Tony Bennett, the crooner who charmed fans with power of his rich voice

For a man who started as a singing waiter and went on to become an icon enjoying unparalleled global success, Tony Bennett's legacy as one of the most influential entertainers of all time is unquestioned.

Bennett, who died on July 21 at 96, was the quintessential crooner who relied purely on the power of his rich voice to charm audiences for eight decades with music that transcended genres, from traditional pop to jazz.

His popularity endured, from the easy-listening 1950s, defied the onslaught of 1960s and 70s rock, enjoyed a resurgence from the 1980s and connected to a whole new generation from the 90s.

In a glittering career, he won 20 Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, two Emmy Awards, sold over 50 million records worldwide and sang for every American President from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama.

In 2021, at 95 years and 60 days, he officially became the oldest person to release an album of new material, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

The influence of Bennett transcended music, as he became a champion of social and civil rights.

The segregation targeted at African American singers like Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington, who were denied admission to concert halls and hotels in the 1950s, angered him.

“I had never been politically inclined, but these things went beyond politics,” he wrote in his 1998 autobiography The Good Life.

“Nate and Duke were geniuses, brilliant human beings who gave the world some of the most beautiful music it's ever heard, and yet they were treated like second-class citizens. The whole situation enraged me.”

In 1945, as a 19-year-old US Army corporal serving during World War II in Germany, he invited an old high school friend to Thanksgiving dinner at the army’s dining hall.

As they walked in through the door, they were stopped by a superior officer who cut the stripes off Bennett’s uniform and demoted him to a private. His crime was bringing a black soldier into a dining area for whites only.

When fellow star and activist, Harry Belafonte asked Bennett to join the protest marches led by Dr Martin Luther King to demand black voting rights in 1965, he didn’t hesitate.

On the night of March 24, 1965, Belafonte, Bennett along with Nina Simone, Sammy Davis Jr, Mahalia Jackson, Joan Baez, and other stars, performed on a makeshift stage to inspire a crowd of 25,000 people to continue the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

In a letter to Bennett dated April 5 1965, Dr King wrote: “Your talent and goodwill were not only heard by those thousands of ears but were felt in those thousands of hearts, and I give my deepest thanks and appreciation to you.”

The son of Italian immigrants, Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born on August 3, 1926, in Queens, New York City.

He developed a love for music at a young age and by 13 was a singing waiter in Italian restaurants in the Queens borough.

Upon the end of his service during World War II, he returned to the US and eventually got a chance to go on the road with comedian and actor Bob Hope. It was Hope who shortened his stage name to Tony Bennett.

Bennett’s first number-one single was the ballad Because of You, which topped the US charts for 10 weeks in 1951 selling more than a million copies, followed that same year by Cold Cold Heart, then Rags to Riches and Stranger in Paradise, both in 1953. He gained a reputation as a ladies’ man and during his wedding in 1952, 2,000 girls in black veils turned up at the event to mourn the “sad news”.

In 1962, Bennett released I Left My Heart in San Francisco, which became his signature song earning him his first two Grammys.

The 1970s was a turbulent decade as personal challenges took a toll with divorce, cocaine addiction and a debt of millions of dollars owed to the taxman.

He cleaned up his act in the mid-1980s and returned to the charts with the Art of Excellence in 1986. He started connecting with younger audiences by performing on the US college circuit and appearing on top TV shows like Late Night with David Letterman and was the first celebrity to appear as a version of themselves on The Simpsons.

In the 2000s, he recorded collaborations with Paul McCartney, Christina Aguilera, Barbara Streisand, Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga.

Bennett officially retired from performing at concerts in August 2021, nine days after his 95th birthday.

“We’re all such a small speck in the face of the universe,” he said. “Every single person on this planet is important and should be respected equally.”

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