Tony Bennett

Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born on August 3, 1926 in Long Island City, Queens, New York. He fought in the final stages of World War II as a U.S. Army infantryman in the European Theater. Bennett has sold over 50 million records worldwide. He has won 19 Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards.

About Tony Bennett in brief

Summary Tony BennettAnthony Dominick Benedetto was born on August 3, 1926 in Long Island City, Queens, New York. He is the son of a grocer and seamstress. He fought in the final stages of World War II as a U.S. Army infantryman in the European Theater. Bennett has sold over 50 million records worldwide. He has won 19 Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birth name that are on permanent public display in several institutions. The founder of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens,. Bennett began singing at an early age. He signed with Columbia Records and had his first number-one popular song with \”Because of You\” in 1951. 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 personal life experienced an extended downturn during the height of the rock music era. Bennett staged a comeback in theLate 1980s and 1990s, putting out gold record albums again and expanding his reach to the MTV generation while keeping his musical style intact. He remains a popular and critically praised recording artist and concert performer to date. He was named an NEA Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree. His uncle Dick was a tap dancer in vaudeville, giving him an early window into show business, and his Uncle Frank was the Queens borough library commissioner.

Tony 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 father, John Sr., instilled in his son a love of art and literature and a compassion for human suffering, but died when Tony was 10 years old. He worked as a copy boy and runner for the Associated Press in Manhattan and in several other low-skilled, low-paying jobs. He attended New York’s School of Industrial Art where he studied painting and music and would later appreciate their emphasis on proper technique. He dropped out at age 16 to help support his family. He became a class caricaturist at P. S. 141 and anticipated a career in commercial art. He began singing for money at age 13, performing as a singing waiter in several Italian restaurants around his native Queens. He did basic training at Fort Dix and Fort Robinson as part of becoming an infantryman. He moved across France and later, later, into Germany, where he began the front line and served in the Battle of the Bulge. He ran afoul of the Italian-American disliked from the South New York City; heavy doses of KP cleaning or BAR cleaning resulted in what he would later call the “Battles of the South” He was assigned as replacement infantryman to the 255th Infantry Regiment of the 63rd Infantry Division, a unit in a unit that suffered heavy losses in the battle.