2023-07-21 20:11:12
Tony Bennett, the last ‘crooner’ and one of the great American voices, has passed away this Friday at the age of 96. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2016, five years later the artist left the stage forever. He did it by offering two concerts accompanied by Lady Gaga, with whom he would publish his latest studio album, ‘Love for Sale’. An excerpt from those recitals then went viral because Bennett had not recognized the New York artist for years – he always called her “heart” – and at those concerts, when Lady Gaga came on stage, Bennett said her name on the tables of Radio City Music Hall in New York, to the surprise of an emotional singer who screamed and broke into dance.
The memory failures had started much earlier, specifically in 2015. It was then that Bennett told his wife that he did not remember the names of the musicians who accompanied him on stage every day. They didn’t give it much importance, after all, he was already 90 years old, so they wrote them on a piece of paper that the artist always had at hand. A year later, the doctors confirmed the bad news. The most curious thing is that the disorientation in which he lived immersed in the last years of his life disappeared when the show began, as if a switch returned the Bennett of a lifetime for ninety minutes. “He’s not the old Tony anymore, although when he sings he’s still the old Tony,” explained his third wife, Susan Crow.
Of Italian origins, Anthony Benedetto was born in Astoria, a neighborhood in the district of Queens (New York), in 1926. He lost his father, a shopkeeper who supported five children, when he was only ten years old, and it was his mother who raised the family by sewing and sewing. Influenced by Mel Tormé, his admired Bing Crosby and jazz artists like Louis Armstrong, his uncle, a tap dancer, introduced him to show business. He must have liked him because he directed his education towards the arts at an institute where, in addition to music, he was fond of painting – three of his works are on display in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian. Benedetto trained as a singer at weddings and celebrations in the neighborhood until, when he just turned eighteen, he went to fight in Germany during World War II.
Upon his return to the United States, he continued acting until he was discovered by the actress and singer Pearl Bailey, for whom he would later open. In one of those recitals, the actor Bob Hope was so surprised that he took him on tour and gave him the gift of his life by suggesting that he change his name to Tony Bennett. After recording “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” his voice, with its perfect phrasing and magnetic swing, caught the attention of Columbia talent scouts, who made him a star during the 1950s and early 1960s. Hits like ‘Because of you’ or ‘Blue Velvet’ belong to that stage. His success was such that he gave seven concerts a day, had his own program on NBC, and the public did not turn his back on him when he approached more jazzy and difficult proposals with albums like ‘The Beat of My Heart’, recordings with the Count Basie orchestra or the adventures with pianist Bill Evans.
The decline
However, in the mid-sixties, with the arrival of The Beatles and the popularization of rock, its weight in the industry began to decline. His decision not to resort to pop hits, unlike singers like Pat Boone and Paul Anka, led to his recording silence for much of the ’70s and ’80s. By then Bennett was so hooked on cocaine that not even in his wildest dreams could he imagine the commercial resurrection he would star in in later years. His attempts to adapt to the rock currents in the 70s had ended in shipwreck: he always returned to the safe casinos of Las Vegas, where he had his natural audience. The ‘crooner’ not only narrowly escaped dying of an overdose: the Treasury was about to seize his home in Los Angeles.
Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, during a recital in Los Angeles. Reuters
The culprit that rose from the ashes was his son Danny, who had failed with his brother as a musician. Bennett began making major albums, appearing on television star shows, and duetting with artists who might be his grandchildren. After the death of his old friend Frank Sinatra in 1998, who came to describe him as “the best singer in the world”, he remained the last living star of classic ‘show business’, who in his process of adapting to the new times could criticize George W. Bush’s warmongering or talk about his drug problems.
It was precisely his son and representative who announced in 2021 that Bennett was retiring. “There will be no more concerts. It was a difficult decision for us, as it is in good condition,” he told ‘Variety’ at the time. 50 million records and 19 Grammys later, Columbia’s oldest artist with standards like ‘I Left My Heart In San Francisco’ and ‘The Shadow Of Your Smile’ said goodbye just a few days after filling Radio City Music Hall with Gaga. In 2014, with the album ‘Cheek to Cheek’, the singer joined the host of stars who have recorded duets with Bennett, including George Michael, Paul McCartney, Bono, Elton John, Diana Krall, Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Amy Winehouse, Gloria Estefan and… Miguel Bosé.
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