Frankie Laine

Data di nascita
30 marzo 1913 · Chicago, Illinois, Stati Uniti
Data di morte
6 febbraio 2007 · San Diego, California, Stati Uniti (malattia cardiovascolare)
Nome alla nascita
Francesco Paolo Lo Vecchio
Soprannomi
- Mr. Rhythm
- America's Number One Song Stylist
- Old Man Jazz
- Old Leather Lungs

When Mel Brooks advertised in the show business trade papers for a "Frankie Laine-type" voice to sing the title song for Mezzogiorno e mezzo di fuoco (1974), he expected a good imitation of the real Laine. Instead, Laine himself showed at Brooks' office two days later, ready to do the job. He got the job and sang the Oscar-nominated title song again at the Academy Awards the following year.
Sang the theme song for the TV series, Gli uomini della prateria (1959), which ran on CBS-TV from 1959 to 1965.
One of his dance partners during the Depression marathons was jazz vocalist Anita O'Day. Red Skelton was an M.C.
His big breakthrough came when Hoagy Carmichael heard him sing in a Los Angeles nightclub.
Tex Ritter sang the title song from Mezzogiorno di fuoco (1952) but Laine's recording reached No. 5 in the Billboard charts, besting Ritter's version, which peaked at #12.

In my leaner days I failed many an audition because, I was told, I sounded "too black" . . . I'm certain the confusion was the direct result of the music that influenced me while I was developing my style. I guess I became the first of the so-called blue-eyed soul singers.
[in a 1987 interview] When people nowadays say that [Elvis Presley] was the first white guy to sound black, I have to shake my head; what can you do? At the time of "That's My Desire", they were saying that I was the only white guy around who sounded black.
[(from an interview for the book "Off the Record: An Oral History of Popular Music"] . . . if I had it to do over again, there is one thing I would change. I would make it [success] happen maybe ten years sooner. Ten years is a good stretch of scuffling. But I scuffled for 17 years before it happened and 17 is a bit much.

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