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Artist News Obituaries
Tony Bennett’s son and manager pays tribute
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 25 July 2023
Tony Bennett’s son and long-time manager D’Andrea ‘Danny’ Bennett has spoken to People magazine following his father’s death last week.
“Tony, my father, imbued the essence of the American dream”, the younger Bennett said in a People article that was published yesterday. “He taught us all that remarkable opportunities will reveal themselves and that anything is possible when you stick by your passion, believe in yourself and dedicate your life to quality”.
“He was an artist, a humanitarian and an inspiration to anyone who experienced his elegance and grace”, Danny went on. “He and I experienced an amazing journey together as father and son, and I’m simply proud and humble to have been a small part of his legacy”.
Bennett’s death was announced on Friday by his publicist Sylvia Weiner in a statement to the Associated Press. No cause of death was confirmed, although the 96 year old had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.
A subsequent statement on the musician’s Twitter page said: “Tony left us today but he was still singing the other day at his piano and his last song was ‘Because Of You’, his first number one hit. Tony, because of you we have your songs in our heart forever”.
Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto in New York in 1926, Bennett first began performing as a singing waiter in his early teens, before enrolling to study music and painting at New York’s School Of Industrial Art.
After a stint in the US army towards the end of World War Two, he returned to America and continued pursuing a career as a singer. Having signed with Columbia Records, his big break came in 1951 with his recording of the aforementioned ‘Because Of You’, which spent ten weeks at number one.
Further hits then followed throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, including his version of ‘I Left My Heart In San Francisco’ in 1962. But, as the 1960s progressed, the kind of pop and jazz music that Bennett was famous for started to fall out of favour. He also faced a number of challenges in his personal life, including divorces and drug addiction.
However – after appointing Danny to handle his business affairs in 1979 – Bennett started to enjoy new success in the 1980s and 1990s, with albums like 1986’s ‘The Art Of Excellence’, his 1992 tribute to Frank Sinatra ‘Perfectly Frank’ and 1994’s ‘MTV Unplugged’.
He also collaborated with many other artists along the way – including KD Lang, Amy Winehouse, Queen Latifah, Diana Krall and Lady Gaga – with some of those collaborations helping Bennett build a profile among younger music fans in the latter part of his career.
The albums that followed his 1980s revival – like those at the start of his career – were released by Sony Music’s Columbia Records. The current boss of Sony Music, Rob Stringer, was among the many people paying tribute to Bennett over the weekend.
He said: “There are few people in life who could surpass the achievements of the legendary artist Tony Bennett. His biography reads like an inspiring and principled socio-cultural history of nearly a century. His artistry in recording and performing will be admired forever. Everyone at Sony Music worldwide loved him and we are now honoured to represent his legacy”.
