Tony Bennett...R.I.P.

Ho Ho Ho.  Bellyaching .
R.I.P.  Tony Bennett.

Born to die,bit overated imv……100s die every day in Britain….

a crooner matata

R.I.P.

Quixall went to school with his cousins,Gordon and Arnold!!

Too much rip ffs….

Arnold was a good egg btw Quixall!!

Sinatra said he was the best. A class act, Rest in Peace.

Fantastic age for the profession with the lowest life expectancy.  A very good innings

A very good innings and a pretty good singer over many decades, i do wonder though if he would have been as successful without the best toupee in showbizz, RIP.

Could sing beautifully without music, a beautiful voice, the last of the great crooners RIP Tony

Imo, definitely in the top 5 crooners...
With Frank Sinatra and Andy Williams vying for top spot

My top 5
Sinatra
Bennett
Andy Williams
Englebert (yes him)
Bobby Darin.

No place for Matt Munro on that list, dam buster?
He's in mine

Tony Bennett was too woke for most forumites. From the Telegraph obituary:-

In 1944 he was drafted into the Army and served in Germany. He was stripped of his corporal’s stripe by a racist sergeant for inviting a black friend to Thanksgiving dinner, and he found himself reassigned to excavating mass graves.

Apparently Bennett only became a singer when he could not get into art school. He wanted to be a painter and did some amateur daubing.

From the Jewish Chronicle obituary:-

Bennett wrote in his autobiography, titled The Good Life, of the moment [the US Army liberated Dachau death camp]:-

   “I’ll never forget the desperate faces and empty stares of the prisoners as they wandered aimlessly around the campgrounds.

   “Once we took possession of the camp, we immediately got food and water to the survivors, but they had been brutalised for so long that at first they couldn’t believe that we were there to help them and not to kill them.

   “To our horror we discovered that all of the women and children had been killed long before our arrival and that just the day before, half the remaining survivors had been shot…The whole thing was beyond comprehension.”

In an interview in 2018 with the Baltimore Jewish Times, he said his experience in the Army “turned me into a lifelong pacifist and it’s my hope that all wars and violence will become a thing of the past.”

https://www.thejc.com/news/news/tony-bennett-legendary-us-singer-who-helped-to-liberate-nazi-death-camp-dies-aged-96-3bcmCWs5ql1u0AGZnGGl2e

Jul 22, 2023 -- 11:18AM, Regbutler wrote:

No place for Matt Munro on that list, dam buster?He's in mine

Yes Reg, he was up there with Englebert as the best british singer, a beautiful voice
Lie Darin, left us way too young

Like ^^

I visited San Francisco a few years back and of course I had to ride the little cable car that climbed halfway to the stars. I couldn't help singing those words that Tony Bennett will long be remembered for. One of the all time greats for sure.

Jim Reeves

Big respect beautiful singer….imv

What about Anthony Newley, he had a very strange voice but somehow i like it

Here is my top 5
Sinatra
Bennett
Vic Damone
Bobby Darin
Matt Monro
Loads more but these are only my favourites.

Sinatra was overated imo

The jazz and pop legend helped to liberate the Dachau death camp as a young US soldier

https://www.thejc.com/news/news/tony-bennett-legendary-us-singer-who-helped-to-liberate-nazi-death-camp-dies-aged-96-3bcmCWs5ql1u0AGZnGGl2e

So sad to lose a man I knew so well in the early days of the East End and singers ruled. RIP

Early days of the East End?

Yes, I was a docker then and sometime singer in Mile End, when you were cutting skirt tails in some fancy Hackney shop

Whereabouts in Mile End?

You must be getting on now with the docks gone by 1980.

In the Horn of Plenty, and there were plenty of East End lasses after such a crooner as myself: big and strong and fit enough to take on any stevedore's wife!

Yes, the last time I walked on the Dogs was with Betty to reminisce, and they'd built this great big Dutch canal and apartment block where we used to love.

All the low lamposts where you could sit a lass on had gone too, and they were all these concrete strands without the low hump to get her on. Betty and me simply went back to her place and did it there, but we did play old Matty to remember old times when he was with us. aaargh.

Whenever I think about Mile End, I'm reminded of the **** Yu Chinese restaurant that I used to pass on most days on my way home to Wanstead. That was 50+ years ago.

Tubby Issacs

Out of Mile End Tube and the 677 trolleybus to Hackney.

Perhaps I'm swimming against the tide here but that whole ratpack era, Mack The Knife, Sinatra at al literally leaves me stone cold.

I wholeheartedly agree slippy. Youngsters who grew up in the 50s and 60s had no music of their own until the late 50s when Elvis and Rock and Roll appeared and all we had was our parents music with Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Perry Como and the rest of them crooners.

Johnny Ray was another crooner the girls loved, they must have fainted when Elvis came along

Ah that's good to read Sparrow, like you it really is not for me either.
As regards to rock and roll that was before my time really, I did get into music properly in the mid 70's as still a youngster and went to see many different groups, singers from the early 80's onwards.

I would have been a mod though definitely were I around at that time.

The list is endless

The ones who held the mic away from the face with calm were natural

The one who spat and almost eat the mic with the veins like stocks in the neck forcing and howling,grossly overrated…

A lot of the karaoke material nowadays end the dreadful effort with a yeah yeah yeah…..ffs…

I stopped listening in the nineties when the silly boy bands came on….Robbie Williams a **** and a cup of tea ffs….

Robbie Williams, ffs i'd rather listen to Charlie Williams, me o'l flower

Lol

formoftheace
Date Joined: 17 Apr 12
Add contact | Send message
22 Jul 23 20:34Joined: 17 Apr 12 | Topic/replies: 8,789 | Blogger: formoftheace's blog
Sinatra was overated imo

Yeah a lorry driver from Scotland thinks Sintara is wank, get a grip FFS you on 50k a year this guy was earning millions in the 70s. In fact he had a contract that gave Sammy 20k to spunk every night in the casino they played and Sammy did it every night They were both talented to the high heavens you could of dream of their lives.

My dad’s favourite

Did Hackney honestly once have a "fancy shop"?

Without doubt the greatest singing artiste of the twentieth century.  Anyone with but a pea purporting to represent a brain knows that.

A lot of people on here old before their time. Like listening to your grannie and I'm older than nearly all of you lot of codgers.

formoftheace
Date Joined: 17 Apr 12
Add contact | Send message
22 Jul 23 20:34Joined: 17 Apr 12 | Topic/replies: 8,789 | Blogger: formoftheace's blog
Sinatra was overated imo

Yeah a lorry driver from Scotland thinks Sintara is wank, get a grip FFS you on 50k a year this guy was earning millions in the 70s. In fact he had a contract that gave Sammy 20k to spunk every night in the casino they played and Sammy did it every night CryCryCry They were both talented to the high heavens you could of dream of their lives.

Wow ! Earning millions ffs…who cares and who mentioned money,he was overrated imv….some like and some don’t….a few undesirable type as fake friends to boot

Lorry driver….tanker driver there is a difference,one delivers high octane fuel the other cornflakes etc…..

Facts before spout….ffs…