Years later, with вЂњDo It AgainвЂќ still stuck in my head, I immersed myself in all things Kinks and marveled at DaviesвЂ™ otherworldly ability to craft a song. The post-punk power chords, monster hooks and energy-packed drumming had me grinning like a Cheshire cat. вЂњWe thought it would be a local hit.It was in the larger-than-life era of music video when I discovered former Kinks frontman Ray Davies, decades after he had constructed the timeless 1964 rock anthem вЂњYou Really Got Me.вЂќ The Kinks had just released their 1984 album Word of Mouth, and the clip for вЂњDo It AgainвЂќ - with Davies at his power-pop best - was in heavy rotation. вЂњWe played it there, and the people liked it,вЂќ Mr. The tour would take them to San Francisco - what would be the harm, he thought, in persuading Mr.

Sharon opened his bureau drawer, reached for a shirt and noticed the forgotten sheet music. Bennett were about to embark on a concert tour, Mr.

SharonвЂ™s survivors include his wife, the former Linda Noone, and two grandchildren.Д¬all it providence. Sharon recorded dozens of albums, among them вЂњAround the World in Jazz,вЂќ вЂњThe Magic of Jerome KernвЂќ and вЂњThe Magic of George Gershwin.вЂќД«esides his son, Mr. Sharon left for a period in the 1970s to work with Rosemary Clooney and Robert Goulet but later reunited with Mr. Sharon alone or by the Ralph Sharon Trio, which included a bassist and a drummer. After a few years with the clarinetist Tony Scott and other jazzmen, he was asked to audition for Mr. Sharon moved to New York to try to make it in American jazz. By the time he was a teenager, Ralph was playing in the celebrated British big band led by Ted Heath. His mother was a pianist for silent movies. Sharon put the music into a bureau drawer and promptly forgot all about it for more than a year. Then, in the late вЂ™50s or early вЂ™60s, Mr. Turner sang the ballad as an encore in recitals but never recorded it. It had been composed in the early вЂ™50s for the contralto Claramae Turner, a midcentury mainstay of the Metropolitan Opera whose roles there included Amneris in VerdiвЂ™s вЂњAidaвЂќ and Erda in WagnerвЂ™s вЂњSiegfried.вЂќ

With music by George Cory and lyrics by Douglass Cross, вЂњI Left My Heart in San FranciscoвЂќ was first published in 1954. ItвЂ™s a real art, and itвЂ™s rarely recognized.вЂќ вЂњIn my life IвЂ™ve seen only two others like him, Bill Miller with Sinatra and Bobby Tucker with Billie Holiday and Billy Eckstine - very good jazz musicians, but able to sublimate themselves to singers. вЂњIвЂ™ve been very lucky to have worked with Ralph Sharon,вЂќ Mr. Bennett on a string of Grammy Award-winning albums, over time serving as his accompanist, arranger and musical director, and is widely credited with nudging Mr. Bennett in the late 1950s and remained with him for the better part of the next 45 years. He was 91.ДЄ highly regarded jazz pianist in his own right, Mr. Bennett to sing a song originally written for a Wagnerian contralto - about the fond intersection of a large muscle in the chest with a Northern California city - and in so doing created a Grammy-winning standard, died on March 31 at his home in Boulder, Colo. Ralph Sharon, Tony BennettвЂ™s longtime accompanist, who in the early 1960s persuaded Mr.

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