Biography
The production and songwriting partnership between Hugo and Luigi spanned an impressive three decades across the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. These cousins also functioned as label executives, sharing ownership of Roulette Records with Morris Levy and running the Avco/Embassy imprint while negotiating pioneering production contracts that later became standard industry practice.
Hugo Peretti entered the world on December 6, 1916, and began his professional music life as a teenage trumpeter on the Borscht Belt before performing in Broadway show orchestras. Luigi Creatore was born December 21, 1920, in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen section of New York; his father had conducted a symphonic band in Italy, and his siblings all pursued music, yet Luigi himself never became an instrumentalist. After completing military service in World War II and returning to the United States, he turned to writing.
The two men formed their creative alliance at a wedding reception for Luigi’s brother. Because Hugo’s wife wrote children’s books, he recruited his cousin to help expand her stories. Their first joint project was a children’s recording for Mercury Records; label president Irving Green then asked whether they would also produce pop sides. Their initial pop assignment arrived with the Gaylords in 1954.
Work with Sarah Vaughan generated “Make Yourself Comfortable,” which reached number six on the pop chart late in 1954, plus “How Important Can It Be,” “Whatever Lola Wants” (number six pop, spring 1955), and “Mr. Wonderful.” For former big-band singer Georgia Gibbs they delivered two consecutive million sellers: a cover of LaVern Baker’s 1955 hit “Tweedle Dee” (number two pop) and the medley “Dance With Me Henry (Wallflower),” drawn from Hank Ballard’s 1954 “Work With Me Annie” and Etta James’ “Roll With Me Henry,” which held number one pop for three weeks in spring 1955.
Around 1957 the hit-making pair purchased an interest in Roulette Records and oversaw million-selling releases by Jimmy Rodgers—“Honeycomb” (number one pop/R&B for two weeks) and “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” (number three pop, number eight R&B)—along with their own compositions “Oh-Oh I’m Falling in Love Again” and the double-sided single “Secretly” b/w “Make Me a Miracle.” Two years later they signed a landmark production agreement with RCA Records that secured a salary, a penny-per-album royalty, and producer credit on every release. The label assigned them Elvis Presley sessions, giving them an entry into the youth-oriented rock & roll market. Additional RCA successes included Sam Cooke’s Top Ten hits “Chain Gang,” “Twistin’ the Night Away,” the double-sided “Bring It on Home to Me” b/w “Havin’ a Party,” and “Another Saturday Night”; The Isley Brothers’ “Shout”; The Tokens’ cover of The Weavers’ 1952 hit “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” (number one pop for three weeks, number seven R&B); and Little Peggy March’s “I Will Follow” (number one pop/R&B for three weeks). The duo themselves charted on RCA with the albums The Cascading Voices of the Hugo and Luigi Chorus and Let’s Fall in Love and the late-1959 single “Just Come Home.”
For the Amherst label they produced a sweet cover of Elvis Presley’s 1961 platinum-certified hit “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by the Softones.
In the 1970s they acquired Avco/Embassy Records and scored hits with the Stylistics—the gold singles “You Are Everything,” “Betcha By Golly Wow,” “I’m Stone in Love With You,” “Break Up to Make Up,” and “You Make Me Feel Brand New”—plus Van McCoy’s “The Hustle” (number one pop/R&B, spring 1975). On their own H&L imprint they released the Brown Sugar LP by Vivian Reed, star of the Broadway musical Bubbling Brown Sugar. At decade’s end the pair retired from the record business. Hugo Peretti died in 1986. Their catalog remains available on numerous CD reissues.
Hugo Peretti entered the world on December 6, 1916, and began his professional music life as a teenage trumpeter on the Borscht Belt before performing in Broadway show orchestras. Luigi Creatore was born December 21, 1920, in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen section of New York; his father had conducted a symphonic band in Italy, and his siblings all pursued music, yet Luigi himself never became an instrumentalist. After completing military service in World War II and returning to the United States, he turned to writing.
The two men formed their creative alliance at a wedding reception for Luigi’s brother. Because Hugo’s wife wrote children’s books, he recruited his cousin to help expand her stories. Their first joint project was a children’s recording for Mercury Records; label president Irving Green then asked whether they would also produce pop sides. Their initial pop assignment arrived with the Gaylords in 1954.
Work with Sarah Vaughan generated “Make Yourself Comfortable,” which reached number six on the pop chart late in 1954, plus “How Important Can It Be,” “Whatever Lola Wants” (number six pop, spring 1955), and “Mr. Wonderful.” For former big-band singer Georgia Gibbs they delivered two consecutive million sellers: a cover of LaVern Baker’s 1955 hit “Tweedle Dee” (number two pop) and the medley “Dance With Me Henry (Wallflower),” drawn from Hank Ballard’s 1954 “Work With Me Annie” and Etta James’ “Roll With Me Henry,” which held number one pop for three weeks in spring 1955.
Around 1957 the hit-making pair purchased an interest in Roulette Records and oversaw million-selling releases by Jimmy Rodgers—“Honeycomb” (number one pop/R&B for two weeks) and “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” (number three pop, number eight R&B)—along with their own compositions “Oh-Oh I’m Falling in Love Again” and the double-sided single “Secretly” b/w “Make Me a Miracle.” Two years later they signed a landmark production agreement with RCA Records that secured a salary, a penny-per-album royalty, and producer credit on every release. The label assigned them Elvis Presley sessions, giving them an entry into the youth-oriented rock & roll market. Additional RCA successes included Sam Cooke’s Top Ten hits “Chain Gang,” “Twistin’ the Night Away,” the double-sided “Bring It on Home to Me” b/w “Havin’ a Party,” and “Another Saturday Night”; The Isley Brothers’ “Shout”; The Tokens’ cover of The Weavers’ 1952 hit “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” (number one pop for three weeks, number seven R&B); and Little Peggy March’s “I Will Follow” (number one pop/R&B for three weeks). The duo themselves charted on RCA with the albums The Cascading Voices of the Hugo and Luigi Chorus and Let’s Fall in Love and the late-1959 single “Just Come Home.”
For the Amherst label they produced a sweet cover of Elvis Presley’s 1961 platinum-certified hit “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by the Softones.
In the 1970s they acquired Avco/Embassy Records and scored hits with the Stylistics—the gold singles “You Are Everything,” “Betcha By Golly Wow,” “I’m Stone in Love With You,” “Break Up to Make Up,” and “You Make Me Feel Brand New”—plus Van McCoy’s “The Hustle” (number one pop/R&B, spring 1975). On their own H&L imprint they released the Brown Sugar LP by Vivian Reed, star of the Broadway musical Bubbling Brown Sugar. At decade’s end the pair retired from the record business. Hugo Peretti died in 1986. Their catalog remains available on numerous CD reissues.
Singles
