Tony Bennett, the eminent and timeless stylist whose devotion to classic American songs and knack for creating new standards such as 'I Left My Heart In San Francisco' graced a decadeslong career, died at 96.
Charles J. Gans, Associated PressBennett "passed away in his hometown of New York City" Friday morning, according to a statement from his publicist provided to ABC News.Tony Bennett, the eminent and timeless stylist whose devotion to classic American songs and knack for creating new standards such as "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" graced a decadeslong career that brought him admirers from Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga, died Friday.
"I enjoy entertaining the audience, making them forget their problems," he told The Associated Press in 2006. "I think people ... are touched if they hear something that's sincere and honest and maybe has a little sense of humor. ... I just like to make people feel good when I perform." For Bennett, one of the few performers to move easily between pop and jazz, such collaborations were part of his crusade to expose new audiences to what he called the Great American Songbook.
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. "They're all giants in the industry, and all of a sudden they're saying to me 'You're the master,'" Bennett told the AP in 2006.
He studied commercial art in high school, but had to drop out to help support his family. The teenager got a job as a copy boy for the AP, performed as a singing waiter and competed in amateur shows. A combat infantryman during World War II, he served as a librarian for the Armed Forces Network after the war and sang with an army big band in occupied Germany. His earliest recording is a 1946 air check from Armed Forces Radio of the blues "St. James Infirmary.
"He thought for a moment, then he said, 'We'll call you Tony Bennett,'" the singer wrote in his autobiography, "The Good Life," published in 1998. Bennett's early career peaked in the 1960s as he topped the charts with "San Francisco" and became the first male pop solo performer to headline at Carnegie Hall, releasing a live album of the 1962 concert.
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