Throughout his long and illustrious career, Tony Bennett displayed a remarkable ability for connecting with younger audiences and performers alike, consistently making his mark with each new generation of music lovers and musicians that encountered him and his body of work. Speaking to his true artistry, as much as he loved to win an audience’s admiration, he never ever pandered or discounted his craft to score points.

No, Tony Bennett was forever steadfast in sticking to his guns, true to himself and his art. Despite repeated attempts from record labels and management to pressure Bennett into adapting to whatever styles and fashions du jour, Bennett always maintained that class never went out of style — a maxim which he proved right time and time again.

Bennett’s latest and greatest resurgence with young audiences happened in the 1990s, when the artist was in his late sixties. This was in no small part due to the efforts of his son Danny Bennett, who had taken on managerial duties for his father and tirelessly worked to further his career. Danny sincerely believed that younger audiences, unfamiliar with his father, would take to his music when given exposure to it. He thus went about booking Bennett for regular performances on Late Night With David Letterman, with its hip audience, and to appear on shows like the Simpsons, Sesame Street and various MTV programs. Father and son were adamant that this should not be called a comeback, however, remarking in a New York Times interview that he had never gone anywhere!

The epoch of this resurgence occurred in 1994 after he appeared on MTV’s Unplugged, with guest stars like Elvis Costello and k.d. Lang. Quipping on the occasion that “I’ve been unplugged my whole career,” Bennett sang a selection of his greatest along with some surprise entries. The performance was a smash hit, paving the way for various further successes and winning him one of many Grammys, with the New York Times remarking that Bennett had not just bridged the generation gap, he had “demolished it.”

Another highpoint in Bennett’s resurgence and yet another proof that “class never goes out of style” came in the summer of 1998, when he performed for over 100,000 mud-soaked revelers at a notoriously rainy Glastonbury music festival in the UK. Dressed immaculately in a suit and tie, Bennett enamored the crowd with his sleek, heartfelt performance, which appropriately consisted solely of songs about the weather.

And that was just the beginning…

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