Alejandro Sanz
Alejandro Sanz at the Tony Bennett Birthday Gala on September 17, 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Alejandro Sánchez Pizarro
Born	(1968-12-18) December 18, 1968 (age 43)
Origin	Madrid, Spain
Genres	Latin pop
Occupations	Singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active	1988–present
Labels	Warner Music Benelux
Associated acts	Juanes, Shakira, Alicia Keys, Calle 13
Website	AlejandroSanz.com

Alejandro Sanz (born Alejandro Sánchez Pizarro on December 18, 1968) is a Spanish singer-songwriter and musician. For his work, Sanz has won a total of fifteen Latin Grammy Awards and three Grammy Awards. He has won the Latin Grammy for Album of the Year three times, more than any other artist. Throughout his career, he has released a total of ten studio albums and six DVDs. The singer is noted for his flamenco-influenced ballads, but he has also experimented with rock, salsa, and hip hop.

Born in Madrid, Sanz began playing guitar at age seven, taking influence from his family's flamenco roots. He released his debut album at age sixteen, although he did not gain commercial success until his second release, Viviendo Deprisa. His next two records, Si Tú Me Miras and 3 also fared well commercially, but it was his 1997 breakthrough album Más that garnered international success. El Alma al Aire followed in 2000, selling more than a million copies in its first week.

In 2002, he became the first Spanish artist to record an MTV Unplugged album. His collaboration with Shakira on the single "La Tortura" reached number one on several charts worldwide. His albums No Es lo Mismo (2003) and El Tren de los Momentos (2006) showed Sanz experimenting with more diverse styles of music, while his most recent release, ParaĂ­so Express (2009) served as a return to form for the musician. He signed to Universal Music Group in 2011 and is reported to be working on his tenth studio album.

Early life[link]

Sanz was born in Madrid, Spain, on December 18, 1968, the youngest son of María Pizarro and Jesús Sánchez.^[1] He grew up in the high-crime neighborhood of Moratalaz in eastern Madrid.^[2] Sanz recalled that "Back then, kids grew up on the street...I was a bit like the group troubadour; the one who played the guitar and sang. That kept me out of a lot of trouble."^[2] Sanz's father, a door-to-door book salesman, played guitar professionally, which inspired seven-year-old Sanz to learn to play the instrument.^[1][3] He pursued the instrument with an intensity that eventually frustrated his mother, who broke his guitar one morning after his playing kept the family from sleeping.^[3]

He was exposed to traditional flamenco music as a child while vacationing each summer in his parents' native AndalucĂ­a in southern Spain.^[3] Originally, Sanz intended to become a flamenco performer, but he found the music teachers to be overly strict. Commenting on his early experiences, Sanz explained, "Flamenco can be very hard on beginners. If you lose the rhythm, they toss you out with, 'You're no good, boy!' They're very strict and very cruel. But it's also a marvelous education, because you either learn to play or else."^[3] He felt that he could not compete with his peers, and decided to focus on creating pop music with flamenco influences, viewing flamenco to be a "lifestyle" better suited to others.^[4]

Recording career[link]

1989–96: First four albums[link]

As a teenager, Sanz performed in various venues in his hometown. He became acquainted with Miguel Ă?ngel Arenas, a music industry executive who had signed several popular Spanish groups such as Mecano.^[1] Arenas helped Sanz find work, eventually leading to a record deal with the Spanish label Hispavox.^[1] In 1989, sixteen-year-old Sanz released his debut album, Los Chulos Son Pa' Cuidarlos under the name of Alejandro Magno (Spanish for "Alexander the Great").^[4] The record, which fused techno and flamenco, was met with critical and commercial indifference, and today Sanz views the record to be "insignificant".^[3] However, the album is now considered to be a collector's item.^[1] In an attempt to promote Los Chulos Son Pa' Cuidarlos, he performed at strip clubs, playing short sets between acts.^[3] This proved to be unsuccessful and Sanz took a break from music, choosing to study business administration.^[3] He also took a job at a recording studio in which he wrote material for other artists. He persuaded Arenas to send demos of his songs to record companies, which led to being signed by Warner Music Latina.^[3] At this time, he began performing under his current name.^[1]

Sanz's rise to fame began in 1991, when he released his first album from Warner, Viviendo Deprisa. The record and the songs "Pisando Fuerte" and "Se le Apagó la Luz" helped him gain a dedicated fan base in Spain.^[5] In 1993, he released Si Tú Me Miras shortly followed by a live album, titled Básico. That same year, he recorded a song entitled "Mi Primera Canción" with flamenco pioneer Paco de Lucía, whom Sanz idolized as a child.^[6] He released his third studio album, 3, in 1995. In addition to Spanish, 3 was also released in Italian and Portuguese.^[7] "La Fuerza del Corazón", the first single released from 3, was his first song to chart internationally.^[1] All three albums proved to be successful, reaching multi-platinum status in Spain.^[1]

[edit] 1997–2002: Más, El Alma al Aire, and MTV Unplugged

Sanz spent two years in Milan, Italy to work on a follow-up for 3.^[8] For the album, he wished to create a "true fusion" of many different sounds, and began studying the saxophone and piano in addition to guitar.^[8] In 1997, Sanz released his fifth studio album, Más, a record containing ballads strongly influenced by flamenco, pop, and tropical rhythms.^[9]

	Alejandro Sanz "Corazón Partío" (1997) noicon The single "Corazón Partío", from Más, draws influence from flamenco music and has been described as a "powerhouse ballad".[10][11] It is considered to be Sanz' breakthrough song, and "changed the course" of the singer's career.[1][10]
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Driven by the singles "Corazón Partío", "Y, ¿Si Fuera Ella?", "Amiga Mía", "Aquello Que Me Diste", and "Siempre Es de Noche", Más sold more than two million copies in Spain and was certified 22× Platinum in the country, making it the best-selling album in Spanish history.^{[1][4][12][13]} The album remained on the Billboard Latin Albums chart for 74 weeks, and one year after the record's release, Sanz was granted an Ondas Award for Best Song for "Corazón Partío".^[14][15] According to David Cazares of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the album "made Sanz an international star on the strength of the pop-salsa hit 'Corazón Partío', a song on the lips of fans from Spain to Cuba and the United States."^[5] Following the success of the album, Sanz began touring in United States for the first time.^[4]

His fifth album, El Alma al Aire, released September 26, 2000, featured Sanz exploring diverse genres of music, including jazz, R&B, soul and tango.^[5] In Spain, the album sold more than one million copies in the first week, breaking the record of one million copies sold in four months, also set by Sanz with his previous album, Más.^[17][18] At the 2001 Latin Grammy Awards, Sanz walked away with four awards: Best Pop Male Vocal Album and Album of the Year for El Alma al Aire, and Record of the Year and Song of the Year for the title track from the album.^[19] Later that year, El Alma al Aire was released in a special edition including Sanz's duets with Irish band The Corrs. In October 2001, Sanz collaborated with Michael Jackson and various other artists on the Spanish version of the charity single "What More Can I Give", which benefited the victims of the September 11 attacks.^[17][20]

In 2002, Sanz recorded MTV Unplugged at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Florida.^[4] He was the first Spanish artist to record and release an MTV Unplugged album.^[21] For Sanz, the recording of the album "changed the way I do my music. It was a rediscovery of how to perform, and also how to record, music with live musicians. That was the spirit of the music in its pure form, though [it is ironic] that the more people who are playing, the more simple it is."^[4] With the MTV Unplugged, he garnered three Latin Grammy Awards (Album of the Year, Recording of the Year and Song of the Year for "Y SĂłlo Se Me Ocurre Amarte").^[22]

[edit] 2003–07: No Es lo Mismo and El Tren de los Momentos

On September 2, 2003, Sanz released his sixth studio album, No Es lo Mismo. On this record, Sanz took a more political approach than he had on previous releases. The song "Sandy a Orilla do Mundo" discusses oil spills on the Spanish coast, while "Labana" tells the story of people fleeing from Cuba on makeshift rafts.^[23] The album won four awards at the 2004 Latin Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year.^[24] Sanz was unable to attend the event and his awards were accepted by presenters and colleagues.^[24] Also in 2004, he became the first Spanish musician to give a lecture at Harvard University, speaking about Hispanic culture at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.^[25]

Alejandro Sanz performing in Managua, Nicaragua on November 1, 2007.

In 2005, Sanz collaborated with Shakira on her song "La Tortura". Co-written by Sanz, the song became an international hit, breaking the record for the most weeks at the number one spot on the Hot Latin Songs chart.^[26] The song exposed Sanz to a more diverse audience, and helped build anticipation for his next release.^[1] The first single from the album El Tren de los Momentos, "A la Primera Persona", became his first song to enter the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 100 on the chart.^[1][27] The record was also noted for its guest appearances, which featured Shakira, Juanes, Alex González of Maná, and Residente of Calle 13.^[1]

In the spring of 2007, Sanz suffered a mental breakdown and took two months off in the middle of a world tour at the request of his doctor. The breakdown was caused by several events in his personal life, including the death of his father in 2005, his separation with Mexican model and actress Jaydy Mitchel, and his announcement that he had a three-year-old son outside of his marriage with Mitchel.^[28] He commented on the situation, saying "You have to put things in perspective. It was stress, something that had never affected me, but this time, yes, it did. So I had to pay. A doctor told me to stop for a couple of months to recuperate completely."^[28] Sanz spent time in therapy, a time which "helped [him] a lot" and gave him "more power" to perform.^[28]

In a press conference in late 2007, he criticized Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, calling him "undemocratic" in the wake of a petition made by Venezuelan citizens to prevent Chávez from running for re-election.^[5][29] Sanz further stated "If they gave me 3 million signatures to stop singing, I would stop singing immediately."^[29] Supporters of Chávez subsequently gathered 230,000 signatures in response to Sanz' comments.^[29]

[edit] 2008–present: Paraíso Express

Sanz performing on May 28, 2008.

To promote his new record, ParaĂ­so Express, Sanz started a campaign in which fans could create a video about their definition of paradise and upload it to his YouTube channel.^[30] Artists such as Shakira, Laura Pausini and Paulina Rubio also participated.^[30] On November 10, 2009, Sanz released ParaĂ­so Express. This record was described as a return to form for Sanz, focusing more on melody as opposed to the experimentation he pursued on his previous two albums.^[31] He commented that "On this album, I first composed the melody and then the lyrics. It is more of a rock album than my past releases, with more elegant and positive lyrics and a happier and more rhythmic spirit."^[32]

The bilingual single "Looking for Paradise" featuring Alicia Keys reached number one on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart.^[33] At the 2010 Latin Grammy Awards, the album was nominated Album of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Album, while the single "Desde Cuándo" received both Record and Song of the Year nominations.^[34] On February 15, 2011, Sanz announced that he would be signing with Universal Music Group after twenty years with Warner.^[35]

Musical style[link]

Sanz is known for his distinctive raspy vocals, which he attributes to his flamenco roots, crediting singer CamarĂłn de la Isla as a major influence.^[36][37] His song "SĂ­, He Cantado Mal" (Yes, I Have Sung Badly) from No Es lo Mismo references this, with Sanz saying "I'm laughing a little at myself so that I can laugh at other things. Sometimes, I'm harder on myself than any music critic can be. I'm laughing at that."^[36] Throughout his youth, Sanz was heavily influenced by English-language heavy metal groups such as Iron Maiden and Dio, referring to himself as a "heavy metal radical".^[36] He also feels that living in the city of Cadiz had a major impact on his musical style, where "Any 7-year-old kid you find knows how to play guitar, play the cajĂłn, knows how to sing. When the family comes together we start to sing. In a way it's not just music, it's culture."^[37]

Early in his career, his music generally consisted of romantic ballads. However, in the late 1990s, his collaborations with other artists greatly expanded his musical style.^[1] On No Es lo Mismo, he experimented with rock, salsa, and hip hop.^[4] While recording the album, he noted that he often entered the studio with a rough idea for a song and the guest artists would "contaminate it with their rhythms...in a good way."^[23] El Tren de los Momentos continued this pattern of musical experimentation, featuring diverse genres such as funk, jazz, and country.^[38] Despite this, Jason Birchmeier of Allmusic described his musical evolution by saying "Even as Sanz broadened his style over the years, he never ventured far from his strength: romantic songs, generally ballads, tinged with flamenco and sung wholeheartedly with his distinct voice."^[1]

Personal life[link]

Sanz with Shakira and King Juan Carlos I of Spain.

Sanz married Mexican fashion model and actress Jaydy Michel in Bali on December 30, 1999, but this marriage was never legally recognized in either of their home countries. Sanz felt that having a legally recognized marriage was unnecessary: "My wife is my wife and I am her husband. For me, that has enough validity...I am married with the heart."^[39] The couple separated in 2005.^[28] Their daughter, Manuela Sánchez Michel, was born in 2001. Sanz later had a son named Alexander with Valeria Rivera, a Puerto Rican fashion designer.^[40]

Sanz welcomed his third child in New York, a boy named Dylan (b. July 2011), the first child from his relationship with girlfriend and former assistant, Raquel Perera.^[41] Sanz chose flamenco guitarist Paco de LucĂ­a to be the godfather to his son. Sanz and Perera are godparents to David Bisbal's daughter, Ella.^[42] On May 23, 2012, Sanz married Raquel Perera in a private ceremony in Barcelona.^[43]

In addition to music, Sanz enjoys painting, which he often does while trying to create ideas for new songs.^[44] He explains that painting "teaches you that taking risks rarely leads to failure. In fact, from the moment you assume a risk, you have succeeded."^[3]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• 1989: Los Chulos Son Pa' Cuidarlos
• 1991: Viviendo Deprisa
• 1993: Si TĂş Me Miras
• 1993: Básico
• 1995: 3
• 1997: Más
• 2000: El Alma al Aire
• 2003: No Es lo Mismo
• 2006: El Tren de los Momentos
• 2009: ParaĂ­so Express

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alejandro Sanz

• Alejandro Sanz's Official Site (Spanish)
• Alejandro Sanz's Official Red (Spanish)
• Alejandro Sanz Biography (Spanish)

References[link]

Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett performing in 2003
Background information
Birth name	Anthony Dominick Benedetto
Born	(1926-08-03) August 3, 1926 (age 85) Astoria, Queens, New York City, New York, United States
Genres	Traditional pop Jazz
Occupations	Singer
Years active	1949–present
Labels	Columbia MGM Improv Legacy Recordings
Website	Official website

Anthony Dominick Benedetto, better known as Tony Bennett (born August 3, 1926), is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a serious and accomplished painter, having created works — under the name Benedetto — that are on permanent public display in several institutions. He is the founder of Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in New York City.

Raised in New York City, Bennett began singing at an early age. He fought in the final stages of World War II as an infantryman with the U.S. Army in the European Theatre. Afterwards, he developed his singing technique, signed with Columbia Records, and had his first number one popular song with "Because of You" in 1951. Several top hits such as "Rags to Riches" followed in the early 1950s. Bennett then further refined his approach to encompass jazz singing. He reached an artistic peak in the late 1950s with albums such as The Beat of My Heart and Basie Swings, Bennett Sings. In 1962, Bennett recorded his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". His career and his personal life then suffered an extended downturn during the height of the rock music era.

Bennett staged a remarkable comeback in the late 1980s and 1990s, putting out gold record albums again and expanding his audience to the MTV Generation while keeping his musical style intact. He remains a popular and critically praised recording artist and concert performer in the 2010s. Bennett has won 17 Grammy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award, presented in 2001) and two Emmy Awards, and has been named an NEA Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree. He has sold over 50 million records worldwide.

Early life[link]

Anthony Benedetto was born in Astoria, Queens, New York City, one of three children of Anna (née Suraci) and John Benedetto.^[1] His father was a grocer who in 1906 had emigrated from Podàrgoni, a rural eastern district of the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria, and his mother was a seamstress who had been born in the U.S. shortly after her parents also emigrated from the Calabria region in 1899.^[1] Other relatives came over as well as part of the mass migration of Italians to America.^[1] With a father who was ailing and unable to work, Anthony, older brother John Jr., and younger sister Mary grew up in poverty.^[2] John Benedetto Sr. instilled in his son a love of art and literature and a compassion for human suffering,^[3] but died when Anthony was 10 years old.^[2] The experience of growing up in the Great Depression and a distaste for the effects of the Hoover Administration would make the child a lifelong Democrat.^[4]

Young "Tony" Benedetto grew up listening to Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Judy Garland and Bing Crosby as well as jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden and Joe Venuti. His Uncle Dick was a tap dancer in vaudeville, giving him an early window into show business,^[5] and his Uncle Frank was the Queens borough library commissioner.^[6] By age 10 he was already singing, and performed at the opening of the Triborough Bridge,^[7] standing next to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia who patted him on the head.^[6] Drawing was another early passion of his;^[2] he became known as the class caricaturist at P.S. 141 and anticipated a career in commercial art.^[8] He began singing for money at age 13, performing as a singing waiter in several Italian restaurants around his native Queens.^[8][9]

He attended New York's High School of Industrial Art where he studied painting and music^[10] and would later appreciate their emphasis on proper technique.^[11] But he dropped out at age 16 to help support his family.^[12] He worked as a copy boy and runner for the Associated Press in Manhattan^[13][14] and in several other low-skilled, low-paying jobs.^[15] But mostly he set his sights on a professional singing career, returning to performing as a singing waiter, playing and winning amateur nights all around the city, and having a successful engagement at a Paramus, New Jersey nightclub.^[9][15]

World War II and after[link]

Benedetto was drafted into the United States Army in November 1944, during the final stages of World War II.^[2][16] He did basic training at Fort Dix and Fort Robinson as part of becoming an infantry rifleman.^[17] Benedetto ran afoul of a sergeant from the South who disliked the Italian from New York City and heavy doses of KP duty or BAR cleaning resulted.^[17] Processed through the huge Le Havre replacement depot, in January 1945, he was assigned as a replacement infantryman to the 255th Infantry Regiment of the 63rd Infantry Division, a unit filling in for the heavy losses suffered in the Battle of the Bulge.^[18] He moved across France, and later, into Germany.^[2] As March 1945 began, he joined the front line and what he would later describe as a "front-row seat in hell."^[18]

As the German Army was pushed back to their homeland, Benedetto and his company saw bitter fighting in cold winter conditions, often hunkering down in foxholes as German 88 mm guns fired on them.^[19] At the end of March, they crossed the Rhine and entered Germany, engaging in dangerous house-to-house, town-after-town fighting to clean out German soldiers;^[19] during the first week of April, they crossed the Kocher River, and by the end of the month reached the Danube.^[20] During his time in combat, Benedetto narrowly escaped death several times.^[2] The experience made him a pacifist;^[2] he would later write, "Anybody who thinks that war is romantic obviously hasn't gone through one,"^[18] and later say, "It was a nightmare that's permanent. I just said, 'This is not life. This is not life.'"^[21] At the war's conclusion he was involved in the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp near Landsberg,^[2] where some American prisoners of war from the 63rd Division had also been held.^[20]

Benedetto stayed in Germany as part of the occupying force, but was assigned to an informal Special Services band unit that would entertain nearby American forces.^[2] His dining with a black friend from high school – at a time when the Army was still racially segregated – led to his being demoted and reassigned to Graves Registration Service duties.^[22] Subsequently, he sang with the 314th Army Special Services Band under the stage name Joe Bari^[23] (a name he had started using before the war, chosen after the city and province in Italy and as a partial anagram of his family origins in Calabria).^[24] He played with many musicians who would have post-war careers.^[23]

Upon his discharge from the Army and return to the States in 1946, Benedetto studied at the American Theatre Wing on the GI Bill.^[7] He was taught the bel canto singing discipline,^[25] which would keep his voice in good shape for his entire career. He continued to perform wherever he could, including while waiting tables.^[2] Based upon a suggestion from a teacher at American Theatre Wing, he developed an unusual approach that involved imitating, as he sang, the style and phrasing of other musicians — such as that of Stan Getz's saxophone and Art Tatum's piano — helping him to improvise as he interpreted a song.^[12][26] He made a few recordings as Bari in 1949 for small Leslie Records, but they failed to sell.^[27]

In 1949, Pearl Bailey recognized Benedetto's talent and asked him to open for her in Greenwich Village.^[9] She had invited Bob Hope to the show. Hope decided to take Benedetto on the road with him, and simplified his name to Tony Bennett.^[27] In 1950, Bennett cut a demo of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and was signed to the major Columbia Records label by Mitch Miller.^[7]

First successes[link]

Warned by Miller not to imitate Frank Sinatra^[5] (who was just then leaving Columbia), Bennett began his career as a crooner singing commercial pop tunes. His first big hit was "Because of You", a ballad produced by Miller with a lush orchestral arrangement from Percy Faith. It started out gaining popularity on jukeboxes, then reached #1 on the pop charts in 1951 and stayed there for 10 weeks,^[28] selling over a million copies.^[27] This was followed to the top of the charts later that year^[28] by a similarly-styled rendition of Hank Williams's "Cold, Cold Heart", which helped introduce Williams and country music in general to a wider, more national audience.^[29] The Miller and Faith tandem continued to work on all of Bennett's early hits. Bennett's recording of "Blue Velvet" was also very popular and attracted screaming teenaged fans at concerts at the famed Paramount Theater in New York (Bennett did seven shows a day, starting at 10:30 a.m.)^[30] and elsewhere.

A third #1 came in 1953 with "Rags to Riches". Unlike Bennett's other early hits, this was an up-tempo big band number with a bold, brassy sound and a double tango in the instrumental break; it topped the charts for eight weeks.^[28] Later that year the producers of the upcoming Broadway musical Kismet had Bennett record "Stranger in Paradise" as a way of promoting the show during a New York newspaper strike.^[31] The song reached the top, the show was a hit, and Bennett began a long practice of recording show tunes.^[31] "Stranger in Paradise" was also a #1 hit in the United Kingdom a year and a half later^[32] and started Bennett's career as an international artist.

Once the rock and roll era began in 1955, the dynamic of the music industry changed and it became harder and harder for existing pop singers to do well commercially.^[7] Nevertheless, Bennett continued to enjoy success, placing eight songs in the Billboard Top 40 during the latter part of the 1950s, with "In the Middle of an Island" reaching the highest at #9 in 1957.^[33]

For a month in August–September 1956, Bennett hosted a NBC Saturday night television variety show, called The Tony Bennett Show, as a summer replacement for The Perry Como Show.^[34] Patti Page and Julius La Rosa had in turn hosted the two previous months, and they all shared the same singers, dancers, and orchestra.^[34] In 1959, Bennett would again fill in for The Perry Como Show, this time alongside Teresa Brewer and Jaye P. Morgan as co-hosts of the summer-long Perry Presents.^[35]

A growing artistry[link]

In 1954, the guitarist Chuck Wayne became Bennett's musical director.^[36] Bennett released his first long-playing album in 1955, Cloud 7. The album was billed as featuring Wayne and showed Benett's leanings towards jazz. In 1957, Ralph Sharon became Bennett's pianist and musical director,^[37] replacing Wayne. Sharon told Bennett that a career singing "sweet saccharine songs like 'Blue Velvet'" wouldn't last long, and encouraged Bennett to focus even more on his jazz inclinations.^[5]

The result was the 1957 album The Beat of My Heart. It used well-known jazz musicians such as Herbie Mann and Nat Adderley, with a strong emphasis on percussion from the likes of Art Blakey, Jo Jones, Latin star Candido Camero, and Chico Hamilton. The album was both popular and critically praised.^[5][38] Bennett followed this by working with the Count Basie Orchestra, becoming the first male pop vocalist to sing with Basie's band.^[5] The albums Basie Swings, Bennett Sings (1958) and In Person! (1959) were the well-regarded fruits of this collaboration, with "Chicago" being one of the standout songs.^[5][7]

Bennett also built up the quality, and therefore, the reputation of his nightclub act; in this he was following the path of Sinatra and other top jazz and standards singers of this era.^[7] In June 1962, Bennett staged a highly-promoted concert performance at Carnegie Hall, using a stellar line-up of musicians including Al Cohn, Kenny Burrell, and Candido, as well as the Ralph Sharon Trio. The concert featured 44 songs, including favorites like "I've Got the World on a String" and "The Best Is Yet To Come". It was a big success, further cementing Bennett's reputation as a star both at home and abroad.^[5][39] Bennett also appeared on television, and in October 1962 he sang on the first night of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.^[40]

Also in 1962, Bennett released the song "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". Although this reached only #19 on the Billboard Hot 100,^[33] it spent close to a year on various other charts and increased Bennett's exposure.^[7][39] The album of the same title was a top 5 hit and both the single and album achieved gold record status.^[7] The song won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Male Solo Vocal Performance. Over the years, this would become known as Bennett's signature song.^[10][25] In 2001, it was ranked 23rd on an RIAA/NEA list of the most historically significant Songs of the 20th Century.

Bennett's following album, I Wanna Be Around (1963), was also a top-5 success,^[7] with the title track and "The Good Life" each reaching the top 20 of the pop singles chart^[33] along with the top 10 of the Adult Contemporary chart.^[41]

The next year brought The Beatles and the British Invasion, and with them still more musical and cultural attention to rock and less to pop, standards, and jazz. Over the next couple of years Bennett had minor hits with several albums and singles based on show tunes – his last top-40 single was the #34 "If I Ruled the World" from Pickwick in 1965^[33] – but his commercial fortunes were clearly starting to decline. An attempt to break into acting with a role in the poorly received 1966 film The Oscar met with middling reviews for Bennett; he did not enjoy the experience and did not seek further roles.^[42][43]

A firm believer in the American Civil Rights movement,^[25] Bennett participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.^[44] Years later he would continue this commitment by refusing to perform in apartheid South Africa.^[10]

Years of struggle[link]

Ralph Sharon and Bennett parted ways in 1965.^[37] There was great pressure on singers such as Lena Horne and Barbra Streisand to record "contemporary" rock songs, and in this vein Columbia Records' Clive Davis suggested that Bennett do the same.^[7] Bennett was very reluctant, and when he tried, the results pleased no one. This was exemplified by Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today! (1970),^[7] before which Bennett became physically ill at the thought of recording.^[45] It featured misguided attempts at Beatles and other current songs and a ludicrous psychedelic art cover.^[45][46]

Years later Bennett would recall his dismay at being asked to do contemporary material, comparing it to when his mother was forced to produce a cheap dress.^[47] By 1972, he had departed Columbia for the Verve division of MGM Records (Philips in the UK) and had relocated for a stint in London, where he hosted a television show from the Talk of the Town nightclub in conjunction with Thames Television, Tony Bennett from the Talk of the Town.^[48][49][50] With his new label he tried a variety of approaches, including some more Beatles material, but found no renewed commercial success, and in a couple more years he was without a recording contract.^[7][51]

Taking matters into his own hands, Bennett started his own record company, Improv.^[7] He cut some songs that would later become favorites, such as "What is This Thing Called Love?", and made two well-regarded albums with jazz pianist Bill Evans, The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (1975) and Together Again (1976),^[39] but Improv lacked a distribution arrangement with a major label and by 1977, it was out of business.^[7][52]

As the decade neared its end, Bennett had no recording contract, no manager, and was not performing many concerts outside of Las Vegas.^[12] His second marriage was failing (they would completely separate in 1979, but not officially divorce until 2007).^[53] He had developed a drug addiction, was living beyond his means, and had the Internal Revenue Service trying to seize his Los Angeles home.^[12][52]

Turnaround[link]

After a near-fatal cocaine overdose in 1979, Bennett called his sons Danny and Dae for help. "Look, I'm lost here," he told them. "It seems like people don't want to hear the music I make."^[12]

Danny Bennett, an aspiring musician himself, also came to a realization. The band Danny and his brother had started, Quacky Duck and His Barnyard Friends, had foundered and Danny's musical abilities were limited. However, he had discovered during this time that he did have a head for business. His father, on the other hand, had tremendous musical talent but was having trouble sustaining a career from it and had little financial sense. Danny signed on as his father's manager.^[52]

Danny got his father's expenses under control, moved him back to New York, and began booking him in colleges and small theaters to get him away from a "Vegas" image.^[12][52] After some effort, a successful plan to pay back the IRS debt was put into place.^[52] In 1979, Tony Bennett had also reunited with Ralph Sharon as his pianist and musical director.^[37] By 1986, Tony Bennett was re-signed to Columbia Records, this time with creative control, and released The Art of Excellence. This became his first album to reach the charts since 1972.^[7]

An unexpected audience[link]

Danny Bennett felt that younger audiences who were unfamiliar with Tony Bennett would respond to his music if given a chance.^[54] No changes to Tony's formal appearance, singing style, musical accompaniment (The Ralph Sharon Trio or an orchestra), or song choice (generally the Great American Songbook) were necessary or desirable.^[7][55] Accordingly, Danny began regularly to book his father on Late Night with David Letterman, a show with a younger, hip audience.^[54] This was subsequently followed by appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Simpsons, Muppets Tonight, and various MTV programs.^[10][12] In 1993, Bennett played a series of benefit concerts organized by alternative rock radio stations around the country.^[54] The plan worked; as Tony later remembered, "I realized that young people had never heard those songs. Cole Porter, Gershwin – they were like, 'Who wrote that?' To them, it was different. If you're different, you stand out."^[12]

During this time, Bennett continued to record, first putting out the acclaimed look back Astoria: Portrait of the Artist (1990), then emphasizing themed albums such as the Sinatra homage Perfectly Frank (1992) and the Fred Astaire tribute Steppin' Out (1993). The latter two both achieved gold status and won Grammys for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance (Bennett's first Grammys since 1962) and further established Bennett as the inheritor of the mantle of a classic American great.^[54]

As Bennett was seen at MTV Video Music Awards shows side-by-side with the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Flavor Flav, and as his "Steppin' Out With My Baby" video received MTV airplay,^[54] it was clear that, as The New York Times said, "Tony Bennett has not just bridged the generation gap, he has demolished it. He has solidly connected with a younger crowd weaned on rock. And there have been no compromises."^[56]

The new audience reached its height with Bennett's appearance in 1994 on MTV Unplugged.^[52] (He quipped famously on the show, "I've been unplugged my whole career.") Featuring guest appearances by rock and country stars Elvis Costello and k.d. lang (both of whom had an affinity for the standards genre), the show attracted a considerable audience and much media attention.^[54] The resulting MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett album went platinum and, besides taking the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Grammy award for the third straight year, also won the top Grammy prize of Album of the Year.^[5][57] At age 68, Tony Bennett had come all the way back.

Painting[link]

Tony Bennett's career as a painter, done under his real surname of Benedetto, has also flourished.^[58][59] He followed up his childhood interest with serious training, work, and museum visits throughout his life. He sketches or paints every day, even of views out of hotel windows when he is on tour.^[57]

He has exhibited his work in numerous galleries around the world.^[57] He was chosen as the official artist for the 2001 Kentucky Derby, and was commissioned by the United Nations to do two paintings, including one for their 50th anniversary.^[57] His painting "Homage to Hockney" (for his friend David Hockney, painted after Hockney drew him) is on permanent display at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio.^[58] His "Boy on Sailboat, Sydney Bay" is in the permanent collection at the National Arts Club in Gramercy Park in New York, as is his "Central Park" at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.^[57] His paintings and drawings have been featured in ARTnews and other magazines, and sell for as much as $80,000 apiece.^[10][52] Many of his works were published in the art book Tony Bennett: What My Heart Has Seen in 1996. In 2007, another book involving his paintings, Tony Bennett in the Studio: A Life of Art & Music, became a best-seller among art books.^[30]

No retirement[link]

Since his comeback, Bennett has financially prospered; by 1999, his assets were worth $15 to 20 million.^[52] He had no intention of retiring, saying "If you study the masters – Picasso, Jack Benny, Fred Astaire – right up to the day they died, they were performing. If you are creative, you get busier as you get older."^[52] Indeed, Bennett has continued to record and tour steadily, doing 100 to 200 shows a year.^[10][52] In concert Bennett often makes a point of singing one song (usually "Fly Me to the Moon") without any microphone or amplification, demonstrating his skills at vocal projection.^[55][60][61] One show, Tony Bennett's Wonderful World: Live From San Francisco, was made into a PBS special. Bennett also created the idea behind, and starred in the first episode of, the A&E Network's popular Live By Request series, for which he won an Emmy Award.^[52][57] In addition to numerous television guest performances, Bennett has had cameo appearances as himself in films such as The Scout, Analyze This, and Bruce Almighty. In 1998 he made an unlikely but successful appearance at a mud-soaked Glastonbury in an immaculate white suit and tie.^[62] Bennett also published The Good Life: The Autobiography of Tony Bennett in 1998.^[57]

A series of albums, often based on themes (such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, blues, or duets), has met with good acceptance; Bennett has won eight more Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance or Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammys in the subsequent years, most recently for the year 2011. Bennett has sold over 50 million records worldwide during his career.^[57]

President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush pose with the Kennedy Center honorees: actress Julie Harris, actor Robert Redford, singer Tina Turner, ballet dancer Suzanne Farrell and Tony Bennett. December 4, 2005, at a reception in the Blue Room at the White House.

Bennett greets Stevie Wonder at the White House on February 25, 2009.

Accolades came to Bennett. For his contribution to the recording industry, Tony Bennett was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street.^[63] Bennett was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997, was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001, and received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2002.^[64] In 2002, Q magazine named Tony Bennett in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die".^[65] On December 4, 2005, Bennett was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor.^[57] Later, a theatrical musical revue of his songs, called I Left My Heart: A Salute to the Music of Tony Bennett was created and featured some of his best-known songs such as "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", "Because of You", and "Wonderful".^[66] The following year, Bennett was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.^[67]

Bennett frequently donates his time to charitable causes, to the extent that he is sometimes nicknamed "Tony Benefit".^[68] In April 2002, he joined Michael Jackson, Chris Tucker and former President Bill Clinton in a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee at New York's Apollo Theater.^[69] He has also recorded public service announcements for Civitan International.^[70] Bennett and Susan Crow founded Exploring the Arts, a charitable organization dedicated to creating, promoting, and supporting arts education. At the same time they founded (and named after Bennett's friend) the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, a public high school dedicated to teaching the performing arts, which opened in 2001 and would have a very high graduation rate.^[2]

Danny Bennett continues to be Tony's manager while Dae Bennett is a recording engineer who has worked on a number of Tony's projects and who has opened Bennett Studios in Englewood, New Jersey. Tony's younger daughter Antonia is an aspiring jazz singer.^[12]

In August 2006, Bennett turned eighty years old. The birthday itself was an occasion for publicity, which then extended through the rest of the following year. Duets: An American Classic reached the highest place ever on the albums chart for an album by Bennett^[7] and garnered two Grammy Awards; concerts were given, including a high-profile one for New York radio station WLTW-FM; a performance was done with Christina Aguilera and a comedy sketch was made with affectionate Bennett impressionist Alec Baldwin on Saturday Night Live; a Thanksgiving-time, Rob Marshall-directed television special Tony Bennett: An American Classic on NBC, which would win multiple Emmy Awards;^[30] receipt of the Billboard Century Award;^[57] and guest-mentoring on American Idol season 6 as well as performing during its finale. He received the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' Humanitarian Award. Bennett was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award in 2006,^[57] the highest honor that the United States bestows upon jazz musicians.

The year 2008 saw Bennett making two appearances on "New York State of Mind" with Billy Joel at the final concerts given at Shea Stadium, and in October releasing the album A Swingin' Christmas with The Count Basie Big Band, for which he made a number of promotional appearances at holiday time. In 2009, Bennett performed at the conclusion of the final Macworld Conference & Expo for Apple Inc., singing the "The Best Is Yet to Come" and "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" to a standing ovation,^[71][72] and later making his Jazz Fest debut in New Orleans.^[73] In February 2010, Bennett was one of over 70 artists singing on "We Are the World: 25 for Haiti", a charity single in aid of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.^[74] In October he performed "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" at AT&T Park before the third inning of Game 1 of the 2010 World Series and sang "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch. Days later he sang "America the Beautiful" at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington, D.C.

Regarding his choices in music, Bennett reiterated his artistic stance in a 2010 interview:

"I'm not staying contemporary for the big record companies, I don't follow the latest fashions. I never sing a song that's badly written. In the 1920s and '30s, there was a renaissance in music that was the equivalent of the artistic Renaissance. Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer and others just created the best songs that had ever been written. These are classics, and finally they're not being treated as light entertainment. This is classical music."^[75]

In September 2011, Bennett appeared on The Howard Stern Show and named American military actions in the Middle East as the root cause of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.^[21] He stated, "To start a war in Iraq was a tremendous, tremendous mistake internationally", before asking, "But who are the terrorists? Are we the terrorists or are they the terrorists? Two wrongs don’t make a right." He disagreed with Stern's premise that the 9/11 attacks led to U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying, "They flew the plane in, but we caused it."^[76] Bennett also claimed that former President George W. Bush personally told him at the Kennedy Center in December 2005 that he felt he had made a mistake invading Iraq, to which a Bush spokesperson replied, "This account is flatly wrong."^[77] Following bad press resulting from his remarks, Bennett clarified his position, writing: "There is simply no excuse for terrorism and the murder of the nearly 3,000 innocent victims of the 9/11 attacks on our country. My life experiences, ranging from the Battle of the Bulge to marching with Martin Luther King, made me a life-long humanist and pacifist, and reinforced my belief that violence begets violence and that war is the lowest form of human behavior."^[78]

In September 2011, Bennett released Duets II, a follow-up to his first collaboration album, in conjunction with his 85th birthday. The album's pairing with Amy Winehouse on "Body and Soul" — reportedly the last recording she made before her death^[79] — charted on the lower reaches of the Billboard Hot 100, making Bennett the oldest living artist to appear there, as well as the artist with the greatest span of appearances.^[80] The single did well in Europe, where it reached the top 15 in several countries. The album then debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making Bennett the oldest living artist to reach that top spot, as well as marking the first time he had reached it himself.^[81] A model of Koss headphones, the Tony Bennett Signature Edition (TBSE1), was created for this milestone^[82] (Bennett having been one of the early adopters of the Koss product back in the 1960s).^[83] In November 2011, Columbia released Tony Bennett – The Complete Collection, a 73 CD plus 3 DVD set, which although not absolutely "complete", finally brought forth many albums that had not had a previous CD release, as well as some unreleased material and rarities.^[49][84] In December 2011, Bennett appeared at the Royal Variety Performance in Salford in the presence of HRH Princess Anne.^[85] In the wake of the premature deaths of Winehouse and Whitney Houston, Bennett called for the legalization of drugs in February 2012.^[86]

Personal life[link]

On February 12, 1952,^[87] Bennett married Ohio art student and jazz fan Patricia Beech, whom he had met the previous year after a nightclub performance in Cleveland.^[27] Two thousand female fans dressed in black gathered outside the ceremony at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral in mock mourning.^[10] Bennett and Beech had two sons, D'Andrea (Danny, born around 1954) and Daegal (Dae, born around 1955).^[88] They separated in 1965, their marriage a victim of Bennett's spending too much time on the road, among other factors.^[10] In 1971, their divorce became official. Bennett became involved with aspiring actress Sandra Grant while filming The Oscar in 1965, and on December 29, 1971 they married.^[87][88] They had two daughters, Joanna (born around 1969) and Antonia (born 1974), and moved to Los Angeles.^[88]

In the late 1980s, Bennett entered into a long-term romantic relationship with Susan Crow (born 1966),^[89] a former New York City schoolteacher.^[12][90] On June 21, 2007, Bennett married Susan in a private civil ceremony in New York that was witnessed by former Governor Mario Cuomo.^[90][91]

Awards and recognition[link]

Bennett performing at a Library of Congress event, May 2003

Bennett has won sixteen Grammy Awards and has also received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award,^[92][93] as follows (years shown are the year in which the ceremony was held and the award was given, not the year in which the recording was released):

• Best Solo Vocal Performance, Male, 1963, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco"
• Record of the Year, 1963, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco"
• Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, 1993, Perfectly Frank
• Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, 1994, Steppin' Out
• Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, 1995, MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett
• Album of the Year, 1995, MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett
• Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, 1997, Here's to the Ladies
• Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, 1998, Tony Bennett on Holiday
• Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, 2000, Bennett Sings Ellington: Hot & Cool
• Lifetime Achievement Award, 2001
• Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, 2003, Playing with My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues
• Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, 2004, A Wonderful World (with k.d. lang)
• Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, 2006, The Art of Romance
• Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, 2007, Duets: An American Classic
• Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, 2007, "For Once in My Life" (with Stevie Wonder)
• Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, 2012, "Body and Soul" (with Amy Winehouse)
• Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, 2012, Duets II

Bennett has won two Emmy Awards,^[94] as follows (years shown are the year in which the ceremony was held and the award was given, not the year in which the program aired):

• Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, 1996, Live by Request
• Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, 2007, Tony Bennett: An American Classic

Bennett has gained other notable recognition:

• New York City's Bronze Medallion, 1969
• Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame^[63]
• Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame, 1997
• Lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, 2002^[64]
• Kennedy Center Honoree, 2005^[57]
• Inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame^[67]
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Humanitarian Award, 2006
• National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award, 2006^[57]
• Received honorary doctorate from the Cleveland Institute of Music, 2010
• Inducted into New Jersey Hall of Fame, 2011^[95]

Works[link]

Discography[link]

Bennett has released over 70 albums during his career, with almost all being for Columbia Records. The biggest selling of these in the U.S. have been I Left My Heart in San Francisco, MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett, and Duets: An American Classic, all of which went platinum for shipping one million copies.^[96] Eight other albums of his have gone gold in the U.S., including several compilations.^[96] Bennett has also charted over 30 singles during his career, with his biggest hits all occurring during the early 1950s and none charting between 1968 and 2010.

Books[link]

• Bennett, Tony. Tony Bennett: What My Heart Has Seen. Rizzoli, 1996. ISBN 0-8478-1972-8.
• Bennett, Tony, with Will Friedwald. The Good Life: The Autobiography Of Tony Bennett. Pocket Books, 1998. ISBN 0-671-02469-8.
• Bennett, Tony, with Robert Sullivan. Tony Bennett in the Studio: A Life of Art & Music. Sterling Publishing, 2007. ISBN 1-4027-4767-5.

See also[link]

• List of best-selling music artists

Bibliography[link]

• Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present (9th ed.). Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-49773-2. 
• Evanier, David (2011). All the Things You Are: The Life of Tony Bennett. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-52065-9. 
• Friedwald, Will (1996). Jazz Singing. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80712-2. 
• Whitburn, Joel (1983). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: 1955 to present. Billboard Publications. ISBN 0-8230-7511-7. 

References[link]