Frankie Laine

Born in Chicago, Illinois to Sicilian immigrant parents, Francesco Paolo LoVecchio knew he wanted to be a singer, after skipping school to see the Al Jolson movie 'The Singing Fool', and was performing concerts locally by the time he was 17. Influenced by everyone from opera star Enrico Caruso to the blues queen Bessie Smith, he developed the vibrant, impassioned vocal style which characterised his whole career, getting his big break when invited to replace his friend Perry Como at a show with the Freddy Carlone Band in Cleveland. He went on to gig in small jazz clubs although success was erratic and he spent some time sleeping on a park bench in New York, changing his name to Frankie Laine in 1938 when New York radio station WINS offered him a job but thought the name LoVecchio sounded too foreign.

It was after moving to Los Angeles that he started singing in movies and also began songwriting and got a deal with Mercury Records after Hoagy Carmichael heard him singing at a club. His first hit 'That's My Desire' opened the floodgates and other major Laine hits over the years included 'Mule Train', 'Dream a Little Dream of Me', 'Jezebel', 'Jealousy', 'Rawhide' and 'High Noon', the title song of the major Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly film. In 1953 he achieved a chart record when 'I Believe' was at number one in the UK for 18 weeks and later formed a successful partnership with the French arranger and composer Michel Legrand. He continued to perform into the 2000s and released his last album in 2006 but died the following year at the age of 94.