Frankie Laine, the singer with the booming voice who hit it big with such songs as "That Lucky Old Sun," "Mule Train," "Cool Water," "I Believe," "Granada" and "Moonlight Gambler," died today at Mercy Hospital in San Diego. He was 93.

 

Laine entered the hospital over the weekend for hip replacement surgery but suffered complications from the operation, said his friend A.C. Lyles, the longtime producer at Paramount Pictures.

 

In all, Laine sold well over 100 million records and was hugely popular not only in the United States but in Britain and Australia.

 

Even after his popularity crested after the rise of rock 'n' roll, Laine was heard for many years singing the theme to the TV series "Rawhide," which featured a young Clint Eastwood and ran until 1966.

 

Most of those who remember Laine for his biggest hits would hardly know that his body of work included "Baby That Ain't Right," "Rosetta" and many other songs that were more in the style of what Laine considered his roots -- jazz and blues.

 

"Years before Elvis Presley, Laine brought a potent blend of blues, jazz and country to popular music," jazz critic Don Heckman said. "Rarely acknowledged in Laine's work, he sang with the easy, loose phrasing and imaginative articulation of jazz performers."

 

Laine started out in jazz but was sidetracked by arranger Mitch Miller, who fashioned Laine into the popular artist that he is best remembered for being.

 

"When I told him I'd probably lose all my jazz fans [with these songs], I was right. I did," Laine told David Kilby of Australian Broadcasting Corp. "But he said I would pick up a lot of other kind of listeners, and I did, so he was right, too."

 

Miller produced most of Laine's hits in the 1940s and 1950s, including "Mule Train" and "That Lucky Old Sun." He said he loved Laine's voice because it sounded like "the blue-collar man, the guy who didn't know where his next paycheck was coming from."

 

Laine at first refused to do "Mule Train."

 

"You can't expect me to do a cowboy song," he told Miller. "I won't do it!"

 

But Miller persuaded him to record it and it was one of Laine's biggest hits.

 

Though Laine was big of voice, he said he didn't like being referred to as a "belter."

 

"I was just trying to emphasize the rhythmic aspects of the songs I sang, using my voice the way a jazz soloist uses his instrument," he said in "That Lucky Old Son," his 1993 autobiography (written with Joseph F. Laredo). "'Crooning' may have the more commercial style, but it wasn't for me."

 

Francesco Paolo LoVecchio was born March 30, 1913, the eldest of eight children of Sicilian immigrants who settled in the Little Italy neighborhood in Chicago. His father was a barber whose customers included Al Capone; his maternal grandfather was the victim of a mob hit. Laine said he came from a "big and poor, but happy" family.

 

As a kid, Laine sang in the all-boy choir at church, but first became excited about music when he listened to one of his mother's records on a windup Victrola: Bessie Smith singing "Bleeding Hearted Blues," with "Midnight Blues" on the flip side.

 

"The first time I laid the needle down on that record I felt cold chills and an indescribable excitement," Laine would say later.

 

This record was his first exposure to jazz and the blues, which would draw him into music.

 

At 18, with the Depression underway and his father out of work, Laine hit the road as a dance marathoner. Altogether he participated in 14 marathons, coming in first on three occasions. He and his partner, Ruthie Smith, made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for dancing 145 days straight (although he disputed Guinness, saying he and Smith danced for 146 days).

 

Laine said the life of a marathoner wasn't as grim as was portrayed in the 1969 film, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"

 

UK DISCOGRAPHY (The Singles Hits)

 

1952 - High Noon - #7

1952 - Sugarbush - #8 (with Doris Day)

1953 - The Girl In The Wood - #11

1953 - I Believe - #1 (36 weeks in Top 20)

1953 - Tell Me A Story - #5 (with Jimmy Boyd)

1953 - Where The Wind Blows - #2

1953 - Hey Joe - #1

1953 - Answer Me - #1

1954 - Blowing Wild - #2

1954 - Granada - #9

1954 - The Kid's Last Fight - #3

1954 - My Friend - #3

1954 - There Must Be A Reason - #9

1954 - Rain Rain Rain - #8 (with Four Lads)

1955 - In The Beginning - #20

1955 - Cool Water - #2

1955 - Strange Lady In Town - #6

1955 - Humming Bird - #16

1955 - Hawkeye - #7

1956 - Sixteen Tons - #10

1956 - Hell Hath No Fury - #28

1956 - A Woman In Love - #1

1956 - Moonlight Gambler - #13

1957 - Love Is A Golden Ring - #19

1957 - Good Evening Friends - #25

1959 - Rawhide - #6 - (theme from the cult wester TV Series)

1961 - Gunslinger - #50

 

Before anyone asks about Mule Train this was released before the UK charts began.

 

You can listen to his 18 week chart topper I Believe HERE

 

 

R.I.P. Frankie :(

Edited February 10, 200718 yr by Euro Music

Wow he did quite well :D

 

R.I.P :(

 

Frankie Laine - On The Sunny Side Of The Street (USA #01, 1949)

 

RIP - a true great worth mourning over.

The singer who holds the current No.1 chart run record (18 weeks), there is also a topic in the Retro forum posted yesterday.

The singer who holds the current No.1 chart run record (18 weeks)

 

Yes but for I Believe they were not consecutive weeks.

 

24 Apr 1953 - I Believe - 9wks

26 Jun - I'm Walking Behind You - Eddie Fisher 1 wk

03 Jul - I Believe - 6wks

14 Aug - Moulin Rouge - Mantovani - 1wk

21 Aug - I Believe - 3 weeks

 

The singer who holds the current No.1 chart run record (18 weeks), there is also a topic in the Retro forum posted yesterday.

 

actually two threads in the forum!!!!