I heard he knew some wise guys and even performed at a Mafia wedding? Any names in particular who he knew/met? I imagine many Mafioso heard of his early songs.
RIP

He performed at the most famous mafia wedding in 1956.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-06-01-ca-8523-story.html

Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born on August 3, 1926,[6] at St. John's Hospital in Long Island City, Queens, in New York City.[7] He was the son of grocer John Benedetto and seamstress Anna (Suraci), and was the first member of his family to be born in a hospital.[8] In 1906, John had emigrated from Podargoni,[9] a rural eastern district of the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria. Anna had been born in the U.S. shortly after her parents also emigrated from the Calabria region in 1899.[8][9] Other relatives came over as well as part of the mass migration of Italians to America.[8]

RIP. Great voice and a legend.

With him dies an incredible era of the so-called crooners.

I agree and nicely said

Pretty much. Some still sing in that style though. Bublé and Chris Isaak come to mind

And Richard Cheese

Paul Anka is still touring though.

I’ll be honest, Paul Anka covering Nirvana was better than I expected it to be.

Tony Bennett aka Antonio Dominick Benedetto, was a great singer and entertainer. He had one of the longest and most illustrious careers of any Italian crooner (or for that matter), any crooner, first starting out in the late 1940s era. The difference was, his career (through good health and good fortune), lasted over 70 years. THATS really saying something!

RIP! (I'm sure he's now with all his buddies and contemporaries singing in God's choir upstairs)

War, cocaine and the Italian mafia: remember the mishaps faced by Tony Bennett
American singer, who died aged 96, was a soldier and fought Nazis during World War II: 'Permanent nightmare'
By Agência O Globo
7/21/23 at 1:50 PM updated on 7/21/23 at 9:56 PM

Singer Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga performed together at the 57th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in 2015. - Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP
Singer Tony Bennett — who died, aged 96, this Friday (21) — faced mishaps before establishing himself as one of the greatest jazz and pop singers in the United States . In his youth, the artist was called up to fight, as part of the US Army , in the final moments of World War II , in November 1944. Until the following year, there he was, weapons in hand, in the position of an infantryman, occupying a "place in the front row of hell", as he would later describe it, when commenting on this period of his life.

At that time, the artist lived in cities in Germany and France, often crouching in trenches while German cannons fired at American troops — and "escaping death" on several occasions —, as shown in the book "All the things you are: the life of Tony Bennett", by David Evanier, without translation in Brazil. The experience made him a pacifist (and a staunch civil rights activist in the 1960s), as the singer himself would later point out: "Anyone who thinks war is romantic obviously hasn't been through one. It was a permanent nightmare. I just said, 'This isn't life. This isn't life'".

Tony began to sing – still unpretentiously – alongside colleagues in the Army, under the nickname Joe Bari. After the war, he continued performing in houses and nightclubs in New York. At some point, he received advice from comedian Bob Hope, who watched him at one of the nightclubs in the Greenwich Village neighborhood. The comedian was so impressed with what he saw that he made his colleague change his name to Tony Bennett and invited him to participate in an opening act on his show. From then on, the singer took off.

Tony is signed to Columbia Records, and the rest everyone who is a fan already knows. He spun off a string of pop hits, including "Because of You," a rendition of the Hank Williams country song "Cold, Cold Heart," "Blue Velvet," and "Rags to Riches." The boy's concerts in the US were filled with legions of screaming teenagers. It crystallized as a phenomenon.

Mafia and cocaine
Despite the fact that little has been said about the subject, it is known that — in his initial steps in his career — Tony Bennett gained a considerable push from the Italian mafia. In the artist's biography, published in a book in the USA, it is stated that Al Capone's mafia family financed and supported certain performances by the artist in New York. Strictly speaking, in that field, it was difficult to remain completely immune to the presence of organized crime in the 1950s music scene.

"Although Tony wanted nothing to do with the mobsters, they were simply impossible to ignore," writes the artist's biographer. In the late 1960s, the singer would have paid around $600,000 to escape (or at least loosen) his ties to the mafia, as reported by the "Daily News".

With a career filled with ups and downs, Tony Bennett has dealt — for most of his life — with cocaine addiction. In the 1970s, he almost died due to an overdose, as he himself revealed. In that same period, he found himself in the midst of $2 million in debt and with limited job prospects. He thought he would never get back on his feet.

He overcame financial difficulties by handing over the administration of his career to his son Danny (the fruit of his former relationship with Patricia Beech), who propelled him to new heights of popularity, introducing him to younger generations — then, he carried out, for example, successful partnerships with names like Lady Gaga and even the Brazilian Maria Gadú.

Friendship with João Gilberto
Tony Bennett's greatest idol, by the way, was a name made in Brazil. A declared lover of Rio de Janeiro, where he traveled more than seven times, he stated, on one of his visits to Tupiniquim soil, that he was proud to be a friend of João Gilberto, his favorite artist. "My favorite singer in the whole world is João Gilberto. And we are good friends. He came to my house many years ago, when he was starting out. It was a great emotion for him", he reported, on one occasion.

Here come the Mafia rumors. Al Capone did not help him, and I doubt he gave $600,000 to anyone in the Mafia. Bob Hope helped him start his career, it's well known and was just discussed on the radio today. Bob Hope was the one who suggested he change his name to Tony Bennett. He did get into cocaine, or as they politely said on the radio "He had a substance abuse problem in the 1970's." He was born in 1926, so how much he saw of the war is tough to say. He joined the army near the end of the war. He was very liberal, and was said to be a big Trump hater. He was a great singer, that is indisputable.

I have met him several times along with most of the so called brat pack era
from late 50’s threw the mid 90’s

Most of the brat pack when in Atlantic City had private local security and even Frank Sinatra used same guys .

Ducktown was a hotbed for all theses guys going way back .

I can’t go into much but when the original Golden Nugget AC had Sinatra he had a five bedroom suite year round 24/7 and we used it like it was our own … of course unless he was in town .

Hundreds & hundreds of great nights we spent with most of the folks that were friendly with Italian folks or blood … one of Frank’s security was blood to very famous connected guys here .

Nice 2 hear from u again Serp..!!

Thanks Hood … back home at the beach we had a good year on the road.

Buble is a cover artist. Not an original act like Sinatra or Bennett.

Buble in my opinion is a phaggot. Not in a gay way but just dumb and overrated.

This is the best thread right now.
Harry Connick is better than Buble, imho, but neither holds a candle to Tony Bennett or Sinatra.
Tony Bennett was born in 1926, Chin Gigante in 1928, Joe Gallo and Greg Scarpa in 1929. Look at the disparity in the lives lived, the endings of their lives and the length of the lives they lived, even though came from the same era.

Buble cant touch Harry Connick. He wishes he was able to though.

I do believe his time in Europe during the war has changed him he probably had to kill some himself. His addiction to cocaine later on has also something to do with that.

They will def make a Hollywood movie about him in the future.