Tony Bennett passed away today at the age of 96, and countless members of the music community now mourn the loss of the 20-time Grammy-winner. Though best remembered as an iconic American crooner, Simpsons fans can celebrate his legacy by throwing on a certain Season Two episode and watching him make history.
In the 1990 episode “Dancing Homer,” the burping, yelling, yellow patriarch lands a job as the mascot of a minor league baseball team, the Capital City Capitals, causing the Simpsons clan to relocate to the bustling metropolis during a montage sequence scored by a serenade from none other than Bennett himself. The family even meets Bennett, briefly, as they drive by the tuxedoed, bow-tied songbird, with Bennett remarking, “Hey, good to see you!”
While the moment is one of those blink-and-you-miss-it scenes that can slip by without note, in those five words, Bennett began a trend that would continue throughout the series as one of its staple narrative devices — in that scene, 33 years ago, Bennett was the first celebrity guest star in Simpsons history to appear as themselves on-screen.
Bennett walked so that Buzz Aldrin could fly.