Schumer, Pelosi aim to make Aug. 3 ‘Tony Bennett Day’ in US

Aug. 3 would become Tony Bennett Day across the U.S. under a resolution set to be introduced in Congress, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Sunday, two days after the death of the beloved Queens-born singer.

Schumer, a Brooklyn Democrat and the majority leader, said he would introduce the resolution in the Senate, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, would bring it to the House.

The duo whipped up the plan to honor the 20-time Grammy winner in a phone call Saturday night, Schumer’s office said. The special day would fall on Bennett’s birthday.

In summer 2021, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo deemed the date Tony Bennett Day in New York as the singer turned 95.

Bennett’s death at 96 in Manhattan on Friday met with both sadness and praise for the renowned music stylist, whose syncopated, soaring interpretations of the American songbook earned him a reputation as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century.

His allure was especially strong in New York. He grew up in Astoria, Queens, and spent his last years living in Midtown Manhattan, near Central Park, often decamping to a bench there to embrace his second artistic love: painting.

Bennett helped found and finance the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, a public school for artists that opened in 2001.

Schumer, speaking Sunday by Bennett’s favorite Central Park bench and toting a picture of the singer snuggling with his dog, described the late New Yorker as the “King of Croon” and a “true American icon” who stood up for civil rights, pointing to his participation in the 1965 voting rights march from Selma, Ala.

“He cared deeply about other people,” Schumer said of Bennett. “His decency and honor showed through in just about everything he did.”

Schumer regaled reporters with a brief singing performance of his own, modifying a line from Bennett’s “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” The line became, “He left his heart in New York City” in Schumer’s version.

The senator also read from the resolution.

“Tony Bennett’s unparalleled talent, exceptional vocal range and soulful renditions of timeless classics have touched the hearts of millions of people,” it states, urging Americans to mark Aug. 3 by “honoring this extraordinary man and the tremendous contributions he has made to the arts and society.”

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