At 18, he was drafted into the Army and sent to Europe as an infantryman in the final months of World War II. When he came home, he studied singing on the GI Bill.
The rest is history. “Because of You.” “Rags to Riches.” And in 1962, the song that became his signature, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”
Decades later, Tony found an unlikely singing partner: Lady Gaga. Their first album of standards together, “Cheek to Cheek,” came out in 2014. Next, they decided, would come a whole album of Cole Porter songs.
But in 2016, a doctor gave Tony hard news. He had Alzheimer’s disease.
His family kept it private, and Tony kept working. Between 2018 and 2020, he and Gaga recorded the album “Love for Sale.” Even as the disease took his memory, his son Danny said Tony never missed a line. Once the music started, it was all still there.
In August 2021, the two sang together at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The first night was Tony’s 95th birthday. Those two shows turned out to be his last concerts.
That fall, “Love for Sale” came out. It made Tony, at 95, the oldest person ever to release an album of new material, and it won a Grammy.
In this video, you can see them in the studio singing Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” Just look at his face.
What is your favorite Tony Bennett song? Tell us in the comments.
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