He was a larger-than-life jazz crooner with his renditions from The American songbook and hits like “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” and “Rags to Riches”, and Tony Bennett’s last words demonstrate he was a romantic right until the end.
Born and raised in Queens, New York, Bennett won 20 Grammys including a Lifetime Achievement award. His duets with Aretha Franklin andLady Gagaachieved worldwide acclaim and his two albums with the latter debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
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Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto in August 1926, he forged a legendary career in music spanning seven decades and is widely considered a champion of the American songbook, dedicated to preserving compositions penned by Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Duke Ellington, Rodgers and Hammerstein, among others. “I wanted to sing the great songs, songs that I felt really mattered to people,” he said in The Good Life (1998), an autobiography written by Will Friedwald. Frank Sinatra, whom Bennett counted as a mentor and friend, told Life magazine in 1965: “For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business,” he said. “He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He’s the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more.”
By his side until his death on July 21, 2023, Bennett’s wife Susan Crow revealed her husband Tony Bennett’s last words and make sure you have tissues handy.
Tony Bennett’s last words
Tony Bennett’s last words were revealed by his wife, Susan, whom he was with for more than 20 years before marrying in 2007. In what would’ve been his 97th birthday on August 3, 2023, Susan spoke to Today’s Hota Kotb the final thing he said to her. “That he loved me,” she shared. “Yeah. He would wake up every day and still say that. He woke up happy every day. Even if he had had a bad day or night, he didn’t remember it,” she said. “That was the only blessing. He woke up happy. And he’s just like, ‘Susan. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.’ And he would say that to me all the time.”
Bennett died on July 21, 2023. No cause of death was announced. “Tony Bennett, born Anthony Dominick Benedetto in Astoria, Queens on August 3, 1926, has passed away in his hometown of New York City at the age of 96 earlier today,” his publicist Sylvia Weiner told multiple publications likeUSA TodayandPeople. “The beloved singer, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2016, is survived by his wife, Susan, his two sons, Danny and Dae Bennett, his daughters Johanna Bennett and Antonia Bennett and 9 grandchildren.”
His family revealed that he wasdiagnosedwith Alzheimer’s in anAARP article. “He is doing so many things, at 94, that many people without dementia cannot do. He really is the symbol of hope for someone with a cognitive disorder,” his neurologist Gayatri Devi told the site. According to Mayo Clinic, Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia — a gradual decline in memory, thinking, behavior and social skills.
His wife Susan explained that he was in good spirits. “But that’s because he already didn’t understand,” she told AARP. “He would ask me, ‘What is Alzheimer’s?’ I would explain, but he wouldn’t get it.” “He’d tell me, ‘Susan, I feel fine.’ That’s all he could process — that physically he felt great,” Crow said. “So, nothing changed in his life. Anything that did change, he wasn’t aware of.”
The legendary jazz singer first became a dad in 1954 with his eldest son with his then-wife Patricia Beech. He would welcome three more children to the world with his second wife, Sandra Grant, whom he would split from in 2007 and marry Susan Benedetto, the woman that would be by his side until his death on July 21, 2023. In anAARP articlein 2021, Bennett’s family revealed that he had beendiagnosedwith Alzheimer’s Disease in 2016. “He is doing so many things, at 94, that many people without dementia cannot do. He really is the symbol of hope for someone with a cognitive disorder,” his neurologist Gayatri Devi told the site.
Despite the diagnosis, Bennett continued to perform late into his career with none other than longtime collaborator and friend Lady Gaga. In 2021, the duo kicked off their shows at Radio City Music Hall to promote their albumLove For Sale. It was one of Bennett’s last public performances before his death.
“It’s hard to even talk about,” Gaga once said about her friend’s diagnosis. But “it’s important during times like this to be authentic and share the pain of the realities of what it’s like to have a loved one have Alzheimer’s or dementia. I really extend my heart to people who are going through a similar situation.”
In an interview withUSA Today,Lady Gaga talked about her favorite moments with Bennett and the thrill and privilege of performing with him. “My favorite moment was right after I was done singing, Tony went on stage and the curtain lifted up to reveal him. I planned that reveal for hours and hours and hours. And when he opened his mouth to sing “The Best Is Yet to Come” with that spotlight on him, I just burst into tears with joy.For me,that was an absolute privilegeto be a part of. I just wanted everything to be perfect for him during his last moments on stage.”
Gaga shared a memorial post on Instagram post on July 30, 2023. “I will miss my friend forever. I will miss singing with him, recording with him, talking with him, being on stage together. With Tony, I got to live my life in a time warp. Tony & I had this magical power. We transported ourselves to another era, modernized the music together, & gave it all new life as a singing duo. But it wasn’t an act. Our relationship was very real. Sure he taught me about music, about showbiz life, but he also showed me how to keep my spirits high and my head screwed on straight. “Straight ahead,” he’d say. He was an optimist, he believed in quality work AND quality life. Plus, there was the gratitude…Tony was always grateful. He served in WWII, marched with Martin Luther King Jr., and sang jazz with the greatest singers and players in the world.”
The Good Life: The Autobiography Of Tony Bennett
The renowned recording artist Tony Bennett shares a half-century of personal memories, from his childhood in Depression-era Queens to the New York jazz scene of the 1940s, to his successes with a new generation of fans in the 1990s.
The Good Life: The Autobiography of Tony Bennett
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