Born Vito Farinola in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in 1928, Vic worked as an usher at the fabled Paramount Theatre before realizing a dream by shooting to the top of the Billboard Chart in 1947 with his first hit "I Have But One Heart." He was mentored by everyone from Perry Como to Tommy Dorsey. Frank Sinatra praised his voice and became a friend for life, giving him advice on singing and women. Damone had one of the most successful careers ever had by an American pop singer and one of the most glamorous and exciting lives of any guy who lived while the Ratpack reigned.
• He was almost thrown out of the window of a New York City hotel by a mobster. • He dated Ava Gardner, who got him drunk for the first time. • He married glamorous Italian actress Ana Maria Pierangeli and later, Diahann Carroll. • He appeared at the Sands Hotel during the glory days of Vegas and once took a nude chorus girl into the steam room where the Ratpack was relaxing.
In Singing Was the Easy Part, he talks frankly about his bankruptcy, his many marriages and his belief in God. It's a warm, funny, and inspiring memoir from one of America's greatest pop singers.
"A crooner's breezy memoir…Damone looks back at his life and career, recalling his Depression-era Brooklyn boyhood and his vertiginous trajectory up the pop charts and into the inner circle of the Rat Pack...he offers tales of vengeful mobsters, celebrity heartbreak and carousing in Las Vegas at the height of its glamour…A forthright, compelling look at a vanished, glittering era of show business."
