When Tony Bennett died July 21 in his hometown of New York on the age of 96, the world misplaced one of many final nice interpreters of the American Songbook. Billboard has 32 years on Tony — though we will solely want we had such unflagging class and charisma — and now we have to confess that we greeted the crooner with a “Chilly, Chilly Coronary heart” when he debuted in 1951. However we rapidly got here to understand the way in which he flew us to the moon.
‘Cry’-ing Disgrace
When 24-year-old Anthony Dominick Benedetto rebranded himself as Tony Bennett and debuted on Columbia Information, Billboard didn’t precisely guess on the “Rags to Riches” singer. The Might 12, 1951, concern referred to as “I Gained’t Cry Anymore” a “competent etching” and dismissed “Due to You” as an “satisfactory” track “with nothing particular to supply.” By the point the latter monitor topped Billboard’s pre-Sizzling 100 pop chart, Bennett’s performances routinely “stunned the bobby-sox crowd,” based on the Sept. 29, 1951, concern. Hey, we’re a commerce publication — not Nostradamus.
Golden Gate, Golden Pipes
Over the following decade, as Bennett delivered a sequence of era-defining hits, Billboard was full steam forward on the Tony practice. “Ol’ professional Tony leaves ’em gasping,” raved a Dec. 8, 1962, evaluate of a Carnegie Corridor live performance. “Tony, like a artful veteran pitcher in baseball, grew stronger because the night time grew longer.”
Saving Face
An in-depth interview within the Nov. 30, 1968, concern discovered the crooner getting candid: “The development within the music enterprise was transferring away from me,” he stated. “I held out and eventually I discovered [‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco’] and had my first hit file after a protracted dry spell.” Bennett additionally stated he had caught to his weapons when Hollywood referred to as, revealing that one studio floated a “contract that referred to as for transforming his nostril.” His reply? “I favored my nostril then, and I prefer it in the present day.” His praises had been additionally sung by a refrain of all-star supporters, together with Duke Ellington, Bob Hope and even jazz pioneer Louis Armstrong. “If Tony Bennett who swing sings splendidly can’t ship you,” Armstrong stated, “there’s a psychiatrist proper up the road from you. DIG him.”
Plugged In to the Subsequent Technology
“Bennett continues his reign because the crooning alternative of Technology X,” reported the July 2, 1994, Billboard within the wake of his hit MTV Unplugged album, asking, “What’s going to Grandma do to insurgent? Begin shopping for White Zombie CDs?” Bennett’s cross-generational attraction didn’t wane over the following 20 years. “Tony Bennett achieves his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with Duets II, making the 85-year-old the oldest residing artist to achieve No. 1,” reported the Oct. 8, 2011, concern. Three years later, Bennett beat his personal file when he returned to No. 1 on the Oct. 11, 2014, chart at age 88 with Cheek to Cheek, his album with Girl Gaga. The file nonetheless stands.
The Good Life
“I really feel on high of the world,” Bennett informed Billboard in an Aug. 11, 2016, interview. “I’m singing properly. The viewers loves what I’m doing. All I can inform you is I’ve a blessed life.”
This text initially appeared within the Aug. 26, 2023 concern of Billboard.
