By Brian Lee
Best known for the song “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”, the legendary singer passed away Friday at the age of 96. According to his publicist, the singer had “passed away in his hometown of New York City” and had been “battling Alzheimer’s disease since 2016.” In an interview with AARP magazine, his wife said that “sometimes [Bennett] didn’t understand where he was or what was happening around him. But whenever music started playing, [Bennett] was back to being his old self.”
His career boasted 20 Grammy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award and two Primetime Emmy awards and sold over 50 million records worldwide. He has performed for a number of influential figures throughout history, such as John F, Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Queen Elizabeth II, and was mentored by Frank Sinatra who called him “the best singer in the business… who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more” in a 1965 Life magazine interview.
The singer’s death left shockwaves across the world of musicians, entertainment and even politicIans as Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Bill and Hillary Clinton shared their adoration for how much he had impacted them. Even at such an old age, he continued to inspire millions and never stopped singing, where he even broke the record for being the oldest person to release an album with new material in 2021.
