Joseph Anthony Mantegna Joe was born November 13, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois, to Italian American parents. His parents were Mary Ann (Novelli), a shipping clerk from Acquaviva delle Fonti, Apulia, Italy, who died in 2017 at the age of 101, and Joseph Henry Mantegna, an insurance salesman from  Calascibetta, Sicily, who died in 1971 of tuberculosis. Mantegna married Arlene Vrhel on October 3, 1975.. They have two daughters: Mia and Gia. Arlene owned a Chicago-themed restaurant in Burbank, California, named Taste Chicago, which closed on March 22, 2019. Mia, born 1987, is autistic and works as a make-up artist.… Continue Reading…

Frank Vincent Zappa was an Italian American singer-songwriter, musician, activist, and filmmaker. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity, and satire of Italian American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works, and produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the… Continue Reading…

Pierino Ronald “Perry” Como was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. He was the seventh of ten children and the first American-born child of Pietro Como and Lucia Travaglini, who both immigrated to the US in 1910 from the Abruzzese town of Palena, Italy. He did not begin speaking English until he entered school, since the Comos spoke Italian at home. The family had a second-hand organ his father had bought for $3; as soon as little Pierino was able to toddle, he would head to… Continue Reading…

The 20th Century produced many popular singers. Of all the great “girl singers,” no one personified her generation, or was more idolized by millions across the world than Connie Francis, who was born Concetta Maria Franconero on December 12, 1937 in the Italian section of Newark, New Jersey, the daughter and first child of George and Ida Franconero, Italian-American parents.​​ From the age of three, George Franconero recognized his daughter’s outstanding talent and, at his persistence, she began taking accordion lessons. However, her musical ingenuity would not be served well… Continue Reading…

Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born on August 3, 1926 at St. John’s Hospital in Long Island City, Queens, NY. He is the son of grocer John Benedetto and seamstress Anna Suraci, and was the first member of his family to be born in a hospital. His father John had emigrated from Podàrgoni, a rural eastern district of the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria. Anna had been born in the U.S. shortly after her parents also emigrated from the Calabria region in 1899. Raised in Astoria to an Italian-American family,… Continue Reading…

Annette Joanne Funicello was born October 22, 1942, in Utica, New York, to Italian-Americans Virginia Jeanne Albano and Joseph Edward Funicello. Her family moved to Southern California when she was four years old. Funicello began her professional career as a child performer at the age of twelve. She rose to prominence as one of the most popular Mouseketeers on the original Mickey Mouse Club. She later starred in films like The Shaggy Dog and the Beach Party series with Frankie Avalon. She opened the Annette Funicello Research Fund for Neurological Disorders in 1993.Website: Annette Funicello

One of the prototypical Italian-American crooners, Vic Damone parlayed a smooth, mellow baritone into big-time pop stardom during the ’40s and ’50s. Early in his career, his inflection and phrasing were clearly indebted to Frank Sinatra, who once famously called him “the best set of pipes in the business.” Overall, though, Damone’s style was softer than Sinatra’s and owed less to the elasticity of jazz, especially since he was a solo performer who never served an apprenticeship with a swing orchestra. Very much the heartthrob in his heyday, his repertoire… Continue Reading…

Francis Albert “Frank” Sinatra“Ol’ Blue Eyes”“The Chairman of the Board Frank Sinatra was Born December 12, 1915, at 415 Monroe Street, Hoboken, New Jersey. The only child of Italian immigrants, Natalie Della Garaventa and Antonino Martino Sinatra. Frank was raised Roman Catholic. Frank got his first break in 1935, into show business when his mother persuaded a local singing group, The Three Flashes, to let him join. Then on December 31, 1942, Sinatra made a “legendary opening” at the Paramount Theater in New York, he then signed with Columbia on… Continue Reading…