Frankie Laine in a 1949 photograph
Posted on 02/06/2007 11:23:23 PM PST by Loud Mime
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Frankie Laine, the big-voiced singer whose string of hits made him one of the most popular entertainers of the 1950s, died Tuesday. He was 93.
Laine died of heart failure at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, Jimmy Marino, Laine's producer of more than a dozen years, told The Associated Press.
"He was one of the greatest singers around," Marino said. "He was one of the last Italian crooners type."
With songs such as "That's My Desire," "Mule Train," "Jezebel," "I Believe" and "That Lucky Old Sun," Laine was a regular feature of the Top Ten in the years just before rock 'n' roll ushered in a new era of popular music.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Frankie Laine in a 1949 photograph
Great singer, will miss him. Mule train, Moonlight Gambler, did many themes for western movies too. Did Rawhide a lot better than the Blues Brothers. LOL
...no beer bottles thrown his way, that's for sure!
nothin like some nachos and Budweiser listenin' to John Beluchi sing Rawhide. RIP MR Laine.
Ping
ping
The hospital he died at is just up the street from me.
He did much for the hospital some yrs. back giving a large amount in his wife's memory.
Dead at 93 years old, and if it hadn't been for all those years of second hand smoke in dark nightclubs he might have lived a long life.
The guy was tough. His real name was Francesco Paulo LoVecchio and he lived in Chicago's Little Italy. Frankie was the oldest of eight children born to Sicilian immigrants John and Anna Lo Vecchio, who had come from Monreale, Sicily near Palermo. His father first worked as a waterboy for the Chicago Railroad and he was eventually promoted to laying rails. His father subsequently went to a Trade School and became a barber. One of his most famous clients was gangster Al Capone.
At 18 he went to Baltimore and participated in a marathon dance contest after coming off the heels of winning ones in Stamford, CT. and Chicago. Laine set an all time marathon dance record of 3501 hours in 145 consecutive days in 1932 at Wilson's Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey and his competition was an Olympic miler named Joey Ray and included 101 other contestants. Altogether he participated in 14 marathons, winning three, second once and fifth twice.
Think of the movie "They Shoot Horses, Don't They", but for real.
Darn....that was when life was really tough.
Today, we have it made in the shade, drinking kool-aide.
Thanks for this...
Very sad news. I mixed live sound for him at a couple of shows years ago, and he definitely had the best voice I've ever had the pleasure of working with. I even got to go to dinner with him afterwards. I have a large reel of him doing his greatest hits live at those shows...including a killer version of Rawhide. I gave him a copy...I'll miss you Frankie Laine.
A great singer. He was much better before Mitch Miller got a hold of him.
Didn't he also do "Ghostriders In The Sky"? Love that song.
I grew up with Frankie Lane music. Ninety three ain't a bad run.
Thanks for the memories. RIP
Everyone did "Ghostriders...". Vaughn Monroe was the first to make a hit out of it around 1949, but Laine did a great version too. My version is not quite as good as the aforementioned. A lot less. And as yet unrecorded. However I gather plenty of fresh and not so fresh veggies when I sing, and I can get cats and dogs to express their feelings.
Well, just darn.
RIP Frankie. We'll miss you
My grandmother liked him a lot.
Let's not forget "Blazing Saddles."
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