Frankie Laine the multi talented singer, composer and author is renowned as one of the greatest American singers of the twentieth Century. The son of a barber who moved to the United States from Sicily, Frankie Laine enjoyed a highly successful 75 year long career, which entitled him as one of the most popular singers of the late 1940s and 1950s before rock n roll put him in the shade.
After 17 years of ‘scruffing it’ as Frankie used to say, and being $7000 in debt, Frankie got his first break in California in 1946 where he celebrated his first hit and burst out onto the scene and picked up first royalty cheque for $36,000.
Frankie Laine was notorious for his huge voice, his physical strength and energy. He was able to fill a hall with his voice even without a microphone. This led to further nicknames such as Mr Rhythm, Old Leather Lungs and Old Man Jazz. It has even been suggested that Frankie set the pattern for Johnie Ray and Elvis Presley.
During his career Frankie Laine achieved more than 70-charted records, 21 gold records and worldwide sales of over 250 million disks. His singing style varied from genres, originally a rhythm & blues and jazzman, he also dabbled in gospel, folk, country, and rock n’ roll.
His most renowned tracks included ‘Mule Train’, ‘Cool Water’, ‘That Lucky Old Sun’, and most notably ‘Rawhide’, the theme tune to Mel Brook’s parody 1974 Western Movie “Blazing Saddles”. The album “Riders In The Sky” is available to download digitally from the MBOP megastore right now!
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