Tony Bennett Is a Mama’s Boy, Recalls the Most Important Lesson His Mother Taught Him
Crooner Tony Bennett has been entertaining audiences for nearly seven decades. He’s known for his 1965 hit “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” and enjoying a career resurgence collaborating with artists like Lady Gaga, Carrie Underwood, Michael Bublé, and Amy Winehouse.
In an interview with the Guardian, the legendary singer opened up about his mother’s influence on him. Bennett revealed that his mother worked in a factory during the day and sewed dresses at night to support him and his two siblings.
“Sometimes she’d catch her thumb under the sewing needle and cry out in pain, but she couldn’t afford to stop,” he recalled. “Watching her made me vow to be so good at something I loved that my mother wouldn’t have to work again.”
As a child, Bennett would sit next to his mother and watch her sew clothes. “My mother taught me the most important lesson of my life: to hold out for quality,” he said. “Our family needed every dime, but she wouldn’t sew a dress that wasn’t up to her standards.”
The lesson that Bennett’s mother taught him left an indelible mark on the singer later in his career. “When a producer or promoter told me I needed to record a song I considered cheap, shoddy, or silly, I’d think of my mother and tell them I only worked on quality material.”
In 2016, Bennett won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. While he shows no signs of slowing down, he recently canceled a concert in Pennsylvania due to a “mild flu virus.” But he “looks forward to continuing his performance schedule very soon.”
In other entertainment news, happy early Mother’s Day to those single celebrity moms:
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