I have a simple life. I mean, you just give me a drum roll, they announce my name, and I come out and sing. In my job I have a contract that says I'm a singer. So I sing.
I know the history of the record business so well because I followed Billie Holiday into the record studios. It was so primitive compared to the sophisticated business today.
I still insist that American performers are the best performers in the world.
I think one of the reasons I'm popular again is because I'm wearing a tie. You have to be different.
I've been so fortunate because I never really had ups and downs as far as my career. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I've been sold out all over the world.
Intimate singing had a wonderful style in the '30s and '40s. It came out of Broadway and the jazz of Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday. But Sinatra created the best romantic era that we've ever had.
More than anybody else I'd like to thank Count Basie for teaching me how to perform.
My favorite song is "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" because it's become my signature song. I sang it for six American presidents and five command performances... it's made me a world citizen.
The young people look great on television. They're youthful and have a lot of zip and energy, but when you see them live, they can only do about 20 minutes because they haven't got the training to hold an audience for an hour and a half or so.
To work is to feel alive.
Tony now has a theatrical musical revue of his songs, "I Left My Heart: A Salute to the Music of Tony Bennett," and it showcases some of his most popular songs including: "I Left My Heart in San Fransisco", "Because of You", and "Wonderful".
Tony's artwork was featured in his book "Tony Bennett: What My Heart Has Seen," in 1996.
Tony is an accomplished artist and sculptor. He signs his works with Bendetto, his birth name. Examples of his work include his "Heart Left In San Fransisco," a sculpture of a heart in San Fransisco's Union Bay Square, paintings that have been commissioned by the Kentucky Derby and the United Nations, and works such as "Tribute To Hockney," a painting dedicated to his friend David Hockney on permanent display at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio and his "Boy on Sailboat, Sydney Bay" at the National Arts Club in Gramercy Park in New York.
Tony was the first white singer to perform with Count Basie's Orchestra.
Tony was honored with the NEA Jazz Master award in 1997.
Tony worked as a singing waiter in Italian restauraunts when he was a teenager.
Tony served in WWII in the Army as a replacement infantryman, going through France and Germany, and was involved in the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Lansberg.
Tony and his girlfriend Susan founded the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, a public high school dedicated to teaching the performing arts, in 2001.
Tony was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997.
Tony won the ACE award in 1996 for 'Outstanding Performance In A Musical Special Or Series' for his work in "Tony Bennett Live by Request: A Valentine's Special." (1996)
Tony won the Emmy in 1996 for 'Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program,' for his work on "Tony Bennett Live by Request: A Valentine's Special." (1996)
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