Jerry Vale

A tenor with a smooth, polished delivery, Vale was a longtime fixture at Columbia Records who recorded more than 50 albums and hundreds of songs. He first hit the charts in 1953 with “You Can Never Give Me Back My Heart”. His other enchanting hits included “Volare,” “Al Di La,” “Two Purple Shadows,” a cover of Eddy Arnold‘s “You Don’t Know Me,” “I Live Each Day,” “Have You Looked Into Your Heart,” “Dommage, Dommage (Too Bad, Too Bad)” and “My Little Girl (Angel All A-Glow).” The boyish Vale sang all over the world during his long career, including at Carnegie Hall in New York and in Las Vegas, where his friend, Frank Sinatra, set him up with a gig at The Sands in the ’50s that would last for 22 weeks, four shows a day. Vale, who was of Italian descent, showed his love of Italian music with his albums, I Have But One Heart (1962) and Arrivederci, Roma (1963), full of Italian standards such as "Amore, Scusami", "Ciao, Ciao, Bambina", "Arrivederci, Roma", and "O Sole Mio". His renditions of "Volare", "Innamorata (Sweetheart)", and "Al di là" became classic Italian-American songs. Vale performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, made cameo appearances as himself in the Martin Scorsese films Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995) and played a lounge singer in the independent comedy A Wake in Providence (1999). He passed away in his sleep at his Palm Desert home.