Tony Bennett Vinyl Records
Through Tony Bennett's long, remarkable career, it's possible to trace the evolution and endurance of vocal pop and jazz in the 20th century. Unlike his idol Frank Sinatra, Bennett was too young to be part of the first wave of the Great American Songbook in the years before World War II. He achieved his national breakthrough in 1951, when the charts were dominated by soft-focused orchestral pop and novelties, music that Bennett himself would often sing during his early years. Occasionally, he was given the opportunity to sing jazz while recording for Columbia in the '50s, but it was a pop song that turned him into a superstar in 1962: "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," a song styled after the classic pop of the pre-war era.