Tony Bennett
1926-2022
The death earlier today of singer Tony Bennett at the age of 96 brought back a childhood memory that has been buried in the deep recesses of my consciousness for well over 65 years.
I was probably three or four years old. Our neighbor and my Godmother was a young woman named Martha Cordic. Is that name familiar to older generations of Pittsburgher's? She was the sister of Pittsburgh radio legend and icon Rege Cordic, who is also my Godfather, and, as such, she had access to an unlimited supply of 45 RPM records (kids, ask you grandparents what those were), that she was always bringing over to 4224 Saline Street, mainly for my older sister to listen to. I can remember watching those records spin on the record player, and saying a line that would always entertain the big people in the house:
"I hate Tony Bennett!"
I don't know why or who prompted me to say those words, or what they meant, but it made the big people in the house laugh, so I kept saying them.
And this was something that I had completely forgotten until I heard the news today, oh boy.
Well, I grew up, and I quickly forgot my imagined aversion to Tony Bennett. Like everyone, I enjoyed him whenever I had the chance to listen to him sing or see him on television, and I can even remember seeing him perform at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh with Lena Horne back in 1973 or 1974.
After reading THIS OBITUARY from Matt Schudel in the Washington Post, there is nothing that I can write that would top that in summarizing the amazing career of Tony Bennett. I urge you to read it, and I will only state two facts that I learned from it. One, that he had a long battle with drug use in the 1970's and overcame it only when his son intervened and took over managing his career, and two, he had best selling albums in eight consecutive decades, the 1950's through the 2020's
I will leave you with THIS PERFORMANCE of perhaps Bennett's best known song.
RIP Tony Bennett.
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