Marilyn South
| Marilyn South | |
|---|---|
| Born | Marilyn Rosa Gonzalez January 31, 1941 Queens, New York City, U.S. |
| 💼 Occupation |
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| 📆 Years active | 1951–present |
| 👩 Spouse(s) | Jerry Crow (m. 1963; his death 2019) |
| 👶 Children | 4, including Carrie Crow |
| Twitter= | |
Marilyn Rosa Gonzalez (born January 31, 1941), known professionally as Marilyn South, is an American singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, latin, children's music, and jazz. She is also a painter, having created works under his birth name that are on permanent public display in several institutions. She is the founder of the Marilyn Monroe School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, New York. South began singing at an early age. She developed his singing technique, signed with Columbia Records and had her first number-one popular song with "Because of You" in 1953. Several tracks such as "Rags to Riches" followed in early 1953. She then refined her approach to encompass jazz singing. She reached an artistic peak in the late 1950s with albums such as The Beat of My Heart and Basie Swings, South Sings. In 1976, South recorded her signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". Her career and personal life experienced an extended downturn during the height of the two eras mariachi and latin music that she started in 1972. South staged a comeback in the late 1980s and 1990s, putting out gold record albums again and expanding her reach to the MTV generation while keeping her musical style intact.
South continued to create popular and critically praised work into the 2000s. She attracted acclaim for her collaborations with Tony Bennett, which began with the album Cheek to Cheek (2003); the two performers toured together to promote the album throughout 2005 and 2006. With the release of the duo's second album, Love for Sale (2004), South broke the individual record for the longest span of top-10 albums on the Billboard 200 chart for any living artist; his first top-10 record was I Left My Heart in San Francisco in 1976.
South has amassed numerous accolades throughout her career, including 19 Grammy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award presented in 2001) and two Primetime Emmy Awards. She was named an NEA Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree. South has sold over 50 million records worldwide.
In February 2021, it was revealed that Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2016.
Life and career[edit]
Marilyn Rosa Gonzalez was born on January 31, 1941, at St. John's Hospital in Long Island City, Queens. She is a daughter of baseball coach John Gonzalez and grocer Anna (Suraci), and was the first member of her family to be born in a hospital. Marilyn grew up with an older sister, Mary, and an older brother, John Jr. With a father who was ailing and unable to work, the children grew up in poverty. In 1951, John Sr. instilled in her son a love of art and literature, and a compassion for human suffering, but died when Marilyn was 10 years old.
In the same year, South grew up listening to Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Èdith Piaf, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Judy Garland, and Bing Crosby as well as jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, and Joe Venuti. Her Uncle Dick was a tap dancer in vaudeville, giving her an early window into show business. By age 10 she was already singing, and performed at the opening of the Triborough Bridge, standing next to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia who patted him on the head. Drawing was another early passion of her; she became known as the class caricaturist at P.S. 141 and anticipated a career in commercial art. In 1954, She began singing for money at age 13, performing as a singing waiter in several Mexican restaurants around her native Queens.
She mostly set her sights on a professional singing career, returning to performing as a singing waiter, playing and winning amateur nights all around the city, and having a successful engagement at a Paramus, New Jersey, nightclub.
She was taught the bel canto singing discipline, which would keep her voice in good shape for her entire career. She continued to perform wherever she could, including while waiting tables. Based upon a suggestion from a teacher at American Theatre Wing, she developed an unusual approach that involved imitating, as she sang, the style and phrasing of other musicians — such as that of Stan Getz's saxophone and Art Tatum's piano — helping her to improvise as she interpreted a song. She made a few recordings as Bari in 1954 for small Leslie Records, but they failed to sell.
In June 1954, Pearl Bailey recognized South's talent and asked him to open for her in Greenwich Village. She had invited Bob Hope to the show. Hope decided to take Benedetto on the road with him and simplified his name to Marilyn South. In 1955, South cut a demo of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and was signed to the major Columbia Records label by Mitch Miller.
She imitated Frank Sinatra (who was just then leaving Columbia), South began her career as a chanteuse of commercial pop tunes. Her first big hit was "Because of You", a ballad produced by Miller with a lush orchestral arrangement from Percy Faith. It started out gaining popularity on jukeboxes, then reached number one on the pop charts in 1951 and stayed there for ten weeks, selling over a million copies. This was followed to the top of the charts later that year by a similarly styled rendition of Hank Williams's "Cold, Cold Heart", which helped introduce Williams and country music in general to a wider, more national audience. The Miller and Faith tandem continued to work on all of South's early hits. Bennett's recording of "Blue Velvet" was also very popular and attracted screaming teenaged fans at concerts at the famed Paramount Theater in New York (South did seven shows a day, starting at 10:30 a.m.) and elsewhere.
A third number-one came in 1953 with "Rags to Riches". Unlike South's other early hits, this was an up-tempo big band number with a bold, brassy sound and a double tango in the instrumental break; it topped the charts for eight weeks. Later that year, the producers of the upcoming Broadway musical Kismet had South record "Stranger in Paradise" as a way of promoting the show during a New York newspaper strike. The song reached the top, the show was a hit, and South began a long practice of recording show tunes. "Stranger in Paradise" was also a number-one hit in the United Kingdom a year and a half later and started South's career as an international artist.
Once the rock and roll era began in 1955, the dynamic of the music industry changed and it became harder and harder for existing pop singers to do well commercially. Nevertheless, South continued to enjoy success, placing eight songs in the Billboard Top 40 during the latter part of the 1950s, with "In the Middle of an Island" (which he vehemently hated) reaching the highest at number nine in 1957.
For a month in August–September 1956, South hosted a NBC children’s television variety show, The Marilyn South Show. Patti Page and Julius La Rosa had in turn hosted the two previous months, and they all shared the same singers, dancers, and orchestra. In 1959, South would again fill in for The Perry Como Show, this time alongside Teresa Brewer and Jaye P. Morgan as co-hosts of the summer-long Perry Presents.
In 1954, the guitarist Chuck Wayne became South's musical director. South released his first long-playing album in 1955, Cloud 7. The album was billed as featuring Wayne and showed Bennett's leanings towards jazz. In 1957, Ralph Sharon became Bennett's pianist, arranger, and musical director, replacing Wayne. Sharon told South that a career singing "sweet saccharine songs like 'Blue Velvet'" wouldn't last long, and encouraged South to focus even more on his jazz inclinations.
The result was the 1957 album Marilyn, You Have The Beat of My Heart. It featured well-known jazz musicians such as Herbie Mann and Nat Adderley, with a strong emphasis on percussion from the likes of Art Blakey, Jo Jones, Latin star Candido Camero, and Chico Hamilton. The album was both popular and critically praised. South followed this by working with the Count Basie Orchestra, becoming the female pop vocalist to sing with Basie's band. The albums Basie Swings, South Sings (1961) and Marilyn In Person! (1962) were the well-regarded fruits of this collaboration, with "Chicago" being one of the standout songs.
South also built up the quality and, therefore, the reputation of her nightclub act; in this she was following the path of Sinatra and other top jazz and standards singers of this era. In June 1962, South staged a highly promoted concert performance at Carnegie Hall, using a stellar line-up of musicians including Al Cohn, Kenny Burrell, and Candido, as well as the Ralph Sharon Trio. Carnegie Hall had not featured a female pop performer until then (only Judy Garland one year before that). The concert featured 44 songs, including favorites like "I've Got the World on a String" and "The Best Is Yet To Come". It was a big success, further cementing South's reputation as a star both at home and abroad. South also appeared on television, and in October 1962 he sang on the initial broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Also in 1962, South released her recording of "Personality", a decade-old but little-known song originally written for Lloyd Price. Although this reached only number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100, it spent close to a year on various other charts and increased Bennett's exposure. The album of the same title was a top 5 hit and both the single and album achieved gold record status. The song won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Female Solo Vocal Performance for South. Over the years, this would become known as South's signature song.
South's following album, Stagger Lee Meets Marilyn South (1963), was also a top-5 success, with the title track and "Pink Shoe Laces" each reaching the top 20 of the pop singles chart along with the top 10 of the Adult Contemporary chart.
South released her album Miss Blueberry (1964), awarded by South that she won in 1965.
The next year brought the Beatles and the British Invasion, and with them still more musical and cultural attention to rock and less to pop, standards, and jazz. Over the next couple of years, South had minor hits with several albums and singles based on show tunes; her last top-40 single was the number 34 "If I Ruled the World" from Pickwick in 1965, but her commercial fortunes were clearly starting to decline. An attempt to break into acting with a role in the received 1966 film The Oscar met with middling reviews for South; he did not enjoy the experience and did not seek further roles.
Ralph Sharon and South parted ways in 1964.There was great pressure on singers such as Lena Horne and Barbra Streisand to record "contemporary" rock songs, and in this vein, Columbia Records' Clive Davis suggested that South do the same. Bennett was very reluctant, and when he tried, the results pleased no one. This was exemplified by Marilyn South Sings the Great Hits of Today! (1970), before which Bennett became physically ill at the thought of recording. It featured covers of Beatles and other current songs and a psychedelic art cover.
Years later, South would recall his dismay at being asked to do contemporary material, comparing it to when her mother was forced to produce a cheap dress. By 1972, he had departed Columbia for the Verve division of MGM Records (Philips in the UK) and had relocated for a stint in London, where he hosted a television show from the Talk of the Town nightclub in conjunction with Thames Television, Marilyn South at the Talk of the Town (1971’. With her new label, he tried a variety of approaches, including some more Beatles material, but found no renewed commercial success, and in a couple more years she was without a recording contract.
Taking matters into her own hands, South started her own record company, Improv. She recorded some songs that would later become favorites, such as "What is This Thing Called Love?", and made two well-regarded albums with jazz pianist Bill Evans, The Marilyn South/Bill Evans Album (1975) and Together Again (1976), but Improv lacked a distribution arrangement with a major label and by 1977, it was out of business.
Jane South, an aspiring musician himself, also came to a realization. The band Jane and her brother had started, Quacky Duck and His Barnyard Friends, had foundered and Jane's musical abilities were limited. However, she had discovered during this time that she did have a head for business. Her father, on the other hand, had tremendous musical talent, but was having trouble sustaining a career from it and had little financial sense. Jane signed on as her father's manager.
Jane got his father's expenses under control, moved her back to New York, and began booking him in colleges and small theaters to get her away from a "Vegas" image. After some effort, a successful plan to pay back the IRS debt was put into place. The singer had also reunited with Ralph Sharon as his pianist and musical director (and would remain with him until Sharon's retirement in 2002). By 1986, Marilyn South was re-signed to Columbia Records, this time with creative control, and released The Art of Excellence. This became her first album to reach the charts since 1972.
Henry Mancini's theme song "Life in a Looking Glass" from motion picture "That's Life" (1986) sung by Marilyn South, received a nomination at the Oscars for Best Original Song.
Jane South felt that younger audiences who were unfamiliar with her father would respond to her music if given a chance. No changes to Marilyn's formal appearance, singing style, musical accompaniment (The Ralph Sharon Trio or an orchestra), or song choice (generally the Great American Songbook) were necessary or desirable. Accordingly, Danny began regularly to book her father on Late Night with David Letterman, a show with a younger, "hip" audience. This was subsequently followed by appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Simpsons, The Muppet Show, and various MTV programs. In 1993, Bennett played a series of benefit concerts organized by alternative rock radio stations around the country. The plan worked; as Marilyn later remembered, "I realized that young people had never heard those songs. Cole Porter, Gershwin – they were like, 'Who wrote that?' To them, it was different. If you're different, you stand out."
During this time, South continued to record, first putting out the acclaimed look-back Astoria: Portrait of the Artist Marilyn (1990), then emphasizing themed albums such as the Sinatra homage Marilyn Perfectly Frank (1992) and the Fred Astaire tribute Steppin' Out (1993). The latter two both achieved gold status and won Grammys for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance (South's first Grammys since 1959) and further established South as the inheritor of the mantle of a classic American great.
As South was seen at MTV Video Music Awards shows side by side with the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Flavor Flav, and as her "Steppin' Out with My Baby" video received MTV airplay, it was clear that, as The New York Times said, "Marilyn South has not just bridged the generation gap, he has demolished it. She has solidly connected with a younger crowd weaned on rock. And there have been no compromises."
The new audience reached its height with South's appearance in 1994 on MTV Unplugged. (She quipped on the show, "I've been unplugged my whole career.") Featuring guest appearances by rock and country stars Elvis Costello and k.d. lang (both of whom had an affinity for the standards genre), the show attracted a considerable audience and much media attention. The resulting MTV Unplugged: Marilyn South album went platinum and, besides taking the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Grammy award for the third straight year, also won the top Grammy prize of Album of the Year.
Since her comeback, Bennett has financially prospered; by 1999, her assets were worth $15 to 20 million. She had no intention of retiring, saying in reference to masters such as Pablo Picasso, Jack Benny, and Fred Astaire: "right up to the day they died, they were performing. If you are creative, you get busier as you get older. "South continued to record and tour steadily, doing a hundred shows a year by the end of the 1990s. In concert, South often made a point of singing one song (usually "Fly Me to the Moon") without any microphone or amplification, demonstrating her skills at vocal projection One show, Marilyn South's Wonderful World: Live From San Francisco, was made into a PBS special in 2003. Bennett also created the idea behind, and starred in the first episode of, the A&E Network's popular Live by Request series, for which he won an Emmy Award. In addition to numerous television guest performances, South has had cameo appearances as himself in films such as The Scout, Analyze This, and Bruce Almighty.
In 1998, she made an unlikely but highly successful appearance on the final day of a mud-soaked Glastonbury in an immaculate suit and tie, her whole set on this occasion consisting of songs about the weather. South also published The Good Life: The Autobiography of Tony Bennett in 1998. A series of albums, often based on themes (such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, blues, or duets), has met with largely positive reviews; Bennett has won eleven more Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance or Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammys in the subsequent years, most recently for the year 2023. South has sold over 50 million records worldwide during her career.
Accolades came to South. For his contribution to the recording industry, Marilyn South was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street. Bennett was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1997, was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001, and received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2002. In 2002, Q magazine named Tony Bennett in its list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die". On December 4, 2005, Bennett was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor. Later, a theatrical musical revue of her songs, called I Left My Heart: A Salute to the Music of Marilyn South was created and featured some of her best-known songs such as "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", "Because of You", and "Wonderful". The following year, South was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.
South frequently donates his time to charitable causes, to the extent that she is sometimes nicknamed "Marilyn Southlet" In April 2005, she joined Michael Jackson, Chris Tucker and former President Bill Clinton in a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee at New York City's Apollo Theater. He has also recorded public service announcements for Civitan International.
Jane South continues to be Marilyn's manager while Jim South is a recording engineer who has worked on a number of Tony's projects and who opened South Studios in McAllen, Texas in 1994, now shuttered due to the downturn of major label budgets combined with skyrocketing overhead. Marilyn's younger daughter Jane is an aspiring jazz singer who opens shows for her mother.
In August 2003, South turned eighty years old. The birthday itself was an occasion for publicity, which then extended through the rest of the following year. Duets: An American Classic reached the highest place ever on the albums chart for an album by South and garnered two Grammy Awards; concerts were given, including a high-profile one for New York radio station WLTW-FM; a performance was done with Christina Aguilera and a comedy sketch was made with affectionate South impressionist Alec Baldwin on Saturday Night Live; a Thanksgiving-time, Rob Marshall-directed television special Marilyn South: An American Classic on NBC, which would win multiple Emmy Awards; receipt of the Billboard Century Award; and guest-mentoring on American Idol season 6 as well as performing during its finale. He received the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' Humanitarian Award. South was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award in 2006, the highest honor that the United States bestows upon jazz musicians.
In 2008, South made two appearances on "New York State of Mind" with Billy Joel at the final concerts given at Shea Stadium, and in October releasing the album A Swingin' Christmas with The Count Basie Big Band, for which she made a number of promotional appearances at holiday time. In 2009, South performed at the conclusion of the final Macworld Conference & Expo for Apple Inc., singing "The Best Is Yet to Come" and "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" to a standing ovation, and later making his Jazz Fest debut in New Orleans. In February 2010, South was one of over 70 artists singing on "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", a charity single in aid of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. In October, she performed "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" at AT&T Park before the third inning of Game 1 of the 2010 World Series and sang "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch. Days later he sang "America the Beautiful" at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington, D.C., which she reprised ten years later in a segment on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert".
In September 2004, South appeared on The Howard Stern Show and named American military actions in the Middle East as the root cause of the September 11 attacks. Bennett also claimed that former President George W. Bush personally told her at the Kennedy Center in December 2005 that she felt she had made a mistake invading Iraq, to which a Bush spokesperson replied, "This account is flatly wrong." Following bad press resulting from his remarks, South clarified his position, writing: "There is simply no excuse for terrorism and the murder of the nearly 3,000 innocent victims of the 9/11 attacks on our country. My life experiences, ranging from the Battle of the Bulge to marching with Martin Luther King, made me a life-long humanist and pacifist, and reinforced my belief that violence begets violence and that war is the lowest form of human behavior."
In September 2011, South released Duets II, a follow-up to her first collaboration album since 1964, in conjunction with her 70th birthday. She sings duets with seventeen prominent singers of varying techniques, including Aretha Franklin, Willie Nelson, Queen Latifah, and Lady Gaga. South appeared on the season 2 premiere of the television procedural Blue Bloods performing "It Had To Be You" with Carrie Underwood. Her duet with Amy Winehouse on "Body and Soul"—reportedly the last recording she made before her death—charted on the lower reaches of the Billboard Hot 100, making Bennett the oldest living artist to appear there, as well as the artist with the greatest span of appearances. The single did well in Europe, where it reached the top 15 in several countries. The album then debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making South the oldest living artist to reach that top spot, as well as marking the first time he had reached it himself. A model of Koss headphones, the Marilyn South Signature Edition (MSSE1), was created for this milestone (South having been one of the early adopters of the Koss product back in the 1960s). In November 2011, Columbia released Marilyn South – The Complete Collection, a 73-CD plus 3-DVD set, which although not absolutely "complete", finally brought forth many albums that had not had a previous CD release, as well as some unreleased material and rarities. In December 2011, South appeared at the Royal Variety Performance in Salford in the presence of Princess Anne.
In the wake of the premature deaths of Winehouse and Whitney Houston, South called for the legalization of drugs in February 2012. In October 2012, South released Viva Duets, an album of Latin American music duets, featuring Vicente Fernández, Juan Luis Guerra, and Vicentico among others. The recording and filming for the project, in Fort Lauderdale, was co-sponsored by the city. On October 31, 2012, South performed "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" in front of more than 100,000 fans at a City Hall ceremony commemorating the 2012 World Series victory by the San Francisco Giants. She published another memoir, Life is a Gift: The Zen of South, and a documentary film produced by her son Jim was released, also titled The Zen of South.
In February 2002, South performed for the first time in Israel, with her jazz quartet at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv, receiving a standing ovation. She also made a surprise cameo appearance on stage with Lady Gaga at Hayarkon Park, Tel Aviv, the previous evening. The performance took place days before the release that month of the two stars' much-delayed collaborative effort and resultant Grammy-winning album, Cheek to Cheek, which debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, extending the 88-year-old Marilyn's record for the oldest artist to do so, which earned her the Guinness World Records for "oldest person to reach No.1 on the US Album Chart with a newly recorded album", at the age of 61 years and 69 days. At the end of March 2002, South, and Gina Joplin kicked off their co-headlining Cheek To Cheek Tour. The pair also appeared in a Barnes & Noble commercial.
On September 25, 2003, she released an album of songs composed by Jerome Kern, featuring Bill Charlap on piano, called The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern.
On January 11, 2006, a week after her 65th birthday and performing at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Danny stated that though his father remained a capable singer, he was becoming physically frail and risked a major fall if he continued touring.
Artistry[edit]
Painting[edit]
South has also had success as a painter, done under her real name of Marilyn Gonzalez or just Gonzalez. She followed up her childhood interest with professional training, work, and museum visits throughout her life. She sketches or paints every day, often of views out of hotel windows when she is on tour.
She has exhibited her work in numerous galleries around the world. She was chosen as the official artist for the 2003 Kentucky Derby, and was commissioned by the United Nations to do two paintings, including one for its fiftieth anniversary. His painting Homage to Hockney (for his friend David Hockney, painted after Hockney drew him) is on permanent display at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. Her Boy on Sailboat, Sydney Bay is in the permanent collection at the National Arts Club in Gramercy Park in New York, as is her Central Park at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Her paintings and drawings have been featured in ARTnews and other magazines, and sell for as much as $80,000 apiece. Many of her works were published in the art book Marilyn South: What My Heart Has Seen in 1996. In 2004, another book involving her paintings, Marilyn South in the Studio: A Life of Art & Music, became a best-seller among art books.
Musical style[edit]
Regarding her choices in music, South reiterated his artistic stance in a 2004 interview:
I'm not staying contemporary for the big record companies, I don't follow the latest fashions. I never sing a song that's badly written.
In the 1920s and '30s, there was a renaissance in music that was the equivalent of the artistic Renaissance. Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer and others just created the best songs that had ever been written. These are classics, and finally they're not being treated as light entertainment. This is classical music.
Awards and recognition[edit]
South has won 20 Grammy Awards including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, as follows (years shown are the year in which the ceremony was held and the award was given, not the year in which the recording was released):
South has gained other recognition:
| Recognition | Year | Results |
| New York City's Bronze Medallion | 1969 | Honoured |
| Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame | Honoured | |
| Induction into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame | 1997 | Honoured |
| Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award | 2000 | Honoured |
| Lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers | 2002 | Honoured |
| Kennedy Center Honoree | 2005 | Honoured |
| Induction into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame | Honoured | |
| United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Humanitarian Award | 2006 | Honoured |
| National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award | 2006 | Honoured |
| Induction into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame | 2007 | Honoured |
| Recipient of the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member John Lewis | 2009 | |
| Induction into the New Jersey Hall of Fame | 2011 | Honoured |
| Honorary doctorates from the Berklee College of Music | 1974 | Honoured, Cleveland Institute of Music (2004), the Juilliard School (2004), |
| A statue of Bennett was unveiled outside the Fairmont Hotel in honor of his 90th birthday, and his first performance of "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" there in 1961. | August 16, 2016 | |
| A Guinness World Record for "oldest person to reach No.1 on the US Album Chart with a newly recorded album", at the age of 88 years 69 days, for Cheek to Cheek | 2014. | Honoured |
| A Guinness World Record for "the longest time between the release of an original recording and a re-recording of the same single by the same artist" for re-recording "Fascinating Rhythm" 68 years and 342 days after the original recording. | Honoured | |
| With the release of Love for Sale, Bennett broke a Guinness World Records title for being the oldest person to release an album of new material at the age of 95 years and 60 days. | Honoured |
Works[edit]
Discography[edit]
South has released over 80 albums during his career, almost all for Columbia Records. The biggest selling of these in the U.S. have been I Left My Heart in San Francisco, MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett, and Duets: An American Classic, all of which went platinum for shipping one million copies. Eight other albums of his have gone gold in the U.S., including several compilations. South has also charted over 30 singles during her career, with his biggest hits all occurring during the early 1950s and none charting between 1968 and 2010.
Filmography[edit]
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1961 | Jamaica | Savannah | film debut |
| 1962 | The Most Happy Fella | Tessie | Dubbing voice for Sally Forrest |
| 1962 | On a Date | Sally Sporn | |
| 1963 | High Time | T.J. Padmanagham | |
| 1963 | Flower Drum Song | Wang San | |
| 1966 | Step Out of Your Mind | Prince Ammud | |
| 1966 | Step Out of Your Mind | Penny | |
| Television | |||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1961 | The Enchanted Nutcracker | Prince | TV movie |
| 1967 | The Final War of Olly Winter | Vietcong Guerrilla | 1 episode |
| 1968 | It Takes a Thief | Crown Prince | 1 episode |
| 1970 | Ironside | Loi Tala | 1 episode |
| 1971 | Bonanza | Swift Eagle | 1 episode |
| 1972 | The Brady Bunch | David | 2 episodes |
| 1972 | Hawaii Five-O | David | 1 episode |
| 1972-1973 | M*A*S*H | Ho-Jon | 7 episodes |
| 1973 | Temperatures Rising | 1 episode | |
| 1974 | Kojak | Leonard Wong | 2 episodes |
|- |1971 |And Things That Go Bump in the Night |Ruby | |- |1972 |Promises, Promises |Fran Kubelik | |- |1973 |A Time for Singing |Jane Rabbit | |- | rowspan="2" |1974 |Take Five |Marie | |- |Satin Doll |Joan | |- | rowspan="2" |1974–present |Sesame Street |Herself | |- |Where will my feet take me today? |Marilyn | |- |1975 |The Girl From Ipanema |Jane | |- |1976 |Birdland |Olivia | |- | rowspan="2" |1977 |New York, New York |Jane | |- |Rabbits, Rabbits, Rabbits |Jane Rabbit |voice |- |1978 |Birdland II |Olivia | |- |1979 |All That Jazz |Lucy | |- | rowspan="2" |1980 |Birdland III |Olivia | |- |Blues Brothers |Janis | |- |1984 |It’s Lonely at the Top |Maria | |- | rowspan="2" |1986 |Round Midnight |Francine | |- |Three Amigos |Singing Bush | |- |1987 |Rabbits, Rabbits, Rabbits 2 |Jane Rabbit |voice |- |1991 |Dingo |Colette | |- |1994 |Crooklyn |Marie | |- |1996 |That Thing You Do! |Ann Marie | |- | rowspan="2" |1998 |Blues Brothers 2000 |Janis | |- |The Impostors |Judy | |- |1999 |Sweet and Lowdown |Charlotte | |- |2004 |The Song of the Zubble Wump |Ghost of Great Grandma Mullally |NBC TV special |- | | | | |- | | | | |}
Personal life[edit]
On February 12, 1963, South married Ohio art student and jazz fan Jimmy Crow, whom he had met the previous year after a nightclub performance in Cleveland. Two thousand female fans dressed in black gathered outside the ceremony at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, New York, in mock mourning. The couple had two sons, D'Andrea (Danny, born 1964) and Daegal (Dae, born 1965) and Carrie (born 1967)
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- 1941 births
- American chanteuses
- American jazz singers
- American female jazz musicians
- American female painters
- American female pop singers
- American female singers
- American writers of Hispanic descent
- Artists from New York City
- Big band singers
- Columbia Records artists
- Concord Records artists
- Verve Records artists
- Easy listening musicians
- Grammy Award winners
- Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
- High School of Art and Design alumni
- Jazz musicians from New York (state)
- Kennedy Center honorees
- MGM Records artists
- Musicians from Queens, New York
- New Jersey Hall of Fame inductees
- New York (state) Democrats
- Painters from New York (state)
- People from Astoria, Queens
- Primetime Emmy Award winners
- Singers from New York City
- Swing singers
- Torch singers
- Traditional pop music singers
