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{margin-top:0 !important;margin-bottom:0 !important;}}It’s great to be alive
with Tony Bennett | Editorial - Chicago Sun-Times
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/8/18/22631100/tony-bennett-retires-art-lives-on?fbclid=IwAR0nmca16mZhvKI4oQsGsQau_xwYgRDwoEaDaotJtUNYt1ldrIdAxcNIeG8
It’s great to be alive with Tony Bennett
The celebrated singer has retired from the stage, but his art never grew old.
CST Editorial Board Aug 18, 2021, 4:11pm CDT Filed under: By
Tony Bennett sings at Ravinia in Highland Park on August 2008. Sun-Times file
photo Some people rent life, others own it. Case in point: Tony Bennett. For
almost 80 years, Bennett sang on a stage, with a joy that said life’s a good
thing, and we’re going to miss him now that he’s stopped. What’s a summer at
Ravinia without Tony Bennett?Bennett’s manager, his son, Danny, announced last
week that Tony, who performed two sold-out shows with Lady Gaga just days
before, is retiring from performing. “Doing concerts now is just too much for
him,” Danny said. “Tony’s 95.”You’d never guess it. That was the thing. Maybe
Bennett had his first big hit, “Because of You,” in 1951, way back when you or
your parents or your grandparents were very young. But he was always the age of
wonder on a stage. He didn’t belong to any one generation as much as he
belonged to his art. Younger performers got it. Which is why Lady Gaga, Amy
Winehouse, John Mayer and Queen Latifah wanted to sing with him. Younger
listeners got it, too. An awful lot of Tony Bennett fans on the lawn on those
Ravinia nights were fresh from their school days.Bennett sang the old
standards, inevitably winding up with “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” but
the commitment to his craft never grew old. Earlier this year, Bennett
announced in AARP Magazine that he’s been living with Alzheimer’s disease for
the last four years. And his decision to quit performing, his son said last
week, was in part on “doctor’s orders.”If this sounds like a eulogy, forgive
us. We don’t mean it that way. Tony Bennett is still with us and, who knows,
maybe he’ll slip back into a studio. We hope so.We just thought we’d like to
offer a few words of appreciation, in these stressed-out times, for an American
singer who reminded us with every song that it’s great to be alive.Send letters
to letters@xxxxxxxxxxxx.
