Frankie Laine

Frankie Laine born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio March 30 1913 February 6 2007 was an American singer and songwriter whose career spanned nearly 75 years from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of Thats My Desire in 2005 Often billed as Americas Number One Song Stylist Laines other nicknames include Mr Rhythm Old Leather Lungs and Mr Steel Tonsils His hits included Thats My Desire That Lucky Old Sun Mule Train Jezebel High Noon I Believe Hey Joe The Kids Last Fight Cool Water Rawhide and You Gave Me a Mountain Laine sang well known theme songs for many Western film soundtracks including 310 To Yuma Gunfight at the OK Corral and Blazing Saddles although his recordings were not charted as country and western Laine sang an eclectic variety of song styles and genres stretching from big band crooning to pop westernthemed songs gospel rock folk jazz and blues He did not sing the soundtrack song for High Noon which was sung by Tex Ritter but his own version with somewhat altered lyrics omitting the name of the antagonist Frank Miller was the one that became a bigger hit Laine also did not sing the theme to another show he is commonly associated withChampion the Wonder Horse sung by Mike Stewartbut released his own subsequently more popular version Laines enduring popularity was illustrated in June 2011 when a TVadvertised compilation called Hits reached No 16 on the UK Albums Chart The accomplishment was achieved nearly 60 years after his debut on the UK chart 64 years after his first major US hit and four years after his death Description above from the Wikipedia article Frankie Laine licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia