Like Old Blue Eyes, a friend and mentor who called him “the best singer in the business,” Tony Bennett did it his way.
He died Friday in Manhattan at age 96.
But Bennett went down swinging. Despite a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, he kept performing and recording. His last public performance was in August 2021, when he sang with Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall.
And he got a top-notch sendoff from The New York Times. His very fine obit in that august publication comes to us via the retired obituary writer Bruce Weber, cross-country cyclist and author of “Life is a Wheel: Love, Death, Etc., and a Bike Ride Across America.”
Mad Blog Media 
I could listen to Tony Bennet and K. D. Lang’s cover of “Blue Velvet” all day long. Her and Lady Gaga had a special relationship with him, and it came out in their music.
Oh, yeah, that was a good’un.
You can see the love and respect she had for him in this one. She has some pipes!
Dude saw a lot of life in 96 years. Good and bad.
https://wapo.st/3DruN1X
He lived a life, that’s for sure. With that kinda mileage you have to expect a few ups and downs.
Awesome singer. Sad to see him go, but as my Sicilian grandmother often said, we all gotta go. He was my mom’s age within a few months. She was a singer, too, but regional quality, not world class.
Classy. Dude never seemed to be showboating. He was all like, “Hey, I’m here, I’m singing, the people are digging it, I’m getting paid … what’s not to like?”
Here in Janesville, Wi (population 65k) an elderly high school was converted to apartments. The small auditorium became the Janesville Performing Arts Center. Mr Bennett headlined the inaugural show, one night only. Tougher ticket than Taylor Swift. How the organizers pulled that off I’ll never know.
I love a small venue. I saw Willie Nelson and Family in one such (Corvallis, Oregon), the same town I saw Utah Phillips and half of Planxty (Andy Irvine and Paul Brady), likewise in cozy spots. The Firesign Theatre we saw at Denver’s Ebbets Field (a 238-seater downtown). Some time later we caught Tom Waits at some suburban club that (I think) used to be a movie theater. Awesome. He was using an old brass cash register as a percussion instrument on “Step Right Up” and we didn’t need a telescope to see him do it.