The other night, I searched YouTube for the ultimate Tony Bennett link..And man, did I ever find it..A live concert from the famed singer, who died this week at age 96..I sat back, poured a nice, chilled Niagara rose’ wine and just melted into a trance. It was vintage Bennett..Wow, is all I can say. (Here is the link.).But to my shock, I later would discover that the crooner was also a war hero, serving not only in the Battle of the Bulge, but in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp..How this wonderful, silky and romantic voice came out of that terrible war, I don’t know, but it did. And I and many others will remain ever thankful..Bennett's stint in the US Army led him to legendary entertainer Bob Hope, which inspired him to pursue a career spanning more than seven decades..According to a report by Military.com, his war experience not only shaped the rest of his life, it put infantry rifleman Anthony Dominick Benedetto in the spotlight as a member of Special Services, singing for the Allied troops in the trenches, sometimes literally.."The main thing I got out of my military experience was the realization that I am completely opposed to war," Bennett wrote in his 1998 autobiography, "The Good Life."."Although I understand why this war was fought, it was a terrifying, demoralizing experience for me... life can never be the same once you've been through combat.".Bennett turned 18 in the summer of 1944, and that November, he received a draft notice. He was sent to the Army, completed basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and became an infantry rifleman at Fort Robinson, Arkansas, the report said.. Tony Bennett 2Tony Bennett during World War II. .After his post-training furlough, he waited to hear about his next assignment..He was shipped to Le Havre, France, to become a replacement troop for units that suffered heavy casualties fighting the Germans in Europe. Bennett was sent to G Company, 7th Army, 63rd Infantry Division..Bennett's group of replacements were taking over for heavy casualties lost during the Battle of the Bulge..He recalled his batch being awakened at 4 a.m. by none other than Gen. George S. Patton himself, shouting: "Now listen up! Forget your mothers and everything else you've ever known! You're going up to the line.".The line was a terrifying place for all the replacements. Many, Bennett wrote, had no experience in combat and some had never fired a weapon..“Snow covered the ground and the front was a front-row seat in hell,” he wrote. “It was an absolutely terrifying spectacle.”.During his first night on the line, Bennett was almost killed by shrapnel from a German 88mm. He learned the rules for the front line quickly: Don't move.."Most nights, we'd be awakened by the bombs that were going off around us," Bennett wrote. "On the front line, we'd see dead soldiers, dead horses and big craters in the ground where bombs had exploded..“To me, it's a joke that they make 'horror' movies about things like Dracula and Godzilla and they make 'adventure' movies about war. War is far more horrifying than anything anyone could dream up.".Bennett's company entered Germany in March 1945, pushing the Wehrmacht back and fighting house-by-house to take German towns. When he was finally pulled off the line, he went with a thousand other GIs to see Bob Hope perform a USO show.."All the GIs loved him so much for boosting our dismally low morale," wrote Bennett.."He became a big part of the reason I went into show business, because at that moment he made me realize that the greatest gift you can give anyone is a laugh or a song.".The last official mission of his regiment was the liberation of a concentration camp near the town of Landsberg, 30 miles south of the Dachau concentration camp..The camp was still being defended by German prisoners, but Bennett's regiment fought hard to liberate those people, even fording the treacherous Lech River.."Many writers have recorded what it was like in the concentration camps much more eloquently than I ever could, so I won't even try to describe it," he recalls in his autobiography.."Just let me say I'll never forget the desperate faces and empty stares of the prisoners as they wandered aimlessly around the campgrounds.."We immediately got food and water to the survivors, but they had been brutalized for so long, they couldn't believe that we were there to help them and not to kill them.".Bennett had been in the war only four months, so he had to stay on with the occupying force, the report said. He was transferred to Special Services to entertain the Allied troops who had to stay behind and keep the peace..But it would take another legend of the entertainment industry who would come up with his world-famous moniker..In 1949, Tony Award-winning singer Pearl Bailey invited Bennett to open for her at the Village Inn in New York. That’s where a man named Charlie Cooley, who worked with Bob Hope, caught Bennett’s act..Cooley convinced Hope to check out one of Bennett’s sets. Hope was immediately impressed and asked the singer to open for him..“He liked my singing so much that after the show he came back to see me in my dressing room and said, ‘Come on kid, you’re going to come to the Paramount and sing with me,'” Bennett recalls in his book of Hope’s invitation..“But first he told me he didn’t care for my stage name and asked me what my real name was. I told him, ‘My name is Anthony Dominick Benedetto.’ ‘Oh no, that’s too long for the marquee,’ he said … He thought for a moment, then he said, ‘We’ll call you Tony Bennett.'”.And the world was never the same.
The other night, I searched YouTube for the ultimate Tony Bennett link..And man, did I ever find it..A live concert from the famed singer, who died this week at age 96..I sat back, poured a nice, chilled Niagara rose’ wine and just melted into a trance. It was vintage Bennett..Wow, is all I can say. (Here is the link.).But to my shock, I later would discover that the crooner was also a war hero, serving not only in the Battle of the Bulge, but in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp..How this wonderful, silky and romantic voice came out of that terrible war, I don’t know, but it did. And I and many others will remain ever thankful..Bennett's stint in the US Army led him to legendary entertainer Bob Hope, which inspired him to pursue a career spanning more than seven decades..According to a report by Military.com, his war experience not only shaped the rest of his life, it put infantry rifleman Anthony Dominick Benedetto in the spotlight as a member of Special Services, singing for the Allied troops in the trenches, sometimes literally.."The main thing I got out of my military experience was the realization that I am completely opposed to war," Bennett wrote in his 1998 autobiography, "The Good Life."."Although I understand why this war was fought, it was a terrifying, demoralizing experience for me... life can never be the same once you've been through combat.".Bennett turned 18 in the summer of 1944, and that November, he received a draft notice. He was sent to the Army, completed basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and became an infantry rifleman at Fort Robinson, Arkansas, the report said.. Tony Bennett 2Tony Bennett during World War II. .After his post-training furlough, he waited to hear about his next assignment..He was shipped to Le Havre, France, to become a replacement troop for units that suffered heavy casualties fighting the Germans in Europe. Bennett was sent to G Company, 7th Army, 63rd Infantry Division..Bennett's group of replacements were taking over for heavy casualties lost during the Battle of the Bulge..He recalled his batch being awakened at 4 a.m. by none other than Gen. George S. Patton himself, shouting: "Now listen up! Forget your mothers and everything else you've ever known! You're going up to the line.".The line was a terrifying place for all the replacements. Many, Bennett wrote, had no experience in combat and some had never fired a weapon..“Snow covered the ground and the front was a front-row seat in hell,” he wrote. “It was an absolutely terrifying spectacle.”.During his first night on the line, Bennett was almost killed by shrapnel from a German 88mm. He learned the rules for the front line quickly: Don't move.."Most nights, we'd be awakened by the bombs that were going off around us," Bennett wrote. "On the front line, we'd see dead soldiers, dead horses and big craters in the ground where bombs had exploded..“To me, it's a joke that they make 'horror' movies about things like Dracula and Godzilla and they make 'adventure' movies about war. War is far more horrifying than anything anyone could dream up.".Bennett's company entered Germany in March 1945, pushing the Wehrmacht back and fighting house-by-house to take German towns. When he was finally pulled off the line, he went with a thousand other GIs to see Bob Hope perform a USO show.."All the GIs loved him so much for boosting our dismally low morale," wrote Bennett.."He became a big part of the reason I went into show business, because at that moment he made me realize that the greatest gift you can give anyone is a laugh or a song.".The last official mission of his regiment was the liberation of a concentration camp near the town of Landsberg, 30 miles south of the Dachau concentration camp..The camp was still being defended by German prisoners, but Bennett's regiment fought hard to liberate those people, even fording the treacherous Lech River.."Many writers have recorded what it was like in the concentration camps much more eloquently than I ever could, so I won't even try to describe it," he recalls in his autobiography.."Just let me say I'll never forget the desperate faces and empty stares of the prisoners as they wandered aimlessly around the campgrounds.."We immediately got food and water to the survivors, but they had been brutalized for so long, they couldn't believe that we were there to help them and not to kill them.".Bennett had been in the war only four months, so he had to stay on with the occupying force, the report said. He was transferred to Special Services to entertain the Allied troops who had to stay behind and keep the peace..But it would take another legend of the entertainment industry who would come up with his world-famous moniker..In 1949, Tony Award-winning singer Pearl Bailey invited Bennett to open for her at the Village Inn in New York. That’s where a man named Charlie Cooley, who worked with Bob Hope, caught Bennett’s act..Cooley convinced Hope to check out one of Bennett’s sets. Hope was immediately impressed and asked the singer to open for him..“He liked my singing so much that after the show he came back to see me in my dressing room and said, ‘Come on kid, you’re going to come to the Paramount and sing with me,'” Bennett recalls in his book of Hope’s invitation..“But first he told me he didn’t care for my stage name and asked me what my real name was. I told him, ‘My name is Anthony Dominick Benedetto.’ ‘Oh no, that’s too long for the marquee,’ he said … He thought for a moment, then he said, ‘We’ll call you Tony Bennett.'”.And the world was never the same.
