Tony Bennett, a champion of the Great American Songbook whose career stretched for more than 70 years and included one of pop music’s most enduring comebacks, died Friday (7/21) in New York City. He was 96.

Bennett learned he had Alzheimer’s disease in 2016 and continued to perform and record for another five years. His final public performance—with Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall—became a CBS special and a well-documented send-off for a career that began in the 1940s after World War II.

Bennett was one of the last singers to make his mark in the Great American Songbook era, his signature song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” being one of that era’s last standards. A hit and a Grammy winner in 1962, it was one of several Top 40 hits he had in the 1960s as rock & roll took over the airwaves; “I Wanna Be Around,” “Who Can I Turn To” and “The Good Life” were among the last hits of era that included the singers who influenced him: Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong among them. Decades later, their songs would be key to his comeback.

He made more than 70 studio albums, beginning with 1952’s Because of You, the title track of which was his first #1 single. Bennett would record more than 30 albums during his initial 22-year run with Columbia Records, including two sets with Count Basie and His Orchestra. In his later years, his collaborators would hail from much younger generations, among them k.d. lang, Diana Krall and Stevie Wonder.

When he left Columbia, Bennett signed with the jazz label Improv and released two albums with the pianist Bill Evans that were among the most critically lauded records of his career. Improv went out of business in the mid-1970s and Bennett went more than a decade without recording any music.

He reunited with Columbia Records for 1986’s The Art of Excellence and started releasing a string of albums that paid tribute to songwriters and singers of the pre-rock & roll era. Steppin’ Out, his 1993 tip of the hat to Fred Astaire, introduced him to the MTV audience that Bennett would capitalize on for decades. His 1994 set MTV Unplugged won the Album of the Year Grammy.

To celebrate Bennett’s 80th birthday in 2006, his Duets: An American Classic was released to great fanfare. His set stood out for the recording process: Bennett and his partners—Barbra Streisand, Paul McCartney, Elton John, etc.—were physically present and singing with Bennett in the studio. The album went double platinum, peaked at #3 and led to the follow-ups Duets II, a #1 album in 2011; Viva Duets in 2012; 2014’s Cheek to Cheek and 2021’s Love for Sale with Lady Gaga; and Love is Here to Stay with Krall in 2018.

Bennett won 19 Grammy Awards in competitive categories, most recently the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Love for Sale. His first was a Record of the Year award for “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” He received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2001 and was the MusiCares Person of the Year in 1995.

He also won two Emmy Awards, received a Kennedy Center Honor and was named an NEA Jazz Master.

Through his foundation, Exploring the Arts, which supports arts education, he funded New York City’s Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in his native Queens.