Lou Monte

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Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Pepino the Italian Mouse & Other Italian Fun Songs
  US 9 12/22/1962 (25 weeks)
Singles
Lazy Mary (Luna Mezzo Mare)
  US 12 03/10/1958 (18 weeks)
The Sheik of Araby (Italian Style)
  US 54 06/30/1958 (5 weeks)
Pepino the Italian Mouse
  US 5 December 8, 1962 (10 weeks)
Pepino's Friend Pasqual (The Italian Pussy-Cat)
  US 78 03/09/1963 (3 weeks)
Dominick the Donkey
  UK 3 December 31, 2011 (2 weeks)

Lou Monte (born April 2, 1917 in New York , † June 12, 1989 in Pompano Beach , Florida ; actually Louis Scaglione ) was an American pop singer and guitarist of Italian descent. He is known for his novelty songs with an Italian connection.

biography

Lou Monte grew up in Lyndhurst , New Jersey , where he made a name for himself as a singer and entertainer even before the Second World War. After his time as a soldier, he got his own radio show on a home broadcaster and later a television show on the same broadcaster.

In the 1950s he also started recording. He had his first hit in 1954 with a humorous version of the jazz standard The Darktown Strutters' Ball . Other big hits were Lazy Mary , an English-Italian version of the Italian song Luna Mezzo Mare , and The Sheik of Araby , a version of the song for the book or film The Sheikh . Both were in the US charts in 1958 . A novelty song about the Italian mouse Pepino was his biggest hit in 1962 and earned him a number five placement. Monte released 13 studio albums in his career.

In 1982 he retired to Florida, where he died seven years later at the age of 72.

Dominick the Donkey

In the 2000s, the British radio presenter Chris Moyles of BBC Radio 1 discovered the Christmas classic Dominick the Donkey by Lou Monte, which was particularly popular among Americans of Italian origin, and used the song about the Italian Christmas donkey as a joking clip for the appearances of news anchor Dominic Byrne . Over the years it became a running gag . In 2011 Moyles finally asked his listeners to buy the song in the week before Christmas in order to get it as high as possible in the Christmas charts, for which there is a major competition in England every year. It eventually reached # 3 in the UK Top 40 behind Favorites, a benefit single from the Military Wives and the debut song by the casting band Little Mix .

Discography

Singles

  • Darktown Strutters' Ball / I Know How You Feel (1954)
  • Elvis for President / If I Was a Millionaire (1956)
  • Lazy Mary (Luna Mezzo Mare) / Angelique (1958)
  • The Sheik of Araby (Italian Style) / Eh, Marie, Eh, Marie! (1958)
  • Dominick the Donkey (The Italian Christmas Donkey) / Christmas at Our House (1960)
  • Pepino the Italian Mouse / What Did Washington Say (When He Crossed the Delaware) (1962)
  • Pepino's Friend Pasqual (The Italian Pussy-Cat) / I Like You, You Like Me, Eh Paisan (1963)

swell

  1. ↑ a b US singles: Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2006. Billboard Books, New York 2007, ISBN 0-89820-172-1 / US albums: The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
  2. ↑ UK
  3. ^ Lou Monte , Find a Grave, Jan. 15, 2005
  4. ↑ Chris Moyles gets 'Donkey' song to enter iTunes top ten , digital spy, December 20, 2011

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Monte, Lou
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Scaglione, Louis (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pop singer
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH New York , USA
DATE OF DEATH June 12, 1989
Place of death Pompano Beach , Florida , USA