Vic Damone

Vic Damone is an American singer and entertainer.

DaMone was born Vito Rocco Farinola in Brooklyn, New York to French-Italian immigrants based in Caserta, Italy?Rocco and Mary Farinola. His father was an electrician and volunteer firefighter; his mother taught piano. Inspired by his favorite singer, Frank Sinatra, Damone began taking voice lessons. He sang in a choir at St. Finbar’s Church in Bath Beach Brooklyn for Sunday Mass under organist Anthony Amorello. When his father was injured at work, Damone had to drop out of high school. He worked as an usher and elevator operator in the Paramount Theater, in Manhattan. He met Perry Como, who asked him into his dressing room to sing for him. Impressed, Como referred him to a local bandleader. Farinola decided to call himself Vic Damone, using his mother’s maiden name.

Damone entered the talent search on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts and won in April 1947. This led to his becoming a regular on Godfrey’s show. He met Milton Berle at the studio and Berle got him work at two night clubs. By mid 1947, Damone had signed a contract with Mercury Records.

His first release, “I Have But One Heart”, reached #7 on the Billboard chart. “You Do” reached the same peak. These were followed by a number of other hits. In 1948 he got his own weekly radio show, Saturday Night Serenade.