"Few artists are as timeless as Tony Bennett, who was a hit-maker in the 1950s and ‘60s and came back in a big way in the ‘90s.Anthony Dominick Benedetto was raised in the Astoria section of Queens in New York and began singing at a very early age, attending the High School of Industrial Arts (a.k.a the High School of Art and Design) before dropping out to help support his family (his grocer father passed away when he was 10 and his seamstress mother struggled to make ends meet.) Bennett was drafted into the Army when he was 18 and after serving in World War II in Europe he returned to the States in 1946 and attended the American Theater Wing on the GI Bill. Bennett's big break occurred when the legendary Bob Hope caught the fledgling singer performing with Pearl Bailey in Greenwich Village and added him to his stage show (suggesting his shorten his name to Tony Bennett.)Bennett singed with Columbia Records in 1950 and his first hit single, ""Because of You,"" followed one year later. Over the next two years Bennett continued to enter the charts with various singles such as 1953's ""Rags to Riches,"" but when rock and roll began to take over the music scene in the mid-'50s Bennett struggled to remain a chart contender, although he continued to release scattered charting singles through 1960, such as the Top Tenner ""In the Middle of an Island"" (1957). During his so-called slump, Bennett began concentrating on a nightclub act which led him to expand his musical horizons to include jazz. In 1962 Bennett released the slowly-catching single ""I Left My Heart in San Francisco,"" which became his signature songs and earned the singer two Grammy awards. Next Bennett released an album which contained another of his signature songs, ""The Good Life,"" and followed with a consistent string of records.In the mid-'70s Bennett formed his own label, Improv, and toward the end of the decade focused on live performances. With the spreading appreciation of tradition pop in the ‘80s, Bennett's popularity surged and by the ‘90s he was as popular as he had been in his hit-making heyday."
