Tony Bennett, Grammy-winning singer loved by generations, dies at age 96

Singer Tony Bennett, whose joyful and stirring renditions of such classics as “Rags to Riches,” “The Way You Look Tonight,” and his signature song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” made him one of the most popular interpreters of jazz, pop and Broadway standards, died Friday, his rep confirmed to CBS News. He was 96.

The winner of 19 Grammy Awards during his seven-decade career, Bennett recorded 60 studio albums and dozens of live albums and compilations. Seven were Top 10 albums on the Billboard charts. 

But he was inextricably linked to one song above all others — a song that he first rehearsed without ever having set foot in San Francisco.

Bennett recalled for “Sunday Morning” in 2014 how his music director, Ralph Sharon, found the song as they were headed to San Francisco for the first time. The two rehearsed it one afternoon at a nightclub in Little Rock, Arkansas: “And the bartender said, ‘I don’t wanna interrupt you two fellows, but if you ever record that, I’m gonna be the first guy to buy the record.’ And we felt a little encouraged! And when I got to San Francisco, at rehearsal I started singing it, everybody ran up to me and said, ‘You’ve gotta record this song.'”

“I Left My Heart in San Francisco” was actually released as the B-side of Bennett’s 1962 record, “Once Upon a Time.” But it was that B-side that would win the Grammy for record of the year, and earn Bennett a Grammy for his performance. It became his signature tune.

“Most artists that are connected with one famous thing, they get upset: Why should it just be one thing? What about all the other things that I do?” Bennett told “Sunday Morning.” “But I feel different. I love ‘San Francisco,’ the song. I sing it every night like it was the first time I ever sang it.”

He would even sing it during a 1994 appearance on “MTV Unplugged,” in which he performed with Elvis Costello and k.d. lang. A recording of the concert went platinum and won two Grammys, including album of the year. 

Bennett’s durability as a performer was not just attributed to his spectacular set of pipes; he also took the stage with a remarkable joy for sharing the Great American Songbook — works by George and Ira Gershwin, E.Y. Yarburg, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and Johnny Mercer.