67 Fun Facts About Tony Bennett

The Broadway and Hollywood standards Bennett sang all his life are known as the Great American what?

Songbook is the word: he resisted pressure to trade those standards for passing fashions, and in the 1990s a generation raised on rock embraced him exactly as he was.

In which New York City borough was Tony Bennett born?

Queens was home: he grew up poor in Astoria, the son of a grocer who died when he was ten, and watched his mother work all hours to support three children.

Bennett played himself in an episode of which animated series, crooning an ode to 'Capital City'?

The Simpsons cast him as himself in 'Dancin' Homer'; cartoons, late-night talk shows and MTV were all part of a deliberate push to introduce him to listeners raised on rock.

Bennett likened being pushed to record rock hits to his seamstress mother being forced to make what?

A cheap dress was his comparison: as a boy he had watched his mother, sewing piecework to feed three children, refuse to work on bad ones, and he felt the same way about songs.

Which pop star did Bennett collaborate with on the albums Cheek to Cheek and Love for Sale?

Lady Gaga was almost 60 years his junior; their first album of standards went straight to No. 1 in the US, and she shared the stage for the two 2021 shows that proved his last.

Which illness did Bennett reveal in February 2021 that he had been living with since 2016?

Alzheimer's did not stop the music: he went on recording and performing for five years after the diagnosis, and told fans, 'Life is a gift, even with Alzheimer's.'

Bennett's 1951 hit "Cold, Cold Heart" was a cover of a song by which country star?

Hank Williams had just taken it to the top of the country chart; Bennett's orchestral version went to No. 1 on the pop chart and gave a Williams song its first pop audience.

Bennett's 1953 single 'Stranger in Paradise' came from which Broadway musical that opened amid a newspaper strike?

Kismet opened in the middle of a New York newspaper strike, which kept its critics out of print; by the time their reviews ran, not all of them kind, audiences had made it a hit, and 'Stranger in Paradise' became a pop hit as well.

Which stage name was the young singer using before a famous comedian renamed him Tony Bennett?

Joe Bari was the name on his early nightclub bills; the comedian who hired him disliked it, judged his real name too long for a marquee, and told him, 'We'll call you Tony Bennett.'

Which comedian put the young singer in his New York stage show and renamed him Tony Bennett?

Bob Hope disliked the singer's stage name and thought his real one too long for a marquee, so, as Bennett told it, he paused and said, 'We'll call you Tony Bennett.'

Which Columbia Records producer signed Bennett in 1950 and oversaw his first number-one hits?

Mitch Miller and Bennett clashed for years: the hit-maker kept pushing novelty songs and gimmicks, the singer kept resisting, and together they still turned out number-one records.

Which bandleader's orchestra backed Bennett on two late-1950s albums, including In Person!?

Count Basie's band brought the pop hit-maker before a jazz audience, and Frank Sinatra would later record with the same orchestra too.

Which pianist spent decades as Bennett's accompanist and musical director and steered him toward jazz?

Ralph Sharon also supplied the signature song: its sheet music lay forgotten in his shirt drawer for more than a year until he packed for a tour and found it.

Where did Bennett first sing his signature song in December 1961?

The Fairmont's Venetian Room heard it first: his pianist thought the ballad would please that one booking, and both men expected a local hit at most.

Bennett's signature song was originally the B-side of which single?

Once Upon a Time was the side Columbia promoted; the flip was expected to be a regional crowd-pleaser at most, yet it won Record of the Year and became the song of his life.

As a boy, Bennett sang at the opening of which New York bridge, standing beside Mayor Fiorello La Guardia?

The Triborough Bridge opened in 1936 with its longest span landing in Astoria, his own neighbourhood, where the schoolboy had already drawn notice for his singing.

On Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, the young Bennett finished runner-up to which future star?

Rosemary Clooney took first place, but second was enough to get the unknown singer noticed, and within a few years both were making hits for the same label.

Which news agency employed the teenage Bennett as a copy boy after he dropped out of school?

The Associated Press job came after he quit a school where he had been training to be a commercial artist, not a singer; his mother needed the wages.

Whose celebrated Carnegie Hall concert came a year before Bennett's own there in 1962 and also became a hit live album?

Judy Garland's show capped her great comeback and became her biggest-selling album; Bennett's own concert was recorded too and released as a live album.

Bennett was a guest on which host's very first Tonight Show, in October 1962?

Johnny Carson's debut also had Groucho Marx, Joan Crawford and Mel Brooks, yet no footage of the night survives: only photographs and a fan's audio tape.

Which 1965 Bennett single came from Pickwick, a West End musical based on a Dickens novel?

If I Ruled the World got a second life four decades after the hit version, when Bennett recut it as a duet with Celine Dion.

Bennett answered Harry Belafonte's call and sang for the marchers at which civil-rights protest?

The Selma to Montgomery marches ended for him with a lift to the airport from volunteer Viola Liuzzo, who was shot dead by Klansmen later that day.

Which record executive pushed Bennett into a 1970 album of rock-era covers that made him physically sick?

Clive Davis, then head of Columbia, wanted contemporary material, so Bennett sang Beatles songs behind a psychedelic sleeve; within two years he had left the label.

What was the name of the record label Bennett founded in the 1970s?

Improv never had a major label to distribute its jazz albums, and it folded in 1977, leaving its founder with no record deal at all.

With which jazz pianist did Bennett record two acclaimed voice-and-piano albums in the mid-1970s?

Bill Evans and Bennett recorded as a bare duo, no band at all; neither album charted, yet both are now counted among the finest work of Bennett's career.

After a near-fatal 1979 overdose, which relative became Bennett's manager and engineered his comeback?

His son Danny cut his spending, moved him back to New York and booked him into colleges and small theatres to shake off a tired Las Vegas image.

Regular appearances on which late-night host's show helped win Bennett a college-age audience when he was in his sixties?

David Letterman's hip young viewers were the target: his manager bet that the suit, the trio and the old songs needed no changing at all, only new listeners.

Which composer wrote 'Life in a Looking Glass', the Academy Award-nominated song Bennett sang for Blake Edwards's That's Life!?

Henry Mancini was the director's regular composer and wrote the Pink Panther theme for him; this song lost the award to 'Take My Breath Away' from Top Gun.

Bennett's 1993 album Steppin' Out was a tribute to which entertainer?

Fred Astaire's film songs filled the album, and its video for 'Steppin' Out with My Baby' was picked for MTV's Buzz Bin, beside the rock hits of 1993.

Which two guests joined Bennett on his 1994 MTV Unplugged special?

Elvis Costello and k.d. lang each joined him for a duet; lang went on to tour with him and to share a whole album, the first he ever made with another singer.

Which top Grammy prize did MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett win?

Album of the Year went to a 68-year-old singing decades-old standards, on the same MTV series that had hosted Nirvana only months before.

Which song did Bennett often perform in concert with no microphone to show off his projection?

Fly Me to the Moon was the number for which he put the microphone down: at a 1991 Seattle concert the unamplified voice hushed the crowd and filled the hall.

Which British rock festival did a 71-year-old Bennett play in the summer of 1998?

Glastonbury was a quagmire that year, yet he took the stage in an immaculate suit and tie, on a bill with Blur and Pulp.

What was the title of Bennett's 1998 autobiography?

The Good Life reused the title of one of his 1960s hits with a knowing edge: the book recounts a near-fatal overdose and the years when he came close to bankruptcy.

What did Bennett and Susan Crow found in Astoria in 2001 for young performers?

Frank Sinatra School of the Arts honours the friend and mentor who called him 'the best singer in the business'; he put the public high school in his old neighbourhood.

What nickname did Bennett earn for donating so much time to charity?

Tony Benefit was what some people called a star who spent his days off singing for the American Cancer Society and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, raising millions.

Which 2006 album, released for his 80th birthday, reached Bennett's highest chart position to that point?

Duets: An American Classic was sung face to face: unlike spliced-together duet albums, he stood in the studio with every partner, from Paul McCartney to Stevie Wonder.

Which impressionist performed a comedy sketch with Bennett on Saturday Night Live in 2006?

Baldwin's affectionate Bennett impression was a recurring SNL bit.

Which star headlined the final concerts at New York's Shea Stadium in 2008 and brought Bennett on for a duet?

Billy Joel closed the old ballpark and sang 'New York State of Mind' with Bennett, a duet the two had already recorded for a 2001 blues album.

Bennett's "Body and Soul" duet was reportedly the last recording made by which singer before her death?

Amy Winehouse sang it with her musical hero in March 2011, four months before she died; the duet later won the pair a Grammy.

Which 2011 album gave Bennett his first-ever No. 1 on the Billboard 200, at age 85?

Duets II reached the top some sixty years after he broke into the business, making him the oldest living artist with a No. 1 album; three years later he broke his own record.

Bennett's 2014 album Cheek to Cheek mixes Gershwin standards with songs by which other writers?

Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin wrote 'I Won't Dance' and the title song; Bennett made such albums, he said, to put the old standards before listeners who had never heard them.

Which New York landmark staged a light show set to Bennett's hits for his 90th birthday in 2016?

The Empire State Building synced its lights to a medley of his hits, a hometown salute for a New Yorker long linked with the faraway city of his signature song.

Love for Sale, Bennett's final album, was a tribute to which composer?

Cole Porter was Bennett's own choice: he proposed the album to his duet partner back in 2014, though it was only finished in 2020 and came out weeks after he turned 95.

Bennett played himself in the Jim Carrey comedy Bruce Almighty and in which 1999 mob comedy?

Analyze This ends with him serenading the hero and his bride. After one unhappy acting role in the 1960s, playing himself was the only film work he would take.

Where did Bennett give his final concerts in August 2021?

Radio City Music Hall hosted two farewell shows, the first on the night of his 95th birthday; a week after the second, his family announced he had retired from the stage.

Bennett re-recorded which Gershwin song in 2018, setting a record of 68 years between versions?

Fascinating Rhythm was on his very first commercial record, cut for a tiny label under another name; the 2018 remake was a duet with Diana Krall.

As an infantryman in the last weeks of World War II, Bennett helped liberate a subcamp of which Nazi concentration camp?

Dachau's satellite camp near Landsberg was the one his company reached; he wrote that he 'saw things no human being should ever have to see' and came home a pacifist.

Why was Bennett demoted in the Army and reassigned to digging graves?

He dined with a Black friend from high school on Thanksgiving, in a still-segregated Army; he lost his corporal's stripes and became a lifelong supporter of civil rights.

Which singing discipline, learned on the GI Bill, kept Bennett's voice healthy for decades?

Bel canto was only half the lesson: the same school's voice coach told him to copy instrumentalists, not other singers, so he learned to phrase like Art Tatum's piano.

How did the teenage Bennett earn money from his voice?

Singing waiter in Italian restaurants was one way he helped his widowed mother, a seamstress, pay the bills; he also sang on amateur nights across the city.

Under what name did Bennett paint and exhibit his artwork?

Benedetto, the family name once judged too long for a theatre marquee, went on his canvases instead; his Central Park now belongs to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Fans in mourning black ringed which church at Bennett's 1952 wedding?

St. Patrick's Cathedral drew some 2,000 young women in black veils: the groom was a brand-new teen idol whose first number-one records had come only the year before.

Which former New York governor witnessed Bennett's 2007 marriage to Susan Crow?

Mario Cuomo and his wife Matilda were the witnesses at a private civil ceremony; it had taken the couple twenty years together to get around to it.

Where is Tony Bennett buried?

Calvary Cemetery, Queens, holds the family plot where he was laid beside his parents; there was no public funeral, and a local paper found the grave weeks later.

From which region of Italy did Bennett's father emigrate to New York as a boy?

Calabria, the toe of Italy's boot, sent both sides of his family to New York: his mother made the crossing in the womb and was born there in 1899.

Which 1966 film gave Bennett an acting role he disliked so much he never sought another?

The Oscar cast him as a man betrayed by an old friend; critics reviled it and it flopped, and from then on the only film part he would take was himself.

Which 1957 Bennett album put jazz drummers out in front?

The Beat of My Heart set him among drummers such as Art Blakey and Chico Hamilton, a bid for the jazz audience his new pianist had been nudging him toward.

In the early 1970s Bennett moved abroad and hosted a TV series from which city's Talk of the Town nightclub?

London was his base after he parted with Columbia; the series ran through the summer of 1972, but two albums for his new label brought no hits and he was dropped.

Which early Bennett hit became a number one for Bobby Vinton in 1963?

Blue Velvet was one of the records that made him a teen idol, singing seven shows a day in New York; Vinton's chart-topping remake came twelve years after the original.

Which singer gave the young Bennett his big break in 1949 by putting him on her bill in Greenwich Village?

Pearl Bailey agreed to headline the club only if the unknown singer stayed on the bill, as Bennett told it; a comedian in her audience then gave him his next break.

Which song did Bennett cut as a demo in 1950, leading Columbia Records to sign him?

Boulevard of Broken Dreams then became his first single for the label, and fifty-six years later he recorded it again as a duet with Sting.

Bennett's 1953 number one 'Rags to Riches' plays over the opening of which Martin Scorsese gangster film?

Goodfellas cues the brassy hit just as its narrator says he always wanted to be a gangster; the film has no composed score, only records of the period.

Which song, a 1967 Bennett single before it became a Stevie Wonder signature, did the two later record together?

For Once in My Life reached the charts in Bennett's ballad version a year before Wonder's upbeat hit; their slow duet four decades on won the pair a Grammy.

Which 2005 accolade put Bennett beside Tina Turner?

Kennedy Center Honors went to a man who, a quarter-century earlier, had no record deal and no manager, and whose house the taxman was trying to seize.

At the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards, Bennett presented a prize in T-shirt and shades alongside members of which rock band?

Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea wore the tuxedos while Bennett took the T-shirt, a costume swap that helped put his own video on MTV.

According to his family, which song was Bennett still singing at the very end of his life?

He died at home in New York on July 21, 2023, after seven years with Alzheimer's disease.