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Tony Bennett was born on August 3, 1926 in Astoria, New York. There is no one, anywhere, quite like him. His rags to riches story is also a tale of the good life, the generous embodiment of American music at its sweetest and its best. Frank Sinatra once praised him as "the best singer in the business." From San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel to New York's Carnegie Hall, from Pearl Bailey's Greenwich Village show to the MTV Music Video Awards, holding the stage in style on his own or alongside everyone from Bill Evans and Count Basie to Elvis Costello and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The sheer breadth of his long career is dazzling. Here is an artist who enjoyed his first singing gig at the age of 10, on stage with New York's legendary Mayor Fiorello La Guardia at the 1936 opening of the Triborough Bridge. After six decades, many gold and platinum records, and 10 Grammys including a Lifetime Achievement Award, Tony Bennett scored an unprecedented hit with his own MTV "Unplugged." "Tony Bennett has not bridged the generation gap," enthused The New York Times, "he has demolished it." His artistry continually reveals the timeless gifts of the Great American Songbook; not only the brightest gems of Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, and Irving Berlin, but also "Because of You," "Rags to Riches," "Stranger in Paradise," "I've Got The World on a String," "The Best Is Yet to Come," "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," "The Good Life," "Steppin' Out" and a treasure of other unforgettable songs make up a growing legacy that so far includes more than 50 million albums sold. With his husky, warm and easy tenor, with his always surprising jazzy phrasing and his pitch-perfect sense of emotional truth, the man makes music matter. "I'm very spoiled," confessed Bennett, "I never sing songs I don't like." He was born Anthony Dominick Benedetto and attended the High School of Industrial Arts in Manhattan, where he was able to follow his twin loves of painting and music. He worked as a singing waiter, and later sang with military bands. Turning 18, he enlisted in the army and served in combat in France and Germany. He later sang with the American Forces Network Orchestra and studied music in Heidelberg University. Back home after the war, thanks to the G.I. Bill, he studied voice at the American Theatre Wing. Singing came easy. He had grown up listening to and admiring Crosby, Cole, Garland, Sinatra--and he knew how a song should be sung. A string of jobs led to a break opening for Pearl Bailey in Greenwich Village in 1949. Bob Hope came one night, liked the kid and asked him to sing in his show at the Paramount. At the time, Tony was billed as Joe Bari, a name Hope did not care for. "I told him my name was Anthony Dominick Benedetto," recalled the singer years later, "and Bob said, 'We'll call you Tony Bennett.'" |
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 In 1950, he cut a demo album that brought him to the attention of Mitch Miller and Columbia Records. In 1951 Tony Bennett had his first hit, "Because of You." It soared to the top of the pop charts and stayed there for 10 weeks. "Cold, Cold Heart," "Rags to Riches," and Stranger in Paradise," all chart-toppers, saw Bennett weather the dawn of the rock and roll revolution in the 1950s, staying in the Billboard Top 40 and branching out into television with his own variety show in 1956. PAGE: 1 | 2 |
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