Jerry Vale Studio albums I Remember Buddy (1958) |
Las Vegas Entertainer Jerry Valeby Billy Ingram During the 1950s and 1960s, Jerry Vale's high-tenor voice, he was of Italian descent, reached the top of the pop charts with his unique brand of romantic ballads, there was no other vocalist quite like him. His covers of Eddy Arnold's "You Don't Know Me" (1956) and "Have You Looked into Your Heart" (1964) were smash jukebox hits. In Martin Scorsese movies, if there's a crooner on a nightclub stage it's usually either Jerry Vale or someone playing Jerry Vale (as Steven Van Zandt did in The Irishman). He also appeared on the HBO series "The Sopranos." Kaye Ballard worked with Jerry Vale in upstate New York in the 1990s, "All he had to do was say two words in Italian, and they would scream," she said. "And he was classy to work with." In this video Vale said about his beginning as an entertainer, "I went to Mitch Miller's office, he played the guitar for me, I sang a song, and Mitch Miller then and there, at that moment, said to me, 'I'm going to sign you to a contract on Columbia Records. That was in 1951." Vale recorded 48 albums but had to stop singing after suffering a stroke in 2002. Although he was portrayed as a simple family man, in fact this Vegas headliner had numerous affairs with beautiful showgirls and performers, including a member of Dean Martin's Golddiggers. Here's a look at the immortal Jerry Vale towards the end of his career. From the YouTube description: "Profile of singer Jerry Vale from a series on crooners I did for the Today Show. Vale, in addition to loving music, also had a passion for baseball and one time, at his own expense, hired an orchestra & backup singers to help him record the national anthem, which he then gave, free of charge, to ballparks to play before games. His recording was the first song inducted into the baseball hall of fame." Jerry Vale died of natural causes in his sleep on May 18, 2014, at his home in Palm Desert, California, he was 83 years old. Barbara Sinatra told the Desert-Sun newspaper, "Jerry Vale was a long, long-time friend of my husband. I loved him and his wife (Rita). She is one of my best friends. He is in heaven now with so many of his friends. And I would love to hear the music coming from heaven now!"
Jerry Vale Sings the Italian Hits:
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YOUR GO-GO HOST: Billy Ingram
Tony Horowitz, trumpet player for Louis Prima's band 1974-1975: So we hooked up wih various acts when we were doing the summer theater curcuit, whether it was Sergio Franchi, or Jerry Vale or The Golddiggers. It was a wonderful experience being with The Golddiggers. They held forth like nobody's business, they sang, they danced, they were terrific. You're talking the major leagues here. |
