Jerry Vale

Jerry Vale was born Gennaro Luigi Vitaliano in 1930, growing up in Brooklyn's Italian-American neighborhoods. He started singing as a teenager, influenced by Frank Sinatra and Perry Como, and worked his way through local clubs before signing with Columbia Records in 1953.

His early singles didn't make much noise, but things changed with "Summertime In Venice" in 1960. That song became his calling card, a gentle ballad that found an audience and gave him a steady career. He followed it with other familiar tunes like "Have You Looked Into Your Heart" and "Ciao Ciao Bambina."

Vale dealt with vocal cord problems in the late 1950s that required therapy, and there were whispers about his connections to certain New York figures. He kept recording through it all, putting out albums like "I Have But One Heart" and "Great Is My Love" for Columbia.