One of the last great champions of the Great American Songbook, Tony Bennett, has died aged 96. The legendary vocalist, who forged a seven-decade career spanning jazz, big band and pop is best-known for hits such as 1951’s Because of You and Blue Velvet and 1962’s I Left My Heart in San Francisco, as well as his later collaborations with Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse, and Aretha Franklin.
Born in Queens, New York, in 1926 Bennett – the son of two Italian immigrants, a grocer and a seamstress – grew up in poverty during the Great Depression, listening to the music of Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, and Joe Venuti.
