'Let Me Play Among the Stars': Tony Bennett Bids Farewell to Us All

Tony Bennett rose to fame when he left his heart on the West Coast, but in reality, the late Italian American crooner — who passed away on Friday at age 96 — was forever tied to Astoria, the western Queens neighborhood where he grew up.

“The finest place to live,” said Bennett in 2009, as he showed a New York Times reporter his favorite haunts. “I’ve been all over the world — Paris and Florence and Capri — and yet I come back here and I like this better than any place I’ve ever lived.”

More than a decade later, Bennett, joined by Lady Gaga, would give his final performance to a tearful audience at Radio City Music Hall in August 2021.

60 Minutes Correspondent Anderson Cooper interviewed Bennett, who was battling dementia, in the lead-up to his final show. When the curtain rose up and the music struck, Bennett emerged from a mental fog and miraculously became himself again.

Watch the clip here:

70 years of memories

Beginning with the No. 1 hit “Because of You” in 1951, Bennett crooned through a decade of chart-topping singles, which led to the international best seller “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” in 1962.

Threatened with sinking into casino-act irrelevance over the next two decades, and at one point struggling with drug and alcohol problems, he sharpened his artistic focus, concentrating on American Songbook standards.

Aided by his son Danny, who became his manager in 1979, Bennett climbed back into pop culture stardom through the ’80s and reached a new demographic-defying pinnacle with a 1994 “MTV Unplugged” recording, according to a Times biography.

Bennett became a permanent fixture in the limelight, and has left a legacy that won’t be duplicated.

He is survived by four children: Danny and Dae from his marriage to Patricia Beech, and Joanna and Antonia from his second marriage to Sandra Grant Bennett, who he separated from in 1979. He was married to Susan Crow, 40 years his junior, since 2007.

In a heartfelt tribute, Joe Bonamassa called Bennett “one of the best to ever grace the stage … the last of the greatest generation of singers and musicians.”

Bennett’s own Twitter account stated: “Tony left us today but he was still singing the other day at his piano and his last song was Because of You, his first #1 hit. Tony, because of you we have your songs in our heart forever.”