1926–2023 · American traditional-pop and jazz singer
Anthony Dominick Benedetto was the hottest new male singer in America in 1951, riding No. 1 records with “Because of You” and “Cold, Cold Heart”, when Bernie Wayne pitched the song to Columbia’s Mitch Miller and Miller handed it straight to him. Bennett recorded it on 17 July that year with Percy Faith conducting, and it became his last hit of a remarkable twelve months. He kept coming back to it across his career — live at Carnegie Hall in 1962, in duet with k.d. lang in 2011 — even after his pianist Ralph Sharon warned him off sweet ballads of exactly this kind.