Army vet Tony Bennett dies at 96
Tony Bennett, the American singer whose career spanned more decades than most of us will live, died in New York Friday at age 96. A man who proved that greatness in his field and appreciation may not happen until later in life (a la Colonel Sanders, Abe Lincoln, and numerous others) Bennett was awarded 20 Grammy awards (article errs and says 19) – 17 of them after he reached the age of 60.
Bennett didn’t tell his own story when performing; he let the music speak instead — the Gershwins and Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern. Unlike his friend and mentor Sinatra, he would interpret a song rather than embody it. If his singing and public life lacked the high drama of Sinatra’s, Bennett appealed with an easy, courtly manner and an uncommonly rich and durable voice — “A tenor who sings like a baritone,” he called himself — that made him a master of caressing a ballad or brightening an up-tempo number.
“I enjoy entertaining the audience, making them forget their problems,” he told The Associated Press in 2006. “I think people … are touched if they hear something that’s sincere and honest and maybe has a little sense of humor. … I just like to make people feel good when I perform.”
In 2014, at age 88, Bennett broke his own record as the oldest living performer with a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart for “Cheek to Cheek,” his duets project with Lady Gaga. Three years earlier, he topped the charts with “Duets II,” featuring such contemporary stars as Gaga, Carrie Underwood and Amy Winehouse, in her last studio recording.
Born Anthony Dominick Bennetto in 1926, Bennett served in the US Army as an infantryman in the closing days of WWII, earning a Bronze Star in the 63d Infantry, and had his first #1 in 1951.
Bennett was praised often by his peers, but never more meaningfully than by what Sinatra said in a 1965 Life magazine interview: “For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business.
Category: Army, We Remember
Rest In Peace.
“From the age of 15, young Tony watched as his friends and relatives were drafted into service. Bennett turned 18 in the summer of 1944, and that November, he received a draft notice of his own. He was sent to the Army, completed basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and became an infantry rifleman at Fort Robinson, Arkansas.”
“After his post-training furlough, he waited to hear about his next assignment. He was shipped to Le Havre, France, to become a replacement troop for units that suffered heavy casualties fighting the Germans in Europe. Bennett was sent to G Company, 7th Army, 63rd Infantry Division.”
“In 1946, he set sail for New York, where he was honorably discharged on Aug. 15, where the war had “changed everything in ways I couldn’t explain.” He was ready to get his life started again.”
https://www.military.com/off-duty/music/2023/07/21/tony-bennetts-world-war-ii-experience-was-front-row-seat-hell.html
“completed basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey”
I can’t sing but Tony and I have something else in common…..
Rest in peace bro.
Thank You for sharing, 26Limabeans!
One member of the ninja family also attended Basic Training at Fort Dix.
😊
Rest in Peace.
He and fellow WWII vets Charleton Heston and Harry Belafonte were three of the most famous entertainers that regularly marched in civil rights marches in the 60s.
Belafonte passed earlier this year. In an interview last decade also with Bennett he talked about how Bennett’s driver was murdered by the Klan the day after she drove him to the airport.
The 63rd ID was “Blood and Fire” and their patch, as well as their combat record, was something sweet. I had an old friend who died in 2007; he was in the 63rd / 253 IR in 1943 and I wonder if they were in the same regiment (edit: wikipedia says he was in 255). Rest in peace we love you!
I had no idea he was a Vet much less a Combat Vet from WW 2. RIP and may you have an honored place in the Heavenly choir.
Only comment is RIP. Anyone out there remember the little speech he gave years ago dissing the USA. I don’t know why I don’t write these things down so I can go back and read what I wrote down after all these years.
Rest in peace Mr. Bennett.
RIP, Good Sir. Imagine being dropped into a meat grinder as a replacement for a guy that had trained with his buddies for several years and you had been training for only several months.