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Mr. Tony Bennett has passed in his home town of the Big Apple.

Someone said he lived a great life, fully.

I agree completely.

He was a great painter as well as definitive interpreter of classic American popular music, Frank Sinatra said he was the best. His duet album with Lady Gaga is excellent, she has a fantastic voice and complemented him beautifully. RIP Mr. Anthony Benedetto.

The good news is, we have good recordings of his work and can enjoy them far into the future. The current crop of pop singers mostly seem to rely on huge production efforts to impress their fans--vast lighting effects, smoke blowing, kilowatts of amplifier power for the guitars and synthesizers, dancers dancing, video screens. Tony Bennett needed a microphone and an accompanist. And in a small room, he could dispense with the mic. There is real artistry on the one hand, and manufactured artistry on the other.

Chris Campbell

He loved his vocations and always seemed to have a smile on his face. It's good we have so much of his best work put up.

Tony was happy being himself. He was a solo artist, like all members of the Rat Pack but was never part of a group. Plus, he was a little younger than frank and Dean... more on the tail end of the era.

Great artist on tape and canvas. Outlived his contemporaries and reinvented himself over and over.

He was also generous, backing and nurturing new talent. Lady Gaga and he together was amazing. That girl has jazz chops and I'd like to see her continue in that vein rather than packing MSG. It takes real talent to work a small club like the Cafe Carlyle, Blue Note or Birdland. These were the types of rooms where Tony built his reputation. Even Sinatra was able to do the Persian Room at the Plaza without causing another bobbysox riot like the Paramount. And still filled MSG years later.

His likes will never be known again. The last of the great crooners, a star and a humble, happy singer who truly loved what he did whether he made money or not...

Imagine him, Sinatra, Martin, Jerry Vale, Al Martino and Vic Damone on stage together.