Bennett revealed in early 2021 that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, but he kept recording after the diagnosis and later tweeted, “Life is a gift – even with Alzheimer’s.”
Through it all, Bennett maintained a cool, smiling demeanour, tried to stay faithful to the material he loved best. He always thought of himself as a jazz singer. Bennett signed with Columbia Records and the result was a string of pop hits such as Because of You, a cover of the Hank Williams country standard Cold, Cold Heart, Blue Velvet and Rags to Riches. Legions of screaming teenage girls packed his shows.
He pulled his material from jazz and the works of writers like Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer, George and Ira Gershwin and Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. In 2016 a statue of Bennett was unveiled outside San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel, where Bennett first performed the song some 55 years before.