Tony Bennett, who began his recording career in 1949 and was once described by Frank Sinatra as the world's greatest pop singer, has passed away. He was 96.
Variety writes this morning that "Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, but had continued to perform and record through 2021 … His recordings - most of them made for Columbia Records, which signed him in 1950 - were characterized by ebullience, immense warmth, vocal clarity and emotional openness. A gifted and technically accomplished interpreter of the Great American Songbook, he may be best known for his signature 1962 hit 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco'."
