Late singer Tony Bennett played Lehigh Valley frequently, and at pivotal career times

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Singer Tony Bennett, who died Friday just two weeks before his 97th birthday, graced the stages of the Lehigh Valley frequently in the final two decades of his performing career.

And it seemed those shows often came during important moments in Bennett’s career.

• Iconic vocal stylist Tony Bennett died Friday, just two weeks short of his 97th birthday
• Bennett played Lehigh Valley stages at least eight times from 1987-2015
• In an interview, he called the Lehigh Valley a truly beautiful area to live in"

Bennett, an 18-time Grammy Award-winning singer whose music spanned more than six decades, died in his hometown of New York, publicist Sylvia Weiner confirmed to The Associated Press.

No specific cause of death was released, but Bennett had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.

Bennett in his career released more than 100 albums and had gold and platinum albums in six decades.

He played the Lehigh Valley as early as 1987, in a show at Allentown Symphony Hall, now Miller Symphony Hall. He returned to that venue in 1992.

He was a headliner at Allentown Fair in 1995 and at Bethlehem’s Musikfest festival in 1999.

Lehigh University’s Zoellner Arts Center tapped him to headline its fundraising gala in 2011.

In an interview before that show, held in October, he told this writer that he had fond memories of the Lehigh Valley.

“I love nature — and it is a truly beautiful area to live in,” Bennett said. “And I look forward to being back there soon — especially at this time of the year with the leaves all changing their colors.”

Crescendo of a career revival

That show came after Bennett that very month for the first time in his career had a No. 1 album on the Billboard chart with his “Duets II.” And that disc’s single “Body and Soul” with the late Amy Winehouse even entered Billboard’s Top 100, giving Bennett his highest-charting single in 45 years.

It was the crescendo of a career resurgence that started in 1994 when he appeared on MTV’s popular “Unplugged” series with guests such as Elvis Costello and k.d. lang.

The album from the show went platinum and won 1995 Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance.

Bennett’s first hit in 1962, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” not only made him a star but won him his first Grammy Award – more than 30 years after he had more than 30 Top 40 hits of pop standards in the 1950s and ’60s.

Bennett’s last Grammy came in 2007 for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for “For Once in My Life” with Stevie Wonder. He won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.

Back for his 85th birthday

That 2011 show at Zollner Center was the year of his 85th birthday, which he also marked with the release of “Duets II” and made music history by becoming the oldest artist to ever have a No. 1 CD on the Billboard album charts.

He surpassed that mark months later with his release. “Cheek to Cheek,” a collection of songs with Lady Gaga that, released in September, also went to No. 1, when Bennett was 88.

His 2013 albums “Viva Duets,” paired him with such top artists as Christina Aguilera, Marc Anthony and Gloria Estefan. It hit the Top 5 and went gold.

That was the same year Bennett played both Sands Bethlehem Event Center, now Wind Creek Event Center, and Reading’s Santander Center.

In May 2015, he played Easton’s State Theatre, just a year before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. His daughter, Antonia, opened that show.

Asked before the 2011 Zoellner show what he thought was the secret of his longevity, he told this writer, “This may seem too simple an answer but I think it is because I love what I do and I respect the audience.

“I always want to give them my very best when I perform. I know that they have spent their money that they work hard for every day to buy tickets to the show, many of them also have to pay for a baby-sitter, and I think it is my responsibility as a performer to make sure for the time they are in the concert hall that they have a good time, are entertained and hopefully forget about their own daily problems,” he said.

“To me this is a very noble profession and I feel very blessed that I have been able to do it for as long as I have.”

His last Lehigh Valley appearance

The last time Bennett played the Lehigh Valley was in September 2017, when he again played the Sands.

But it was at a May 2016 show at that same venue when Bennett most brought his wonderful career into focus.

Just months before his 90th birthday, he “was a performer whose power and command of phrasing were impressive, whose tonality was intact and whose performance skills was delightfully energetic,” according to a review of the show.

In a 75-minute set in which he offered 27 songs, he stepped sprightly onto the stage and remained standing the entire show, and even step-danced to the upbeat “They All Laughed,”

That show, and Bennett’s career, was summed up when he sang the wonderful “This is All I Ask.”

“As I approach the prime of my life,” Bennett sang with a sly smile aside. And one could not help but hear the song in relation to the singer’s position as he sang it slow and sharply.

“Let the music play,” he sang. “As long as there’s a song to sing/I will stay younger than spring.”