Career
In high school, to earn money, Vale took a job shining shoes in a barbershop in New York City. He sang while he shined shoes, and his boss liked the sound so well that he paid for music lessons for the boy. Enjoying the lessons, Vale started singing in high school musicals and at a local nightclub. This led to additional club dates, including one that lasted for three years at a club in the suburb of Yonkers, New York, just north of the city. When Paul Insetta, (who was a road manager for Guy Mitchell and a hit songwriter) heard him there, he signed him to a management contract, changed his name, and further coached him. He then arranged for Vale to record some demonstration records of songs he'd written, and brought the demos to Columbia Records. Vale then signed a recording contract with Columbia, and Insetta managed him for many years.
His version of "The Star-Spangled Banner", recorded in the late 1960s, was a fixture at many sporting events for years.
Vale and Rita, his wife of over 40 years, reside in Palm Desert, California. His autobiography, A Singer's Life, was published in 2000 by Celebrity Profiles, Long Island, New York. He sang the Late Night with David Letterman anthem "It's a Late Night Word" on the program's eighth anniversary special in 1990. He made cameo appearances as himself in the 1990 film Goodfellas and the 1995 film Casino, both directed by Martin Scorsese.
In 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.
Read more about this topic: Jerry Vale
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)