RIP Tony Bennett
He had a long run: 96 years. He kept singing to the end, although he gave up performing in 2021 due to slowly advancing Alzheimer’s.
From his Wiki page, I learned that Bennett was also a lifelong artist. You can see some of his paintings here. Another thing I learned was that Bennett served as an Army infantryman in the European theater during WWII.
His talent showed itself early:
He was the son of grocer John Benedetto and seamstress Anna (Suraci), and was the first member of his family to be born in a hospital. In 1906, John had emigrated from Podargoni, a rural eastern district of the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria. Anna had been born in the U.S. shortly after her parents also emigrated from the Calabria region in 1899…
By age 10 he was already singing, and performed at the opening of the Triborough Bridge, standing next to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia who patted him on the head. Drawing was another early passion of his; he became known as the class caricaturist at P.S. 141 and anticipated a career in commercial art. He began singing for money at age 13, performing as a singing waiter in several Italian restaurants around his native Queens.
Bennett attended New York’s School of Industrial Art where he studied painting and music and would later appreciate their emphasis on proper technique. But he dropped out at age 16 to help support his family. He worked as a copy boy and runner for the Associated Press in Manhattan and in several other low-skilled, low-paying jobs. However, he mostly set his sights on a professional singing career, returning to performing as a singing waiter, playing and winning amateur nights all around the city, and enjoying a successful engagement at a Paramus, New Jersey, nightclub.
Bennett’s career hit a low point during the heyday of the Beatles and other rock or pop groups, but it revived later on and he performed a great deal with new generations of artists.
His signature song, of course:
Seen elsewhere: “San Francisco died before he did.”
The loveliness of Paris seems somehow sadly gay
The glory that was Rome is of another day
I’ve been terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan
I’m going home to my city by the Bay
I left my heart in San Francisco
High on a hill, it calls to me
To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars
The morning fog may chill the air, I don’t care
My love waits there in San Francisco
Above the blue and windy sea
When I come home to you, San Francisco
Your golden sun will shine for me
When I come home to you, San Francisco
Your golden sun will shine for me
–“I Left My Heart In San Francisco”
______________________________
Yes, San Francisco and its residents chose poorly but … anyone who can’t understand the loss posed by its current deterioration is no friend of mine.
I know many will disparage it here, but his duet concert with Lady Gaga is quite good. He’s in great form, and she shows her wonderful ability to sing the standards. They way she flirts with him also shows her great respect for the man, and he enjoys it all.
Now the smart people are just singing “I Left San Francisco”.
I lived in the East Bay (east of San Francisco and Oakland) for 40 (adult) years, 1977-2017, so I “saw it all”. The first 20 years were good in terms of weather, sightseeing, CA travel, etc. But the roads (including Interstates) were pretty much ignored except for patching (and still are), and I left my job (retired) as a county reference librarian (1990-2003) due to increasing disrespect from my boss and “shunning” by my lockstep “progressive”/Berkeley-schooled “colleagues”. (Like being in jr. high with cliques.) Couldn’t wait to get out of CA. So when my son (who works remotely) announced in 6/16 that they were moving to TX, I thought for about 5 seconds and said “I’m going too”! It took me until 10/17 to get to TX, where newcomers say, “I wasn’t born in TX, but I got here as soon as I could.” 🙂
Saw him with my wife on Valentines Day 2013. He was excellent, finished with Fly Me to the Moon and brought the house down. At 86. Many years ago, my father was an accountant at Columbia Records, this was probably 1964, when Bennett came in to the office in Manhattan on some kind of business. Afterwards he took the regular guys out for a drink after work. It was one of the highlights of my father’s life.
San Francisco IS a great loss. Who was its mayor? Why, one Gavin Newsom, now governing the decaying state of California, who is likely to replace Biden as POTUS. Enjoy the decline if you can. I’m not sorry I’m old, but I fear for my kids and grandkids.
My wife and I saw him at the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa 5 years ago, and he was wonderful. I was teasing some of my younger colleagues at work the following Monday, telling them we’d seen this great act, a guy named Anthony Benedetto. They of course had no idea who I was talking about.
physicsguy: I can’t imagine disparagement. Lady Gaga clearly loved him, and they both loved their collaboration together.
Boy, this song sure hits me where I live. I was stationed at NAS Alameda, right across the bay from “The City,” from 1963 to 1968. At the time, San Francisco was a great place to dine, sightsee, and shop. My wife and I went there often.
When my squadron deployed to the Pacific theater knowing that we were going in harm’s way, we hoped we would return safely to the City by the Bay.
On those few occasions where my squadron would dine at the Subic Bay P.I. O’Club, someone would always ask the band to play that song. The band had an excellent vocalist who did the song justice. (Though not up Tony Bennett’s standard.) That far from home, the song was very meaningful to us.
The fate of San Francisco is something that’s hard to grasp. If you loved and enjoyed the city the way we did, it’s an outrage. Really an unforgivable sin.
Tony Bennett has been a long time favorite. I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing him in person, but his artistry has always been top notch for me. What a wonderful, full life he lived. We just don’t see many like him anymore. RIP.
You can feel his yearning to return to where he left his heart. Truly a singular talent with a unique timing in singing a song’s lyrics, most notably in the song, ‘The Shadow of Your Smile’ from the movie ‘The Sandpipers’.
“Frank Sinatra, whom Mr. Bennett counted as a mentor and friend, once put it another way. “For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business,” he told Life magazine in 1965. “He excites me when I watch him. He moves me.” NY Times
Here’s that rainy they told me about…
A beautiful song, beautifully sung!
@ Geoffrey > “You can feel his yearning to return to where he left his heart.”
The Welsh have a word for that: hiraeth.
It’s a combination of nostalgia, homesickness, and longing perfectly expressed in Bennett’s song about San Francisco.
Here’s a song on the subject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkqq64tSj10
“Hiraeth” : This word has no exact English equivalent. The nearest translation is a yearning or longing.
A song collected by J. Lloyd Williams. Published in: Davies, Grace Gwyneddon (1933) “Chwech o Alawon Gwerin Cymreig”, Cardiff. [Six Welsh Folk Songs]
Recorded by AR Log 1980 ( Album Ar Log 2)
Dwedwch fawrion o wybodaeth
O ba beth a gwnaethpwyd hiraeth
A pha ddefnydd a roedd ynddo
Na ddarfyddo wrth ei wisgo ?
Derfydd aur a derfydd arian
Derfydd melfed derfydd sidan
Derfydd pob dilledyn helaeth
Eto er hyn ni dderfydd hiraeth
Hiraeth mawr a hiraeth creulon
Hiraeth sydd yn torri ‘nghalon
Pan fwyf dryma’r nos yn cysgu
Fe ddaw hiraeth ac a’m deffry
(Hiraeth hiraeth cilia cilia
Paid a phwyso mor drwm arna’
Nesa dipyn at y erchwyn
Gad i mi gael cysgu gronyn)
English lyrics:
Tell me oh wise ones
Of what stuff is hiraeth made?
And what substance is put into it
That it never fades from being worn
Gold fades and silver fades
Velvet fades silk fades
Every sort of clothing fades
And yet hiraeth doesn’t fade
Great Hiraeth cruel hiraeth
Hiraeth tears at my heart
When I’m sleeping deeply at night
Hiraeth comes and wakes me
(Hiraeth hiraeth away away
Don’t weigh so heavily on me
Go a little nearer to the edge
Let me have a little bit of sleep)
***
The literal translation of the last line is “let me have a little grain of sleep”
My favorite of Tony’s: Who Can I Turn To
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0LSVIdsfvA
AesopFan,
German’s have a word, “heimweh.” I wonder if it’s also in Yiddish?
AesopFan
I am reminded of the Portuguese Saudade.
From Amalia Rogrigues, the late, great Portuguese singer of Fado, we have AMALIA RODRIGUES – FADO DA SAUDADE
Having lived a year in San Francisco and Berserkeley, I can understand the longing for a lost San Francisco.
Here is the story of a lost Venezuelan dealing with lefty San Francisco. Dealing with Chavista Propaganda in the Heart of San Francisco
An irony here is that Chavismo and Cuban/Caudillo/Fidelismo are great mutual supporters. Castro etc was/is the friend of Chvismo,and vice versa. Miami Cubans are the enemies of Castro/etc. One would think that the enemies of the friends of Chavismo- the Cubans in Miami- would be a welcome place for refugees from Chavismo. O hwell…