Bennett died Friday morning in New York City, according to a representative for the singer. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2016, but his condition didn't stop him from occasionally performing live or releasing new music. He reached the Billboard Top 10 at age 95 in 2021 thanks to his second duet album with Lady Gaga, Love For Sale, and celebrated his retirement the same year with two touching nights at Radio City Music Hall.
Bennett hit the scene as a suave crooner in the 1950s and quickly established himself as one of radio's most popular hit-makers. He was a showman, with an intimate nightclub sensibility. He wore that persona everywhere. It was like his tailored suits: age appropriate, yet timelessly cool.
For more than 70 years, Tony Bennett didn’t just sing the classics – he himself was an American classic. Resisting the pull to adjust his style to fit in with the times, his distinct voice gave melody and rhythm about the good life, how the best is yet to come, the way you look tonight, and leaving your heart in San Francisco. Starting out as a singing waiter in New York City, he became one of America’s most beloved performers, selling tens of millions of records and winning over generations of fans. He always found new audiences and collaborators to enchant – the mark of a truly timeless artist.
Closer listening to Bennett’s smoky baritone revealed a different story. His performances often sounded like thanksgivings – for the breaks he’d had, and for his conviction that the good in the world outstripped the bad. This curiously worldly innocence was at the core of his enduring appeal. Bennett’s records (including Because of You and a version of the country singer Hank Williams’s Cold, Cold Heart) topped the charts in 1951 before the arrival of rock’n’roll. His most celebrated later hits included his signature song, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, The Good Life (both 1962) and Who Can I Turn To? (1964). Bennett won 19 Grammy awards and was estimated to have sold more than 50m records worldwide.
Both of Bennett’s parents worked—his mother as a seamstress and his father as a grocer—until his father became seriously ill and died when Bennett was 10 years old, plunging the family into poverty. He attended the High School of Industrial Art in Manhattan, but dropped out to support his family by working in restaurants and saloons, putting his musical talents to use.
Being alive, for Tony Bennett, meant following his passions, which included not only music, but painting landscapes and portraits — signed "Antonio Benedetto."
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