Tony Bennett

Posted October 9, 2008, 5:16 pm


Tony Bennett
Born: August 3, 1926

Silky-voiced crooner. Bennett's career began in the 1950s, but since the mid-1990s, his swinging renditions of American popular standards have enjoyed a newfound popularity. His new audience reached its height with Bennett's appearance in 1994 (at age 68) on MTV Unplugged. Bennett is also an accomplished painter, creating works under his birth name, Anthony Benedetto.

After the Age of Seventy

• Continues to continued to record and tour steadily, doing up to 200 shows a year
• At age 71 (1997), inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame
• At age 72 (1998), published The Good Life: The Autobiography of Tony Bennett
  
• At age 75 (2001),  awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
  
• At age 76 (2002), received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.
• At age 79 (2005), was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor.
  
• At age 80 (2006), won two Grammy awards for his album Duets: An American Classic
• At age 80 (2006), starred in an NBC concert special—directed by Oscar winner Rob Marshall and written by Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Wright—that won seven Emmy awards.
• At age 80 (2006), guest-starred on American Idol
• At age 80 (2006), guest-starred on Saturday Night Live

Quotes

• “My favorite song is "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" because it's become my signature song. I sang it for six American presidents and five command performances... it's made me a world citizen.”
• “We're in an era where the demand is for immediate hits that are destined to become obsolescent. Six months later, everyone forgets the artist and the tune. It's become like a con job. Producers, engineers, lawyers and accountants all make money, but the artists don't.”
• To work is to feel alive.
  
• I have a simple life. I mean, you just give me a drum roll, they announce my name, and I come out and sing. In my job I have a contract that says I'm a singer. So I sing.
  

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