My Tony Bennett Story

The legendary Tony Bennett passed away yesterday at age 96. Sadly, I never had the chance to see him perform live. I never had the chance to meet him. I also never had the chance to interview him on the radio. Yet, despite those things, I still have a Tony Bennett story that may make you laugh.

Whenever a Tony Bennett song comes on the radio, or his name comes up in conversation, there is one person who immediately comes to mind. My Italian grandmother.

This is a story that had I ever had the chance to talk to Tony, I wouldn’t share. You will soon see why.

“Everybody loved Tony” is a phrase that popped up in many celebrity tweets and videos today as they reflected on the man. Alec Baldwin, who did a fantastic Tony Bennett impression on Saturday Night Live, posted a video on his Instagram saying that exact phrase today. “Everybody loved Tony. Everybody loved him.” Well, not everyone ….

One day, we were all playing pinochle at my grandma’s house. Earlier that year, I had found a picture of Dean Martin (her favorite singer) and had it blown up into a poster. She framed it and at one point actually hung it in her garage so she could see him when they pulled in the car. Anyway, we began discussing singers. It was during this discussion that I learned of her feelings for Tony.

If memory serves me correct, we were playing cards and had the radio on a station that was playing “The Music of Your Life” stuff. It would be similar to the Sinatra channel on Sirius XM. “Sinatra was ok, but Dean Martin was better!” she told us. That was how the discussion began. This led to me asking about other singers.

“I’ll tell you one guy that I just can’t stand! That short, pimple faced one!” I had no idea who she was talking about. The more she tried to remember, the angrier she got. I finally asked her is she could think of one of his songs. She came up with “Rags to Riches” or “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” (I think. It was definitely one of his bigger hits)

“Oh! Tony Bennett?!” I said.

“Yeah!” she said, “Oh, I hate him!!”

This made me laugh and I asked her why. She never really had any type of concrete answer, but the fact that she disliked him could not have been more obvious.

This led to my dad, my brother, my friends, and me all finding ways to work Tony into conversation every time we visited. It also led to one of my favorite pranks to play on my grandma.

I was out shopping one day looking for a CD that I needed for an upcoming wedding I was to DJ. It was an older album, so I went to one of my favorite used record stores. After I found what I needed, an old LP caught my eye.

The big red letters shouting “TONY BENNETT” called me to it. I purchased it and wrapped it up for my grandma’s birthday or Christmas or something (I really don’t remember). I do remember her face when she opened it! She said, “Oh no! Not this pimple face! I hate him!” and threw it across the room – laughing, of course.

Now my grandmother could have easily just thrown the album away. She didn’t. She kept it on a shelf in both her house and eventually in her condo. Naturally, I had to have some fun with it. Every Sunday when we would visit, I would find a reason to slip away and get the album. I would then hide it somewhere in the house for her to find.

Many times it would be in a place she’d see right away. I’d put it behind the coffee pot, up on the chandelier, under a decorative pillow, on the chimney mantle, in place of an old 8X10 photo, under her pillow on her bed, in between the toilet seat and the lid, etc… It was every where! When she’d find it, she’d laugh and shout, “I HATE him!”

On second thought, maybe I would have told Tony that story if I met him. He might like to know that he was such a big part of my relationship with my grandma. Who knows…