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Tony Bennett Bio
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Tony BennettTony Bennett is an American musician who sings traditional pop and swinging jazz. Since the 1950s he has managed to record an album every year or so. At the age of 80 he is still a popular and critically praised recording artist and concert performer.He was born as Anthony Dominick Benedetto on August 3, 1926 in Astoria, Queens in New York City. His father was a grocer and his mother a seamstress. He simplified his name to Tony Bennett in 1949.When he was 10, Bennett sang and performed at the opening of the Triborough Bridge. He went to New York’s High School of Industrial Arts where he studied music and painting, but dropped out when he was 16 so that he could help support his family. For several years he worked as a singing waiter in several Queen’s Italian restaurants.In 1944, Bennett was drafted into the United States Army and served as a replacement infantryman in the 63rd Infantry Division in and . He was involved in the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp near Landsberg close to the end of the war.In 1946, he returned to States and studied at the American Theater Wing on the GI Bill. Three years later singer and actress Pearl Bailey spotted his talent and asked him to open for her in Greenwich Village. In 1950, Bennett was signed to Columbia Records and released his first long playing, jazz-inspired album, Cloud 7, in 1955.Throughout the remainder of the 1950s and into the 1960s, Bennett’s music career flourished. In 1962, he won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Male Solo Vocal Performance. He often performed with Rosemary Clooney who broke into the industry around the same time as Bennett.However, once rock and roll was introduced, Bennett’s music decreased in popularity. In 1966, he tried to unsuccessfully branch out into acting with the poorly received movie, The Oscar.A cocaine overdose in 1979 almost killed Bennett. After the overdose he reached out to his sons for help fighting the depression he experienced because no one seemed to want to listen to his music anymore. His son Danny signed on as Bennett’s manager and soon booked his father to perform in colleges and small theaters.By 1986, Bennett was re-signed to Columbia Records and released The Art of Excellence. He began to reach out to younger audiences by appearing on shows like David Letterman, The Simpsons, and various MTV programs including the MTV Video Music Awards.Bennett really reached out to the younger generation when he recorded an episode for MTV’s Unplugged from Sony Music Studios in NYC on April 12, 2994. The show, which also featured duets with Elvis Costello and K D Lang was a huge success that spawned a DVD and CD available at retail.Since then Bennett has continued to record music. He has now sold over 50 million records worldwide during his career and received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2002.On December 4, 2005 Bennett was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor. The Billboard Music Awards honored Bennett with The Century Award at the 2006 ceremony. |
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