TONY BENNETT - editorial collage for Billboard
Tony Bennett in Billboard’s Back Pages: From ‘Bobby-Sox Crowd’ Favorite to Elder Statesman.
The iconic crooner graced our pages for decades.
The iconic crooner graced our pages for decades.
When Tony Bennett died July 21 in his hometown of New York at the age of 96, the world lost one of the last great interpreters of the American Songbook. Billboard has 32 years on Tony — although we can only wish we had such unflagging class and charisma — and we have to admit that we greeted the crooner with a “Cold, Cold Heart” when he debuted in 1951. But we quickly came to appreciate the way he flew us to the moon.
“I feel on top of the world,” Bennett told Billboard in an Aug. 11, 2016, interview. “I’m singing well. The audience loves what I’m doing. All I can tell you is I have a blessed life.”
TONY BENNETT © 2023 Barbara Gibson, Marta Kochanek
TONY BENNETT © 2023 Barbara Gibson, Marta Kochanek
for Billboard Issue 11
