One of his first hits was his rendition of Charles Gounod's version of "Ave Maria." However, the quality of the recording on Youtube is so poor that I'm not going to link it. In 1950, he scored with Franz Schubert's version of the song.
For Italians you are not really married unless the Ave Maria is sung at your wedding and you are not really dead unless it is sung at your funeral. When you are at a funeral mass and you hear the beautiful opening bars of that melody, its time to say your final goodbyes.
Here’s an old joke.
For a time people were really in to Vegas shows. They were bragging about “Oh. I just caught FS ( Frank Sinatra )” or “I just caught DM ( Dean Martin ) in Vegas.” But nobody brags about catching Vic Damone.