Tony Bennett, the singing legend best known for the classics “I Left My Heart in San Francisco†and “Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me),†died at age 96 on July 21, his publicist, Sylvia Weiner, confirmed to AP News. The prolific vocalist won 19 Grammys during his career, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto in Long Island City, he was the youngest of two siblings growing up during the Great Depression. He was drafted into World War II during the final stages of the war; he helped liberate a Nazi concentration camp, and the experience resulted in his decision to become a pacifist. After the war, he met Bob Hope in New York City in 1949; Hope took him on tour and gave him the stage name Tony Bennett. His albums The Beat of My Heart and Basie Swings, Bennett Sings in the 1950s redefined nightclub jazz. Bennett’s signature song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,†was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2017.
After a cocaine overdose in 1979, Bennett enlisted his son for a career comeback. Danny Bennett helped introduce his father to young audiences in the 1990s, scoring him appearances on Late Night With Conan O’Brien, The Simpsons, and MTV Unplugged. Bennett went on to collaborate with such artists as Amy Winehouse, John Mayer, James Taylor, and John Legend for his Duets series, Duets: An American Classic and Duets II, for which he earned his first No. 1 album on the “Billboard 200†at age 85. He further bridged the gap between generations with his Lady Gaga duet record, Cheek to Cheek, in 2015. Bennett performed one last concert before he announced his retirement due to his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2021, joining Gaga in One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga.
As a pacifist, Bennett marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama, during the civil-rights era. He performed for 11 U.S. presidents, and in 2005, he was named a Kennedy Center honoree for his contributions to American culture. In the early 2000s, Bennett founded Exploring the Arts (ETA) with his wife, Susan Benedetto, a former public-school teacher. It’s a program to restore the arts in American classrooms nationwide. Along with his wife, he is survived by four children and four grandchildren.