Frankie Laine
b. Frank LoVecchio, 30 March 1913, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Laine had been a chorister at the Immaculate Conception Church in his city's Sicilian quarter before entering showbusiness proper on leaving school. For nearly a decade he travelled as a singing waiter, dancing instructor (with victory in a 1932 dance marathon his principal qualification) and other lowly jobs, but it was as one of a New Jersey nightclub quartet that he got his first big break—replacing Perry Como in Freddie Carlone's touring band in 1937. This was a springboard to a post as house vocalist with a New York radio station until migration to Los Angeles where he was ‘discovered’ entertaining in a Hollywood spa by Hoagy Carmichael. The songwriter persuaded him to adopt an Anglicised nom de theatre, and funded the 1947 session that resulted in That's My Desire, Laine's first smash. This was followed by Shine (written in 1924) and a revival again in Louis Armstrong's When You're Smiling. This was the title song to a 1950 movie starring Laine, the Mills Brothers, Kay Starr and other contributors of musical interludes to its ‘backstage’ plot. His later career on celluloid focused largely on his disembodied voice carrying main themes of cowboy movies such as MAN WITH A STAR, the celebrated HIGH NOON, GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL and the RAWHIDEtelevision series. Each enhanced the dramatic, heavily masculine style favoured by Laine's producer, Mitch Miller, who also spiced the artist's output with generous pinches of C&W. This was best exemplified in the extraordinary 1949 hit, Mule Train, one of the most dramatic and impassioned recordings of its era. Other early successes included Jezebel, Jalousie and Rose Rose, I Love You, an adaptation by Wilfred Thomas of Hue Lin's Chinese melody Mei Kuei. 
Laine proved a formidable international star, particularly in the UK, where his long chart run began in 1952 with High Noon. The following year he made chart history when his version of I Believe topped the charts for a staggering 18 weeks, a record which has never been eclipsed, despite a valiant run of 16 weeks by Bryan Adams28 years later. Laine enjoyed two further UK chart-toppers in 1953 with Hey Joe and Answer Me. Incredibly, he was number 1 for 27 weeks that year, another fact of chart domination that is difficult to envisage ever being equalled. No less than 22 UK Top 20 hits during the '50s emphasized the popularity of Laine, including such memorable songs as Blowing Wild, Granada, The Kid's Last Fight, My Friend, Rain Rain Rain, Cool Water, Hawkeye, Sixteen Tons, A Woman In Love and Rawhide. Laine was also a consummate duettist and enjoyed additional hits with Johnnie Ray, Doris Day and Jimmy Boyd. After a hit parade farewell with 1961's Gunslinger, he found a full life commuting around the world as a highly-waged cabaret performer with a repertoire built round selections from hit compilations, one of which ( THE VERY BEST OF FRANKIE LAINE) climbed into international charts as late as 1977. New material tended to be of a sacred nature—though in the more familiar ‘clippetty-clop’ character was his Blazing Saddles in Mel Brooks’ (the lyricist) 1974 spoof-western of the same name. By the mid-80s, he was in virtual semi-retirement in an opulent ocean-front dwelling in San Diego, California with his wife, former actress Nanette Gray. With sales in excess of 100 million, Laine was a giant of his time and one of the most important solo singers of the immediate pre-rock ‘n’ roll period. 
Further reading: That Lucky Old Son, Frankie Laine and Joseph F. Laredo.