Everything about Tony Bennett totally explained
Tony Bennett (born
Anthony Dominick Benedetto;
August 3 1926) is an
American singer of
popular music,
standards and
jazz. After having achieved artistic and commercial success in the
1950s and early
1960s, his career suffered an extended downturn during the height of the
rock music era. Bennett staged a comeback, however, in the late
1980s and
1990s, expanding his audience to a younger generation while keeping his musical style intact. He remains a popular and critically praised recording artist and concert performer in the
2000s.
Bennett is also a serious and accomplished
painter.
Early life
Anthony Benedetto was born in
Astoria,
Queens,
New York City, the son of Ann (
née Suraci) and John Benedetto. His father was a
grocer who had emigrated from
Podàrgoni, a rural eastern district of the
southern Italian city of
Reggio Calabria, and his mother was a
seamstress. John Benedetto died when Anthony was 10 years old.
Drawing and
caricatures were also an early passion of his.
World War II and after
His singing career was interrupted when Benedetto was drafted into the
United States Army in 1944 during
World War II. Subsequently, he sang with the
Army military band under the stage name
Joe Bari, and played with many musicians who would have post-war careers.
Upon his discharge from the Army and return to the States in 1946, he studied at the
American Theater Wing on the
GI Bill. He made a few recordings as Bari in 1949 for small
Leslie Records, but they failed to sell.
In 1949,
Pearl Bailey spotted his talent and asked him to open for her in
Greenwich Village. (who was just then leaving Columbia), Bennett began his career as a
crooner singing
commercial pop tunes. His first big hit was "
Because of You", a ballad produced by Miller with a lush orchestral arrangement from
Percy Faith. It started out gaining popularity on
jukeboxes, then reached #1 on the pop charts in 1951 and stayed there for 10 weeks, selling over a million copies. and elsewhere.
On
February 12,
1952, Bennett married Ohio art student and jazz fan Patricia Beech, whom he'd met the previous year after a nightclub performance in
Cleveland. Bennett and Beech would have two sons, D'Andrea (Danny) and Daegal (Dae).
A third #1 came in 1953 with "
Rags to Riches." Unlike Bennett's other early hits, this was an up-tempo
big band number with a bold,
brassy sound and a double
tango in the instrumental break; it topped the charts for eight weeks.
In 1956, Bennett hosted the
television variety show The Tony Bennett Show as a summer replacement for
The Perry Como Show.
A growing artistry
In 1954, the guitarist
Chuck Wayne became Bennett's
musical director. In 1955, Bennett released his first long-playing album,
Cloud 7, which showed Bennett's jazz leanings and was billed as
featuring Wayne. In 1957,
Ralph Sharon became Bennett's
pianist and musical director, replacing Wayne. Sharon told Bennett that a career singing "sweet saccharine songs like 'Blue Velvet'" wouldn't last long, and encouraged Bennett to focus even more on his jazz inclinations.
The next year brought
The Beatles and the
British Invasion, and with them still more musical and cultural attention to rock and less to pop, standards, and jazz. Over the next couple of years Bennett had minor hits with several albums and singles based on
show tunes – his last top 40 single was the #34 "
If I Ruled the World" from
Pickwick in 1965 Years later he'd continue this commitment by refusing to perform in
apartheid South Africa.
Years later Bennett would recall his dismay at being asked to do contemporary material, comparing it to when his mother was forced to produce a cheap dress. By 1972, he'd departed Columbia for
MGM Records, but found no more success there, and in a couple more years he was without a recording contract. He had (like many musicians) developed a
drug addiction, was living beyond his means, and had the
Internal Revenue Service trying to seize his
Los Angeles home.
The new audience reached its height with Bennett's appearance in 1994 on
MTV Unplugged. Featuring guest appearances by rock and country stars
Elvis Costello and
k.d. lang (both of whom had a profound respect for the standards genre), the show attracted a considerable audience and much media attention. The resulting album went
platinum and, besides taking the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Grammy award for the third straight year, also won the top Grammy prize of
Album of the Year. At age 68, Tony Bennett had come all the way back.
No retirement
Since then Bennett has continued to record and tour steadily, doing up to 200 shows a year. He followed up his childhood interest with serious training, work, and museum visits throughout his life. He sketches or paints every day, even of views out of hotel windows when he's on tour. Painting under his real name of
Benedetto, he's exhibited his work in numerous galleries and has been commissioned by the
Kentucky Derby and the
United Nations. In April
2002, he joined
Michael Jackson,
Chris Tucker and former President
Bill Clinton in a fundraiser for the
Democratic National Committee at
New York's
Apollo Theater.
In the late 1980s, Bennett entered into a long-term romantic relationship with
Susan Crow (born c. 1960), a former New York City
schoolteacher.
Danny Bennett continues to be Tony's manager while Dae Bennett is a
recording engineer who has worked on a number of Tony's projects and who has opened Bennett Studios in
Englewood, New Jersey. Tony's younger daughter Antonia is an aspiring jazz singer.
Discography
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tony Bennett'.
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