Frankie Laine

During the 1950s, Frankie Laine stood among the decade’s leading singers, interpreting jazz standards and about six Western film themes in his powerful baritone. His appeal proved even stronger in Britain, where he established two chart benchmarks in 1953. The U.K. version of “I Believe” remained at number one for a remarkable 18 weeks, and the year’s next two chart-toppers, “Hey Joe” and “Answer Me,” combined to place Laine at the summit for 27 weeks altogether.

Born in Chicago in 1913, Laine performed in the neighborhood church choir and made his first professional appearance at age 15. By his final high-school years he had moved into nightclubs and begun touring the country, working as a singing waiter and dance instructor while also holding jobs such as car salesman and machinist. In 1937 he advanced when he replaced Perry Como in a regional big band directed by Freddy Carlone. By the mid-1940s Laine was again performing solo, yet a memorable delivery of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Rockin’ Chair” on an evening when the composer was present supplied the decisive break.

Carmichael arranged a booking at Hollywood’s Vine Street Club and underwrote Laine’s first recording date; the judgment proved sound, for one of the resulting sides, “We’ll Be Together,” gained notice after Laine joined Mercury Records in 1945. “That’s My Desire” reached number four in the United States two years later, and Laine returned to the Top Ten in 1948 with “Shine.” Major success arrived the following year through two substantial number-one singles, “That Lucky Old Sun” and “Mule Train.” His final Mercury chart-topper, 1950’s “The Cry of the Wild Goose,” preceded his move to Columbia Records one year later.

At Columbia, Laine gravitated toward a robust country-and-western pop sound shaped by arrangements and orchestral leadership from Mitch Miller, the vocal-pop figure celebrated for crafting much of the era’s more sentimental material and for issuing it himself on the Sing-Along with Mitch Miller albums. Although Laine’s first Columbia single, the double-sided “Jezebel” / “Rose, Rose, I Love You,” reached the Top Five, he never regained the American number-one position. Steady Top Ten entries nevertheless followed in the early 1950s with “Hey, Good Lookin’,” “Jealousy (Jalousie),” “High Noon,” “I Believe,” and “Tell Me a Story.” Laine enjoyed still greater popularity in Great Britain and Europe than at home, and after his last U.S. Top Ten hit, “Love Is a Golden Ring,” in 1957, he embarked on extensive cabaret tours across the globe while turning increasingly to inspirational and religious repertoire. He retired to his California home in the mid-1980s and died of heart failure on February 6, 2007.