obituary
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Robbie Robertson, beloved guitarist, songwriter and frontman of The Band, died after an unspecified long illness on Wednesday (Aug. 9). He was 80 years old.
Robertsonâs longtime manager, Jared Levine, shared the devastating news in a statement: âRobbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death, including his wife, Janet, his ex-wife, Dominique, her partner Nicholas, and his children Alexandra, Sebastian, Delphine, and Delphineâs partner Kenny. He is also survived by his grandchildren Angelica, Donovan, Dominic, Gabriel, and Seraphina. Robertson recently completed his fourteenth film music project with frequent collaborator Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to support a new Woodland Cultural Centre.â
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The Toronto, Ontario-born artist began playing guitar at age 10, and at just 16 years old he joined drummer Levon Helm in the Hawks, the backing band for Ronnie Hawkins. The Hawks went on to play with Bob Dylan on his legendary Going Electric tours in 1965 and 1966, and recorded the seminal âbasement tapesâ with the legend before changing their groupâs name to The Band. They released their debut Music From Big Pink album in 1968, which featured the Robertson-penned classic, âThe Weight,â and the group performed at Woodstock Festival a year later.Â
Robertson was the sole writer of The Bandâs first four hits on the Billboard Hot 100 â âThe Weightâ (peaked at No. 63), âUp on Cripple Creekâ (No. 25), âRag Mama Ragâ (No. 57), and âTime to Killâ (No. 77). He was also the sole writer of the biggest hit Joan Baez ever had, âThe Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,â which reached No. 3 in 1971.
After eight years as a band, Robertson ended the group in 1976, culminating in The Bandâs legendary farewell concert, The Last Waltz. Dylan, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell all joined the group for the performance at San Franciscoâs Winterland and a corresponding concert film was directed by Martin Scorsese. The Last Waltz soundtrack was released in 1978 and peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
Robertson also delved into the film world, co-writing, producing, appearing in and composing the source music for Carny (1979), starring Gary Busey and Jodie Foster. He went on to create and produce music for Scorseseâs Raging Bull (1980), King Of Comedy (1983), and The Color Of Money (1986), which included âItâs In The Way That You Use It,â co-written with Clapton. Robertson scored, consulted for, produced or supervised music for numerous iconic films throughout the years, including American Beauty (1999), Any Given Sunday (1999) Gangs Of New York (2002), The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2009), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and Silence (2016).
Robertson made his solo album debut in 1987 with his Grammy nominated self-titled album, featuring guests Peter Gabriel and U2 and the beloved track âSomewhere Down The Crazy River.â His sixth and final solo album, Sinematic, was released in 2019.
The Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1989 and received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2008. Robertson never won a Grammy in competition, despite five nods over the years, but he won five Juno Awards in his native Canada, including three in 1989 â album of the year (for his eponymous solo debut album), male vocalist of the year and producer of the year (in tandem with Daniel Lanois).
Additional reporting by Paul Grein.
Enigmatic singer-songwriter Sixto Diaz Rodriguez â commonly referred to as just Rodriguez â has died at 81. The Detroit musician whose slow boil rise to international acclaim was chronicled in the Oscar-winning 2012 documentary Searching for Sugar Man, died on Tuesday night (Aug. 8) according to a statement on his official website.
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âIt is with great sadness that we at Sugarman.org announce that Sixto Diaz Rodriguez has passed away earlier today,â read the note. âWe extend our most heartfelt condolences to his daughters â Sandra, Eva and Regan â and to all his family.â According to the Detroit News, Rodriguez had been in declining health but at press time a cause of death had not been revealed.
The Dylan-esque folk singer recorded two albums in the early 1970s that were released to little notice, Cold Fact (1970) and Coming From Reality (1971), leading the aspiring troubadour to give up on his musical dream, start a family and pursue a philosophy degree as he unsuccessfully ran for a series of local poltical offices.
The News said after failed bids at mayor and state senate, Rodriguez could often be seen walking in Detroitâs Cass Corridor neighborhood with a guitar slung over his shoulder, with most onlookers unaware of his former musical aspirations. That changed in 1979 when he was invited to perform in Australia to celebrate the re-release of his albums; he toured there again in 1981. At the time, it was rumored that he had taken his life by shooting himself on stage (another false story claimed heâd died of a drug overdose) after releasing Coming From Reality on Detroitâs Sussex record label, a false report his absence only served to feed amid a bubbling popularity Down Under.
A decade later, he discovered that his music was even more influential in South Africa, where, unbeknownst to him, his psychedelic-tinged, wistful folk ruminations had become wildly popular among South African youth, who embraced them as anthems against the repressive, racist apartheid government. Though long retired from touring, Rodriguez booked some arena gigs in the nation in 1998 to rabid response and later saw his music re-discovered by artists such as DJ/producer David Holmes, who used Cold Shotâs opening track, âSugar Manâ for his 2002 Come Get It, I Got It compilation alongside songs by Muddy Waters, The Staples Singers, Cyril Neville and Betty Adams. Nas sampled Rodriguez singing the chorus from âSugar Manâ on his 2001 Stillmatic song âYouâre Da Man.â
The uptick in interest led to the re-issues of the albums and a world tour, a renaissance that was capped by the best documentary feature Oscar-winning 2012 film Searching for Sugar Man, which chronicled two fansâ journey to find out what happened to their favorite singer. In fact, it was those two Cape Town diehards, rock journalist Craig Bartholomew and Stephen âSugarâ Segerman, who would become the focus of the film thanks to their dogged search to find out what happened to their favorite musician.
âLike a lot of people here, I discovered Rodriguez while I was in the army, which every 18-year-old used to have to do,â Segerman told the Detroit paper in 2008. âHe was on everyoneâs cassette tapes. Itâs great pop music. But you start to realize this is raw, brutally honest â and thatâs the chord it struck. I was in the army, but I didnât want to be a soldier. I didnât support apartheid. Raw, brutal honest had lots of appeal⌠I told him, âIn South Africa, youâre bigger than Elvis.’â
Dave Matthews, who was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, met Rodriguez before playing Pine Knob in Clarkston, MI in 2022 and later praised him from the stage, telling the crowd that the singer was âone of my heroes growing upâ in South Africa.
Rodriguez was born on July 10, 1942 in Detroit as the sixth child of Mexican immigrants. He began his career in 1967 with his debut single, âIâll Slip Away,â followed by his signing to Sussex â a division of Buddah Records (Isley Brothers, Melanie, The Five Stairsteps) â which released his two albums.
His music earned comparisons to Dylan and Cat Stevens, who gentle 1970s folk anthems of love and understanding were tame compared to Rodriguezâs often more politically leaning lyrics. âTalking about the rich folks/ Rich folks have the same jokes/ And they park in basic places/ The priest is preaching/ From a shallow grave/ He counts his money/ Then he paints you saved,â he sang on the acid-tongue acoustic anthem âRich Folks Hoaxâ from Cold Fact.
Both of his studio albums were re-issued by Light int he Attic in 2009 and the upswell in interest thanks to the film led him to perform with a full orchestra on The Late Show With David Letterman in 2012, as well as at the Coachella, Montreaux Jazz and Glastonbury festivals in 2013.
Listen to âRich Folks Hoaxâ and watch Rodriguez on Letterman below.
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Angus Cloud, the actor who starred on HBOâs Euphoria, has died. He was 25. Cloudâs family announced the news on Monday. âIt is with the heaviest heart that we had to say goodbye to an incredible human today. As an artist, a friend, a brother and a son, Angus was special to all of us in […]
Paul Reubens, the comic actor known for his portrayal of the character Pee-wee Herman, has died. He was 70. News of the starâs death was announced on his Facebook and Instagram pages, which revealed that Reubens died Sunday (July 30) after a battle with cancer. âLast night we said farewell to Paul Reubens, an iconic […]
Neal Langford, former bassist for The Shins, has died at age 50. The groupâs lead singer, James Mercer, confirmed the news in a Thursday (July 27) Instagram post to the bandâs official account.
âJust want to let you guys know one of the best friends Iâve ever had has passed,â Mercer captioned a black-and-white photo of Langford playing his bass on stage. âHe was in several bands with me including the Shins. A very important figure in my life you could say. I mean this is the guy who talked me into getting over my shyness and up on the stage. He put me in front of the microphone!â
Mercer continued, âHe was the catholic school kid who showed me how to sneak into the back of the old El Rey theatre and get a âfreeâ beer. An invaluable person! Who turned me onto Dinosaur Jr. and Interview Magazine and the Cocteau Twins and countless other piles of cool stuff. ⌠Thereâs too much to the story but I loved him. And I owe him a lot. Neal Langford you were always loved and you always will be.â
NBC affiliate WITN in North Carolina reports that the musician, who was also a well-known hot air balloonist and co-owner of IBX Balloon Flight, was found him dead in Bath Creek near a private dock on July 21 by law enforcement in Beaufort County. Foul play is not suspected, and a cause of death was not revealed.
The bassistâs last update on his Instagram account came on June 23, when he shared a certificate of completion for successfully finishing a treatment program at the Walter B. Jones Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Center in Greenville, N.C.
Langford and Mercer played together in a band called Flake â eventually renamed Flake Music â in 1992 that was based in Albuquerque, N.M. The band released one album, 1997âs When You Land Here, Itâs Time to Return, that was later reissued by Sub Pop Records. The Shins was developed as a side project by Mercer and Flake Music drummer Jesse Sandoval in 1996; Langford joined the band in 1999 after Flake Music disbanded and former Shins members Dave Hernandez and Ron Skrasek left the band.
The bassist notably played on the groupâs debut album Oh! Inverted World. The release â now regarded as a classic of the indie rock genre â peaked at No. 19 on Billboardâs Top Alternative Albums chart and was later certified platinum by RIAA. The LPâs lead single, âNew Slang,â was featured in the 2004 movie Garden State starring Natalie Portman.
See Mercerâs tribute post to Langford below.
Randy Meisner, founding Eagles bassist and the sky-high voice behind the bandâs 1976 Billboard Hot 100 top five hit âTake It to the Limit,â has died at age 77, the band announced Thursday (July 27).
Meisner died Wednesday night due to complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to a statement from the band.
âRandy was an integral part of the Eagles and instrumental in the early success of the band,â the band said in the statement. âHis vocal range was astonishing, as is evident on his signature ballad, âTake It to the Limit.ââ
Alongside Glenn Frey, Don Henley and Bernie Leadon, Meisner â born in Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, in 1946 â was a founding member of the Eagles in 1971. Before forming the band, he played with Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band and was the original bass player for country-rock group Poco in the late 1960s.
Meisner was with the Eagles from their self-titled 1972 debut album through 1976âs Hotel California, before quitting the group in 1977. (He was replaced by Timothy B. Schmit, who had also succeeded Meisner in Poco when he had departed the group to form the Eagles.)
The bulk of the Eaglesâ vocal duties went to Henley and Frey, but Meisner sang lead on one of the groupâs most enduring hits: âTake It to the Limit,â from the 1975 album One of These Nights, peaked at No. 4 on the Hot 100 in 1976 and spent 23 weeks on the chart â the bandâs longest-charting hit on the tally. The song is remembered for Meisnerâs lofty vocals, especially toward the end of the song when his âaaaahs!â rise to new heights.
Meisner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the Eagles in 1998.
Tragedy struck Meisnerâs personal life in 2016 when his wife, Lana Rae Meisner, was fatally shot in the coupleâs Los Angeles home after an âaccidental discharge of a firearm,â according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
According to the Eaglesâ statement, funeral arrangements are pending for Meisner.
Sinead OâConnor has died at age 56, according to The Irish Times.Billboard has reached out to her reps.
With her bald head, piercing eyes and fierce bearing, OâConnor burst onto the music scene in the late 1980s, serving as a rebuke to the parade of sexist tropes that dominated the eraâs hair metal scene. She gave notice of her bold path away from the typical packaging of female pop stars from the very first notes of her 1987 debut, The Lion and the Cobra, which she recorded while pregnant at 20 with her first child.
A mix of driving rock (âMandinkaâ), alluring hip-hop (âI Want Your (Hands on Me)â and intense ballads (âJackieâ), OâConnor emerged as a fully formed force to be reckoned with, her powerful voice a haunting howl full of pain and mystery one moment, a steely suit of armor at others. Not concerned with the typical trappings of pop stardom, OâConnorâs public face â the shaved head, slouchy wardrobe and curious mix of dance, rock, folk, Irish balladry and devotional tropes â was an instant hit on alternative radio, as well as dance clubs, where remixes of âMandinkaâ and âI Want Your Hands (On Me)â became staples for many party DJs.
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Though her debut brought raves from both sides of the Atlantic, it was 1990âs I Do Not Want What I Havenât Got that served as both OâConnorâs career high and turning point. With the run-away success of her gripping cover of Princeâs âNothing Compares 2 U,â as well as the chilling video for the track, the singer was thrust into the international spotlight, a place she seemed uneasy with at times. The album laid bare her personal struggles and feelings of loss in a striking manner, weaving the words from a Frank OâConnor poem with Celtic melodies and a sample of the James Brown âFunky Drummerâ beat on the eerie âI Am Stretched on Your Grave.âÂ
In between, she hits pop highs (âThe Emperorâs New Clothesâ) amid personal turmoil and touches on wrenching real-life drama (âThe Last Day of our Acquaintanceâ) with massive beats, while mixing in a six-minute a cappella dirge and a prescient elegy for the police-involved death of a black London youth.
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Even as her star was rising, OâConnor refused to play the music industry game, controversially defending the sometimes bloody tactics of the Irish Republican Army in interviews, lashing out at longtime cheerleaders U2 and refusing to perform and refusing to perform on Saturday Night Live in May 1990 alongside comedian Andrew Dice Clay. She earned the ire of Frank Sinatra a few months later when she refused to perform at a New Jersey venue when she found out the national anthem would play before she took the stage. The move caused some stations to pull her music from airwaves and resulted in Sinatra threatening to âkick her in the aâ.â
The controversy continued two years later, when OâConnor was again booked on SNL, where she performed an a cappella version of Bob Marleyâs âWarâ and, in a surprise to producers, stared into the camera at songâs end and tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II and said âfight the real enemyâ as a protest against the Catholic churchâs cover-up of child abuse by clergy; OâConnor would later say she she was abused as a child.
SinĂŠad Marie Bernadette OâConnor was born on Dec. 8, 1966, in Glenageary, County Dublin, Ireland, to Sean and Marie OâConnor, who split when the singer was 8 years old. She claimed over the years that she and her two siblings were physically abused when they went to live with their mother after the divorce. Her teenage years were spent getting sent to reform schools and boarding schools due to bouts of shoplifting and other bad behavior and her discovery at 15 by the drummer for the Irish band Tua Nua, who heard her singing Barbra Streisandâs âEvergreenâ at a wedding.
OâConnor studied voice and piano at Dublinâs College of Music before moving to London in the early 1980s, where she collaborated with U2 guitarist the Edge on a song for the soundtrack to 1986âs The Captive.
Her career was marked by an unpredictability, including the pop standards album she released in 1992, Am I Not Your Girl?, which failed to reach the success of its predecessors and began a slow commercial decline. She laid low for several years after the SNL incident â and another one shortly after in which she was roundly booed at a Bob Dylan tribute concert in New York â returning in 1994 with the underappreciated Universal Mother solid, which featured a moving Nirvana cover (âAll Apologiesâ) and several songs that laid brutally bare her fierce drive to protect children from dangerous mothers.
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The years that followed included stories about her retirement, a permanent ban on talking to the press, a return to her Irish folk roots on 200âs Faith and Courage and 2002âs Sean-NĂłs Nua, a detour into covers of reggae songs on 2005âs Throw Down Your Arms and  2007âs two-disc Theology collection. OâConnorâs final album, 2014âs Iâm Not Bossy, Iâm the Boss, was widely praised for its return to her honest, emotionally charged songwriting and unique pop craft.Â
OâConnor had been very open about her mental health issues, which include a misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder, later amended to PTSD, including depression and suicidal tendencies, canceling a tour in 2012 after a doctor ordered her to get some rest following what was described as a âvery serious breakdown.â
In January 2022, the singer suffered a massive loss when her 17-year-old son, Shane, was found dead in Ireland after she reported him missing to authorities. The singer-songwriter tweeted that he âthe very light of my life, decided to end his earthly struggle today and is now with God. May he rest in peace and may no one follow his example. My baby, I love you so much. Please be at peace.â
She is survived by three children.
Tony Bennett died at his home in New York on July 21, according to a statement from his management company. He was 96 years old. Tetris Kelly:The legendary jazz singer Tony Bennett has died at the age of 96. Tony Bennettâs list of amazing achievements includes 20 Grammys, 23 Hot 100 hits and 44 Billboard […]
Tony Bennett, a singerâs singer whose steadfast allegiance to the Great American Songbook would connect him with multiple generations of diverse talent â Pearl Bailey, Count Basie, Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga â died on Friday morning (July 21) at his home in New York according to a statement from his management company. He was 96-years-old.
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The singer was diagnosed with Alzheimerâs Disease in 2016 and in 2021 he announced that he was retiring from touring and performing after one last show in August of that year with good friend and avowed superfan Gaga at Radio City Music Hall entitled âOne Last Time.â
Bennett had a continuous recording career from 1950 to 2014 that would see him release more than 60 albums, 44 of which would chart on the Billboard 200, win 16 Grammy Awards, and include a signature song in âI Left My Heart in San Francisco.â Over the last 25 years, Bennett thrived as the primary connection between modern pop and the music of the first half of the 20th century that came from Tin Pan Alley, Broadway shows and movies. Sticking to his style as he recorded with Gaga, Elvis Costello, k.d. lang and Winehouse, Bennett became a paragon of multi-generational cool starting in the early 1990s as he toured the world and, in 2011 at the age of 85, had his first No. 1 album with Duets II.
A student of the bel canto style of singing, Bennett developed his own voice by going to the jazz clubs on New Yorkâs 52nd Street and listening to musicians such as saxophonist Charlie Parker and pianist Art Tatum. (A performance Tatum once gave of âDanny Boyâ affected Bennett to the point that he named his first song Danny). He was following the advice of his voice teacher, Miriam Spier, who advised him that the only way to stand out is to emulate instrumentalists rather than other singers.
âI prefer the way the jazz artists work, and this is one of the things I have learned over the years from guys like (cornetist) Bobby Hackett,â Bennett told Billboard in 1968. âThe way you feel it is the way it comes out, and itâs never the same way twice. Thatâs the way I like to sing â as if I just picked up the lead sheet for the first time.â
Bennett would stick to his guns about songs and his interpretations, even when it meant leaving Columbia Records after 23 years and forming his own label, Improv Records. Similarly, his output in the 1980s slowed as he resisted following trends, the payoff coming in the â90s when he paid tribute to the work of Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday and exposed a 21st century generation to the music he cut his teeth on.
âHow does a singer get good performances out of himself,â Bennett wrote in a 1968 issue of Billboard. âThrough dedication to his own talent. Through his wish to communicate with the listener in the audience. Through the songs he personally believes in.â
Born Antonio Dominick Benedetto in Long Island City, N.Y., on Aug. 3, 1926, Bennett started singing when he was 5, learning Irish songs from locals in his Astoria neighborhood and earn pennies and nickels for his performances.
Bennettâs father was ill most of the singerâs life, dying when Bennett was 10. His mother became a seamstress and, to contribute to the household of three children, Bennett, whose inspirations were Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong and Jimmy Durante, started singing in a tavern for $15 a week. At 16, he working as an usher at Ditmars Theater, worked as a singing waiter in a couple of local clubs and sang on weekends at a club in Paterson, N.J.
His goal, however, was to become a commercial artist after finishing studies at the High School of Industrial Arts in Manhattan. (He would be an avid visual artist his entire life, using his given name for his oil paintings). Bennett joined the Army and was stationed in Germany where he sang with Army bands.
After his discharge from the service, Bennett studied drama, diction and music theory at the American Theatre Wing. He started a singing in nightclubs in 1946, using the name Joe Barri.
He was opening for Pearl Bailey in 1949 at the Greenwich Village Inn when Bob Hope heard him and offered him an opening slot on his show at the Paramount Theatre. No fan of the name Joe Bari, Hope decided the singerâs birth name was too long for a marquee and suggested the Americanized âTony Bennett.â Around that time he appeared on Arthur Godfreyâs Talent Scouts TV show, coming in second place to Rosemary Clooney.
âI went to the Paramount Theater with Louis Prima,â Bennett told Billboard in 2006 when he received the Billboard Century Award. We had to do seven shows a day â start at 10 a.m. and go until 10 p.m. Sinatra did the same. It was tough.â
While on the road with Hope, a demo recording he had done of âBoulevard of Broken Dreamsâ led to Columbia Records bringing him in for a session. Bennett recorded four songs, âBoulevardâ among them, on April 17, 1950; 10 days later âBoulevard of Broken Dreamsâ was released and would go to No. 1 for 10 weeks.
Bennett landed 12 top 20 singles between 1951 and 1954: âBecause of You,â âCold, Cold Heartâ and âRags to Richesâ went to No. 1; âStranger in Paradiseâ peaked at No. 2.
An early sign that he would work without attention to genre was âCold, Cold Heart,â the first pop recording of a Hank Williams song. Jerry Wexler, while working at Billboard prior to joining Atlantic Records, played Williamsâ version for Columbia A&R executive Mitch Miller, who brought the song to Bennett.
The recording exposed Williams to a pop audience for the first time, starting atrend that would become Bennettâs forte: In his first 18 years of making records, Billboard credited Bennett with introducing nearly 60 songs, helping establish writers such as Cy Coleman and Charles deForest. And he did so on his own terms, singing pop on singles and turning to jazz for his albums, recording with Art Blakey, Zoot Sims, Count Basie, Bill Evans, Frank Wess and other leading jazz artists.
His 1957 album The Beat of My Heart was jazz interpretations of standards given heavily percussive arrangements andfeaturing the drummer backed by Blakey, Jo Jones and Chico Hamilton. He wasalso the first male pop singer to work with Basie, releasing In Person with Count Basie and His Orchestra in 1959.
âThe Countâs attitude became my philosophy â economy of keep it simple, keep it swinginâ,â Bennett once said.
Bennett landed four top 20 hits on the Hot 100 in 1956, âIn the Middle of an Islandâ charting highest, No. 9 in 1957. Miller, in a 1968 interview with Billboard, said a hit for Columbia at the time was anything that sold at least 150,000copies. Initial pressings of all of Bennettâs record were 200,000, to which Miller said âweâve never overestimated.â
Still, entering the 1960s, he was in a top 20 dry spell, which may have owed to him avoiding the urging of Columbia brass to try more pop-oriented material.
âIn the American Theatre Wing they insisted on no compromise,â Bennett told Billboard in 1968. âMitch Miller actually understood where I was coming from though he was frustrated with me. I try to just never compromise. Not to be stubborn, but I donât like to insult the audience.â
In 1961, during a stay in Hot Springs, Ark., Bennettâs pianist since 1956, Ralph Sharon, brought to Bennett a song written by his friends George Cory and Douglass Cross. Sharon suggested he sing it during his December 1961 run at the Venetian Room at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.
âHe played it for me and I liked it right away,â Bennett told Billboard. âIt had been around and nothing had happened. I sang it at the Fairmont Hotel, but didnât record it until six months later.â
âI Left My Heart in San Franciscoâ peaked at No. 19 in 1961, but the album I Left My Heart in San Francisco would enjoy 149 weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 5.
âBefore I recorded âSan Francisco,â the trend of the music business was moving away from me,â Bennett told Billboard in 1968. âI was advised to try all sorts of tricks and gimmicks. I held out and finally found âSan Francisco.ââ
Bennettâs two follow-up singles in 1963 charted higher than âSan Franciscoâ: âI Wanna Be Aroundâ hit No. 14 and âThe Good Lifeâ peaked at No. 18. His album output perked up, too, with Columbia issuing two new studio albums in â63 and three in â64. I Wanna Be Around also reached No. 5 and would be his highest charting album for the next 46 years.
No denying âSan Franciscoâ had changed his life as an entertainer, but it was a comment Sinatra made to Life magazine in 1965 that Bennett said made the difference in how he was viewed professionally.
âFor my money,â Sinatra told Life, âTony Bennett is the best singer in the business, the best exponent of a song. He excites me when I watch him. Heâs the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more.â
Powers at Columbia Records, though, wanted more hits from Bennett and wanted him to add more contemporary material to his repertoire. Other than his ballad rendition of Stevie Wonderâs âFor Once in My Lifeâ in 1967, his final Hot 100 hit (No. 91), his albums and singles stopped selling.
âAnyone who sings popular songs and tells you that he doesnât want a hit song is lying,â Bennett wrote in the liner notes to a 1991 Columbia Legacy box set. âEarly in my career, I decided to sing only the best, not realizing that I would run into many men in the business world who would try to get me to sing novelty songs with gimmicks, insisting that the public had the mentality of a 14-year-old.â
Columbia re-signed Bennett in 1968 and then-president Clive Davis continued to have Bennett record pop hits â Beatles songs, âThe Look of Love,â âMy Cherie Amourâ â with no commercial success. At the same time, Bennett was going through a divorce with his first wife, Patricia, and, in 1971, marrying his second wife, Sandra Grant.
Bennett left Columbia â and the U.S. â going to London to host the TV show Tony Bennett From Talk of the Town. Then-manager Derek Boulton secured Bennett a deal with Curb-Polygram, which put him on Verve Records; he made a couple of albums before being dropped.
Despite Columbia offering to re-sign him, Bennett and Bill Hassett, a hotel and real estate magnate from Buffalo, N.Y., joined forces to create Improv Records in 1972, starting with a record by Ruby Braff. Two of Bennettâs two most significant jazz albums came out in that era, The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album on Fantasy in 1975 and Together Again on Improv in 1977. While nether charted, Bennett considered the bare bones nature of his collaborations with the pianist Evans vital. âIf you can get to a pure simple thing, it always lasts forever,â he said in the liner notes of Concord Music Groupâs Complete Improv Recordings set.
The label released about 10 jazz albums and, due to distribution issues, shut down.
Bennett, who performance schedule was largely limited to Las Vegas in the late â70s, found himself with money problems, a failing marriage and succumbing to â70s drug culture until he overdosed on cocaine in 1979.
âThe manager of Lenny Bruce told me he sinned against his talent with his drug habit,â Bennett told Piers Morgan on CNN in 2011 about his decision to stop doing drugs. âThat sentence changed my life. Iâve been given this gift. I know how to sing and perform. Iâm sinning against this gift and I thought, âI am not going to do that any more,â and I just stopped. I had to, because I thought I was going to lose everything. It wassaid at the right moment, at the right time.â
Bennett reached out to his oldest song Danny who took over as manager, moving his father back to New York, reuniting him with Ralph Sharon, the pianist who left in 1965, and booking him in small theaters and colleges. Bennett returned to Columbia Records, releasing The Art of Excellence in 1986. The first of his 18 albums for the label since returning, it peaked at No. 160, his first Billboard 200 entry in 14 years. He followed it by continuing to return to his roots, recording an album of Irving Berlin songs with jazz musicians such as Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie and George Benson.
To promote those albums, Bennett started appearing on The Late Show With David Letterman, the late-night talk show that would become crucial in establishing a new audience for him in the 1990s.
In 1989, still discouraged by slumping record sales, Bennett told new management at Columbia Records he was ready to hang it up. New Columbia president Donnie Ienner asked Bennett to come up with a concept that the label could sell. Within days, Bennett came up with Perfectly Frank, a tribute to Sinatra that would hit No. 102 and go on to win the Grammy for Traditional Pop Album.
It led to a second concept album, Steppinâ Out, a tribute to Astaire, and the floodgates opened.
The investments Danny Bennett started making with The Art of Excellence began paying dividends in 1990 when Tony Bennett became the first celebrity written into an episode of The Simpsons. He would then make a Nike commercial, have his music synched in GoodFellas, The Fabulous Baker Boys, JFK and A Bronx Tale and deliver a show-stopping performance of âWhen Do The Bells Ring For Meâ at the 1991 Grammy Awards. To remind audiences of Bennettâs past triumphs, Columbia Legacy issued a four-CD box set, Forty Years: The Artistry of Tony Bennett, that has sold 88,000 copies. (The set was updated in 2004 as Fifty Years).
Perhaps the biggest moment of Bennettâs revival came at the MTV VMAs in September 1993 when Bennett, dressed in a black T-shirt, top hat, sunglasses and a tie, accompanied the Red Hot Chili Peppersâ Anthony Kiedis and Flea â in tuxedos â to present the Video of the Year. Kiedis and Flea joked with Bennett at the podium save for him perfectly singing a snippet of âGive it Away.â
The response was such that Bennettâs video for âSteppinâ Out With My Babyâ was then promptly placed in the MTV Buzz Bin, a demarcation of cool in 1993.
MTV continued its association with Bennett, booking him for an Unplugged special in 1994; it would win the Grammy for Album of the Year at the 1995 ceremony. While the strategy was to pair Bennett with lang and Costello, the repertoire was classic Bennett: âFly me to the Mon,â âThey Canât Take That Away From Me,â âAll Of You,â âOld Devil Moonâ and other standards.
âI always tried to do good songs,â Bennett told Billboard in 2006. âWhen the whole rock ânâ roll change came in with Elvis Presley, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, I kept doing good songs. I just kept working. My ambition was never to go to No. 1, over the top bigger than anybody. If Iâm sold out (in concert), and people want to come back 11 months later and see me again, Iâm successful.â
In 2006, to celebrate his 80th birthday, his Duets: An American Classic featuring performances with Paul McCartney, Elton John, Barbra Streisand, Bono and others became his best-selling album in the Soundscan era, moving 1.95 million copies and peaking at No. 3.
Duets inspired the Rob Marshall-directed television special Tony Bennett: An American Classic, which aired on NBC in November 2006 and would go on to win seven Emmy Awards including Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special and Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.
When Duets II debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts in 2011, Bennett became the only artist at the age of 85 to have a chart-topping album. A documentary tied to Bennettâs 85th birthday, The Zen Of Bennett, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2012 .
Bennett received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001, Kennedy Center Honors in 2005 and a year later was named an NEA Jazz Master and received, a Citizen of the World award from the United Nations. The U.N. also commissioned him for two paintings, one for its 50th anniversary. Three of his paintings are part of the Smithsonian Museumsâ permanent collections including his portrait of his Duke Ellington that became part of the National Portrait Galleryâs collection in 2009.
Bennett wrote four books: his autobiography The Good Life with Will Friedwald; Life is a Gift, What My Heart Has Seen and Tony Bennett in the Studio: A Life in Art & Music with Robert Sullivan.
Bennett, who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the historic Selma, Ala., march in 1965, raised millions of dollars for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and donated his paintings annually for use as American Cancer Societyâs annual holiday greeting card.
In 1999, Bennett and his wife Susan Benedetto founded Exploring the Arts to strengthen the role of the arts in public high school education and established the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria in 2001.
Though Bennett was rarely seen in the years since his diagnosis, in January the singer congratulated his Love For Sale and Cheek to Cheek collaborator Gaga for her fourth Oscar nomination when the singer was given a nod for best original song for âHold My Handâ from Top Gun: Maverick. âCongratulations to the amazingly talented @ladygaga on her 4th Oscar nomination!â Bennett tweeted. âToday, Lady Gaga makes history as the first artist to receive three nominations in the Best Original Song category at the #Oscars. So proud of you!â
Besides his wife Susan and son Danny, Bennett is survived by another son, Dae, and daughters Antonia and Joanna, as well as nine grandchildren.
Chicago-based ghetto house pioneer DJ Deeon has died. An update posted to the artistâs Facebook page on Tuesday (July 18) by an administrator states that âI am sorry to announce the legendary Artist, Producer, DJ, Label owner, and my friend Deeon âDJ Deeonâ Boyd gained his wings today. The family thanks you for your support […]