Tony Bennett @ Panama City Marina Civic Center

No one else in popular American music has recorded for so long and at such a high level of excellence as Tony Bennett.  In the last ten years alone he has sold ten million records. The essence of his longevity and high artistic achievement was imbued in him in his loving childhood home in the Astoria section of Queens where he was born on August 3, 1926.  His father died when Tony was 10 and his mother, Anna, raised Tony and his older brother and sister, John and Mary, in a home surrounded by loving relatives who were Tony’s first fans filling him with encouragement and optimism.  He attended the High School of Industrial Arts in Manhattan, where he continued nurturing his two passions, singing and painting.  From the radio he developed a love of music, hearing Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, and James Durante.