 in Billboard and went on to win three Grammys.
Bennett’s late-career recordings and performances with Lady Gaga were the final triumphs of his unique journey. In August 2021, he played his final pair of shows at Radio City Music Hall with Lady Gaga in celebration of his 95th birthday. Although his singing voice never left him, he was too frail to continue performing.
In addition to his extraordinary singing career, Bennett also achieved success as a painter. His work has been exhibited in galleries around the world and is on display in several major museums.
All told, Bennett sold more than 50 million records; won 15 Grammy awards; and was named an NEA Jazz master and Kennedy Center Honoree, among other accolades. He also has been honored for his lifelong and often outspoken support of social causes.