Jerry Vale (born Gennaro Luigi Vitaliano, 1932, The Bronx, NY, USA) is an American singer. I only discovered him today via the “Related” secion of youtube while listening to Des O’Connor (please hold you laughter).
I can’t quite put my finger on Vale, I can hear influences from various - more famous - singers of his era.
This has a distinctive sound, its powerful, yet not reaching the overbearing tones of David Whitfield.
This would have suited the 1980s Perry Como.
Can’t you just hear Dean Martin?
and now we understand why, Vale covered other artists hits
this is his cover of the classic Tommy Edwards song - It’s all in the game.
here is the Tommy Edwards version, he really “owns” the song, I’ve never heard a better version.
At the time of writing Vale is still alive, he is truly a great artist.
If there was only one album I could take to a desert island I would be torn between this and something by Nat King Cole.
For an album (originally two records) released in the 1950s, Songs for Young Lovers/Swing Easy! sounds quite modern. It was the first in a series of concept albums by Sinatra assisted by the ever talented Nelson Riddle.
Sinatra’s voice of the 1950s is deeper than the Sinatra of the 1940s Columbia era, it was his best period.We also love the third album of the Sinatra-Riddle Swing series; A Swingin’ Affair 1957.
Songs for Young Lovers consists of a satisfying set of ballads that formed the nucleus of a Sinatra catalogue and showed up in concert through the 1960s and later.
Swing Easy, originally the second side of the Capitol LP (when the two albums were married and released). Put simply, there is nothing retro-sounding about this set, except that it was recorded in mono because hey it was the 1950s. But magnetic tape mus have been used because the sound quality is amazing. I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter, later popularised by Dean Martin, is timeless.
Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim - From a Sinatra TV Special 1967
The audio on this copy is not the best. But in archive-worthi-ness this deserves a place on the provernial shelf next to the Collected works of Nat King Cole and 12 Angry Men
Everybody would like to be able to sing like Sinatra.
Having listened to his music for a long time there are some characteristics that have become clear.
Warbling When holding a note your voice should should “warble”, this is done by expelling just a bit of extra air every second, to create a high-low-high-low pattern that is very slight.
High pitched voice While Sinatra was clearly male he had a range extending above that which most can reach, even attempting to emulate the voice is painful for most men. This is why when you try to sing one of his songs you can cover some lines easily but on others you have to go down an octave, and ruin the song.
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