The Photo That Changed My Life

ET CETERA

FIRST-PERSON

TONY BENNETT

With his 90th birthday on the horizon—and a new book, Just Getting Started (as well as an NBC special), appearing this fall—the iconic singer discusses an iconic image

All my life I've been a humanist. But what really put this into focus for me was the day, 44 years ago, when I saw this photograph for the first time: our planet Earth, taken from outer space.

I remember being so captivated, thinking about what it must have been like to frame the entire world between two fingers. What a perspective. All the tribulations, the wars, the prejudice—and everything that divides us—simply melt away when you realize that we're all together on one planet and that every problem should have a solution. As Ella Fitzgerald used to say to me, 'Tony, we arc all //cm.'"

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