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Perry Como

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Perry Como was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, on May 18, 1912. He's the seventh son, of a seventh son, legendary marks of good luck. Lady luck is a gal he often quotes, although his fans believe in a thing called talent.

Born to Italian immigrants, Pietro and Lucia Como, who settled in the small Pennsylvania mining town, he was the first of their thirteen children to be a citizen of the United States by birth.

It's a well known bit of show business fact that Perry's first ambition was to be the best barber in Canonsburg. At 14, he was apprenticed to Steve Fragapane who taught him the trade of the shears, and Perry soon opened his own shop as an after-school money maker. With two assistants and a guitar he turned it into a profitable enterprise which he took over on a full-time basis after high school graduation. The miners would come out of the pits on Saturday night, black with coal dust, eager for everything from a shave to a manicure and Perry built his little shop into a $125 a week net profit. It was a small town store where he knew all his customers by name, where it wasn't strange for a barber to sing while clipping hair or stop to strum a guitar because he was in the mood. Life was good, his business was good, he was the local talent in the community, and in 1933 Perry went to Cleveland on a well-earned vacation.

The Early Years

While in Cleveland his friends urged him to audition for Freddy Carlone's band a band known to the local spots throughout Ohio. Doing it more as a concession to his friends than a desire to get into show business, Perry auditioned for Carlone and returned to Canonsburg. A few weeks later he received a wire urgently requesting that he join the band as soon as possible. It was a hard decision for the young barber for the shop was bringing in a $125 a week. The depression years had just begun and security was a hopeless word. But his parents convinced him that he could always pick up where he left off should the singing business fold. And on this reservation Perry Como joined the ranks of young boys who sang with bands for $28 a week.

On July 31, 1933, he married his childhood sweetheart, Roselle Belline.

During the next two years Perry built up a following in the Cleveland area and became a small name among the guys and dolls who paused to listen in front of the bandstand. He had to learn poise, the intricacies of sheet music, and adjust to the strange nighttime life of a musician. They played such spots as the Crystal Slipper and Danceland Ballroom the kind of places that have their counterparts throughout the country. It was during these early days in Cleveland that the young novice met the great Russ Columbo who was then playing at the Golden Pheasant with his orchestra. Russ was the king of the crooners in those days and Perry and he became friends, never dreaming that one day his recording of Columbo's famous "Prisoner of Love" would become one of the biggest sellers in music history.

Ted Weems and his band were in their prime in the mid-thirties and when the young singer was brought to his attention, he offered Perry a job. His salary was an overwhelming $50 a week. Bands were hot. The Millers, the Dorseys, the Goodmans were the No. 1 box office attractions and the only chance a singer had was to draw a spot with a big band. The Weems tie-up marked Perry's first tentative steps toward the top. It was with Weems that Perry was introduced to the nerve-wracking grind of one-night stands throughout the country. He made his radio debut and the name "Perry Como" was now on record labels as "vocalist." There was usually a gal singer with the group, one of whom was Marvel Maxwell, later known to moviegoers as Marilyn Maxwell. With Weems, Perry reached Broadway and the great presentation houses. He recalls one momentous engagement at the New York Strand when the band shared the bill with Ann Sheridan who, in those days, was riding a crest as the nation's "oomph" girl. As far as Perry Como was concerned, this was the "big-time!"

In '42 the Weems band broke up and Perry was weary of traveling. His home life was a haphazard thing. Since the birth of their first child, Ronnie, in 1940, Roselle had been forced to remain in Canonsburg. He was concerned about his future and eager to live a normal quiet life and this meant a good location for another barber shop. The long distance phone calls and wires started pouring in from booking agents, managers and band leaders, but Perry turned down the offers and continued to negotiate with a local real estate agent for a store lease. General Artists Corporation called while Perry was dickering about the shop rental. Their deal was his own sustaining radio show at $100 a week and an RCA Victor recording contract. He would be a sole singer and not part of a band package. But it was Roselle who persuaded him with the old clincher, "You can always get another barber shop if it doesn't work out!"

It wasn't long before Perry hit New York as a personality. The singer craze was on and Frank Sinatra, who was then holding court at the Riobamba nightclub, had started a new surge of shrieks, sighs and swoons! Perry was booked into the Versailles and Copacabana nightclubs. He stopped the show each night. Word got around that the Copa would need rubber walls to hold the Perry Como stampede. Then came the Paramount Theatre engagement and the teenagers stood for hours in lines that circled the block three deep. Those who had known him as Ted Weems' vocalist woke up one morning to find that Perry Como was one of the hottest properties in show business.

Simultaneous with his nightclub and theatre success, Perry's recordings started hitting the market. His first RCA Victor record, "Goodbye Sue," was waxed in 1943. In 1945 he established a record by selling more than a million copies of "Till the End of Time." During a single week in 1946 four-million Como recordings were turned out, surpassing the output of any artist in the history of record-making to that time.

During this period it was estimated that on a yearly basis, Como sold more than four million records annually. A great many of his platters sold more than a million copies each. A record sales-total rare in music annals ditto his long association with one company, RCA Victor.

In 1944 Perry went to Hollywood where he co-starred with Vivian Blaine, Phil Silvers and Carmen Miranda in his first movie for 20th Century Fox titled "Something for the Boys." In 1946 he followed with "Doll Face" and "If I'm Lucky." In 1948 he was chosen to appear with the all-star cast of MGM's musical "Words and Music."

Chesterfield Cigarettes was Perry's first radio sponsor and remained with him through the years, a relationship unusual in a business of short-lived romances, until his switch to NBC in September of 1955. After a year of sustaining ( in 1943 ) Chesterfield signed Perry in 1944 to a fifteen minute show five nights a week on NBC. In 1945 it was changed to a thrice-weekly stanza and during the 1949-50 season Perry and Chesterfield did a half hour radio show and a half hour television show weekly. He switched to full time television in 1950 for CBS-TV, thrice weekly, Monday-Wednesday-Friday, at 7:45 to 8:00 p.m. His casual manner, sharp showmanship, and good looks took to television as if it were made for him. Surveys boasted that the fifteen minute Perry Como Show was viewed in approximately fifteen million homes.

On August 31, 1953, Perry returned to radio with a taped version of his fifteen minute television show. Sponsored again by Chesterfield, it was heard on the Mutual Broadcasting System, Monday-Wednesday-Friday, at 7:45 p.m. and then switched over to CBS on the same days at 9:00 p.m.

In May of 1955 Perry signed an unprecedented firm 12 year contract with NBC-TV. The deal called for a one-hour show to be seen on Saturdays at 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. The Perry Como Show had its premiere on September 17, 1955. Its success was nothing less than phenomenal and Perry's talents as an all round showman were confirmed. Perry's popular television show competed directly with Jackie Gleason and a ratings war dubbed by the press as "The Battle of the Giants". It was a battle Perry won hands down and n 1959 he would sign an unprecedented multi-million dollar contract with Kraft Foods to host "The Perry Como Kraft Music Hall" which would soon move from Saturday to Wednesday nights. The contract with Kraft was the largest in the history of television at the time and woukd enter the Guinness Book of World Records.

Perry was consistently voted the most popular male vocalist in polls throughout the United States and with the advent of his television show, he quickly became the most popular television personality. His fan clubs covered the globe. Despite the fact that Perry didn't rely on cross-country tours, theatre engagements, nightclubs and movies, all of which he claimed might keep him away from his family, he joined the chosen few known as all-time greats in show business.

Perry received the 1953 Interfaith Award for his "unselfish devotion, his humanitarian endeavors . . . and wholehearted service in the advancement of the principles of Interfaith"

The Christmas Television Specials

He had numerous Christmas television specials, beginning on Christmas Eve, 1948, and continuing to 1994 when his final Christmas Special was recorded in Ireland. Following his weekly series, ending in 1963, Como's television specials changed to bi-monthly, then monthly, followed by seasonal specials celebrating Easter, Spring, Thanksgiving, and Christmas festivities, ending in 1987. They were recorded from many parts of the world, including England, Rome, Austria, France, and many locations throughout North America. Como's Christmas Concert in Ireland would be his final special and the last of his commercial recordings, although not for his original label RCA Victor.

A farewell Christmas Concert from Ireland

In January 1994, Como travelled to Dublin, Ireland, for what would be an auspicious moment in his long career of more than sixty years. The year 1993 would have marked his fiftieth anniversary with the RCA Victor label, now owned and controlled by Bertelsmann and operated under the BMG logo, as well as his forty-fifth year of television specials celebrating Christmas and its importance throughout the world to people of all faiths. Como's Irish Christmas was produced for the American PBS public television system, and has been re-broadcast annually since 1994.

Como died on May 12 2001 at his home in Jupiter, Florida, six days before his eighty-ninth birthday.

Domestic & International Charted Singles

  • Ahora Que Soy Libre (I Want to Give)
  • All at Once You Love Her
  • All Through the Day
  • And I Love You So
  • Anima Mia (My Days of Loving You)
  • Another Go 'Round
  • As My Love for You
  • Ave Maria (1949)
  • 'A' — You're Adorable
  • Baia
  • Bali Ha'i
  • Because
  • The Best of Times (1983)
  • Beyond Tomorrow (Love Theme from Serpico)
  • Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo (The Magic Song) (with The Fontane Sisters)
  • Blue Room
  • A Bushel and a Peck (with Betty Hutton)
  • Bye Bye Little Girl
  • Catch a Falling Star
  • Caterina
  • Chee Chee-Oo Chee (Sang the Little Bird) (with Jaye P. Morgan
  • Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba (My Bambino Go to Sleep)
  • Chincherinchee
  • Christ is Born
  • Christmas Bells (In the Steeple)
  • Christmas Eve
  • Christmas Dream
  • The Colors of My Life
  • Coo Coo Roo Coo Coo Paloma
  • Dance Only with Me
  • Dancin'
  • Delaware
  • (Did You Ever Get) That Feeling in the Moonlight
  • Dig You Later (A Hubba-Hubba-Hubba )
  • Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes
  • Don't Leave Me
  • Dream Along with Me (I'm on My Way to a Star)
  • Dream on Little Dreamer
  • A Dreamer's Holiday (with The Fontane Sisters)
  • Far away Places
  • The Father of Girls (1967)
  • A Fellow Needs a Girl (1947)
  • The First Christmas (1950)
  • Fooled
  • Forget Domani
  • Forever and Ever
  • For the Good Times
  • A Garden in the Rain
  • The Girl with the Golden Braids
  • Give Me Your Hand
  • Glendora
  • Goodbye for Now
  • Goodbye, Sue
  • The Grass Keeps Right On Growin'
  • Greensleeves
  • Happy Man
  • Haunted Heart
  • Have I Stayed away Too Long?
  • Hello, Young Lovers (1951)
  • Here Comes Heaven
  • Here Comes My Baby (Back Again!)
  • Hit and Run Affair
  • (There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays (1954)
  • Hoop-Dee-Doo
  • Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom)
  • How Beautiful the World Can Be
  • I Believe
  • I Confess
  • I Cross My Fingers
  • I Don't Know What He Told You
  • I Don't See Me in Your Eyes Anymore
  • I Dream of You (More Than You Dream I Do)
  • If (1950)
  • If I Loved You
  • If I'm Lucky
  • If You Were the Only Girl
  • I Know
  • I Know What God Is
  • I Looked Back
  • I Love You
  • (I Love You) Don't You Forget It
  • I'm Always Chasing Rainbows
  • I May Never Pass this Way Again
  • I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)
  • I'm Gonna Love That Gal (Like She's Never Been Loved Before)
  • In These Crazy Times
  • The Island of Forgotten Lovers
  • I Think of You
  • It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas
  • It's Impossible
  • It Was Such a Good Day
  • Ivy Rose
  • I Wanna Go Home (with You)
  • I Want to Give
  • I Want to Thank Your Folks
  • I Wish It Could Be Christmas Forever
  • I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now (1947)
  • Jingle Bells
  • Juke Box Baby
  • Just Born (to Be Your Baby)
  • (Just One Way to Say) I Love You
  • Just Out of Reach
  • Keep It Gay
  • Kewpie Doll (with Ray Charles)
  • Kol Nidrei (1953)
  • Ko-Ko-Mo (I Love You So)
  • Laroo Laroo Lilli Bolero
  • The Last Straw (with Betty Hutton)
  • Let's Do it Again
  • Let's Take an Old-Fashioned Walk
  • Lies
  • Lili Marlene
  • Long Ago (and Far Away)
  • Look out the Window (and See How I'm Standing in the Rain)
  • Look to Your Heart
  • The Lord's Prayer (1949)
  • Love Don't Care (Where It Grows!)
  • Love in a Home
  • Love Is a Christmas Rose
  • Love Is Spreadin' over the World
  • Love Looks So Good On You
  • Love Put a Song in My Heart
  • Love Makes the World Go ‘Round
  • Lovers, Kids and Fools
  • Magic Moments
  • Make Someone Happy
  • Mandolins in the Moonlight
  • Marchin' Along to the Blues
  • Maybe (with Eddie Fisher)
  • Meet Me at the Altar
  • Mi Casa, Su Casa (My House Is Your House)
  • Michelle
  • Moonlight Love
  • Moon River
  • Moon Talk
  • More
  • More and More
  • More Than You Know
  • Not While I'm Around
  • My Days of Loving You
  • My Little Baby
  • My Love and Devotion
  • My One and Only Heart
  • My Own Peculiar Way
  • Noodlin' Rag
  • No Other Love
  • N'yot N'yow (The Pussycat Song)
  • One Little Candle
  • On the Outgoing Tide
  • Oowee, Oowee
  • Papa Loves Mambo
  • Pa-paya Mama
  • Patricia
  • Pianissimo
  • Please Mr. Sun
  • Prayer for Peace
  • Prisoner of Love (1945)
  • Rambling Rose (1947)
  • Rollin' Stone
  • The Rose Tattoo
  • Round and Round
  • Say You're Mine Again
  • Seattle
  • Sing
  • Snowbird
  • So Far
  • Some Enchanted Evening
  • Sonata
  • Somebody Makes it So
  • Somebody up There Likes Me
  • Song on the Sand
  • Stay with Me
  • A Still Small Voice
  • Stop! and Think It Over
  • The Summer Wind
  • Sunshine Wine
  • Surrender
  • Take a Look at Me
  • Take Me Home
  • Temptation (1945)
  • Temptation (1974)
  • That's All this Old World Needs
  • That's the Beginning of the End
  • That's Where I Came In
  • There'll Soon Be a Rainbow
  • There Never Was a Night So Beautiful
  • There's a Big Blue Cloud (Next to Heaven)
  • There's No Boat Like a Rowboat
  • They Say It's Wonderful
  • The Things I Didn't Do
  • Till the End of Time
  • Tina Marie
  • Together Forever
  • To Know You (Is to Love You) (with The Fontane Sisters) (1952)
  • Tomboy
  • Toyland
  • Tulips and Heather
  • Two Lost Souls
  • Two Loves Have I
  • Un giorno dopo l'altro (One Day is Like Another)
  • Walk Right Back
  • Wanted
  • Watermelon Weather (with Eddie Fisher)
  • Weave Me the Sunshine
  • What Love Is Made Of
  • When
  • When I Wanted You
  • When You Were Sweet Sixteen
  • Where You're Concerned
  • White Christmas (1947)
  • Wild Horses
  • The Wind Beneath My Wings
  • With All My Heart and Soul
  • Winter Wonderland (with The Satisfiers) (1946)
  • Wonderful Baby
  • World of Dreams
  • A World of Love (Le Ciel, Le Soleil et La Mer)
  • Yo Te Quiero Asi (And I Love You So)
  • You Alone (Solo Tu) (1953)
  • You'll Always Be My Lifetime Sweetheart
  • You Made It That Way (Watermelon Summer)
  • You're Following Me
  • You're Just in Love (I Wonder Why)
  • You Won't Be Satisfied (Until You Break My Heart)
  • Zing Zing —Zoom Zoom
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