The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Popular Standards by Max Morath

Author:Max Morath
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Vic Damone (1928– ): Perry Como was a barber in New Jersey and Vic Damone was an electrician in Brooklyn. Yeah, right. But that’s when they were teenagers. Then they got their big breaks—a facile cliché about show business usually voiced by people not in show business. Damone was born with a voice that Frank Sinatra called “the best pipes in the business.” It was a warm and rich baritone, over which he seemed to be in effortless control. That was his big break—that and having parents, especially his piano-playing mother, who encouraged him to use his gift. Growing up in Brooklyn helped, so that one day he could drop by the Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts TV show over in Manhattan, win first place, meet Milton Berle backstage, accept his offer to make a few phone calls, and open a few weeks later at a leading New York nightclub. He was seventeen.

His name was still Vito Farinoli when he was signed by Mercury Records, but by the time his recording of “I Have but One Heart” hit the Top Ten he was Vic Damone, off and running. Unlike many of the popular singers of his time, he had never sung with a band, been in a Broadway show, or established himself as a nightclub star. The source of his success was the recording studio. The hits came thick and fast for a while: “Again,” “You’re Breaking My Heart,” and “On the Street Where You Live,” Standards all. He went to Hollywood and made a few movies, but his screen presence never matched his vocal magic. These days his early hits are packaged on CD, and he’s out there playing the club and casino circuit, his “set of pipes” as good as ever.

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