Perry Como Biography Quotes 16 Report mistakes

Early Life and Family
Pierino Ronald Perry Como was born in 1912 in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, to Italian immigrant parents who worked hard to support a large household. In a close-knit community shaped by church, school, and the rhythms of mill life, he absorbed the Italian songs of home and the American popular music that filled the airwaves. From an early age he learned responsibility; as a teenager he trained as a barber, a trade he pursued with skill and pride, eventually opening his own shop. The calm attentiveness the chair required would become part of his performing persona years later. In 1933 he married Roselle Belline, whose steadfast presence remained central to his life until her death decades later. They made their home life a priority even as fame grew, raising three children and maintaining deep ties to their extended families and hometown.

From Barber to Big Bands
Music, initially a pastime at family gatherings, church, and local events, became a vocation after friends encouraged him to audition for a regional band. Como first sang professionally with the Freddie Carlone orchestra, honing microphone technique on the ballroom circuit. His breakthrough came when bandleader Ted Weems invited him to join the nationally known Ted Weems Orchestra. With Weems he toured widely, recorded, and learned the discipline of nightly performance and the importance of an easy rapport with audiences. Despite the visible success, the pace of travel and time away from Roselle weighed on him. He returned for a time to the security of family and the barbers chair, a character-defining pause that proved temporary when national broadcasting came calling.

Radio and Recording Breakthrough
Como signed with RCA Victor in the 1940s, beginning one of the longest and most successful artist-label relationships in American popular music. National radio gave his warm baritone a perfect platform. As host and star of the Chesterfield Supper Club, he cultivated a relaxed, personable style: a song delivered as if across a kitchen table, not a proscenium arch. Backed at various times by close-knit vocal groups such as the Fontane Sisters and guided by conductors and arrangers who understood his unforced approach, Como turned contemporary hits and show tunes into best-sellers. Records like Till the End of Time and Prisoner of Love anchored his reputation as a leading postwar crooner. He was often compared with Bing Crosby, the era's defining voice, yet Como's tone, diction, and temperament were distinctly his own: lighter on swagger, richer in ease.

Hollywood Interlude
His radio and recording success led to a handful of appearances in mid-1940s Hollywood musicals. The camera liked his understated charm, and audiences did too, but he found movie production slow and constraining compared with the spontaneity of live broadcasting. The screen exposure nevertheless broadened his national profile and deepened his catalog of songs associated with his name.

Television Stardom
Como became an early and enduring television presence, bringing the Chesterfield Supper Club format to the small screen and then headlining The Perry Como Show. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he anchored one of television's signature variety programs under the banner Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall. Week after week he sat on a stool, cardigan draped just so, turning a studio into a living room. Musical directors Mitchell Ayres and, later, Nick Perito shaped the sound of the orchestra around his voice, while the Ray Charles Singers, led by arranger Ray Charles (the choral director, not the later soul star), provided the smooth vocal sheen audiences associated with Mr. C. Comedy sketches, guest stars, and an unhurried pace made the shows appointment viewing for families. The programs earned multiple Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award, cementing his stature as one of television's most trusted entertainers.

Signature Songs and Style
Unlike many vocalists who chased fashion, Como made songs sound as if they had found him. He blended breath control with conversational phrasing, letting melodies unfold without strain. His catalog spans postwar ballads and buoyant pop: Papa Loves Mambo, Hot Diggity, Round and Round, and Magic Moments showcased a playful side, while Catch a Falling Star, notably the first single certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, displays his unflappable ease at a brisk tempo. Later, It's Impossible and And I Love You So affirmed his gift for quietly profound balladry. He respected lyrics, rarely oversinging, trusting the song and the listener. Onstage and on camera he projected kindness and composure; offstage he prepared thoroughly but resisted fuss, a quality colleagues often linked to his early years behind the barber's chair.

Collaborators and Colleagues
Como's circle included musicians and producers who understood restraint. Ted Weems gave him a national platform and an apprenticeship in professional show business. The Fontane Sisters added blend and brightness to many early sides. Mitchell Ayres and Nick Perito, in different eras, were essential partners; Perito in particular became a long-serving arranger and musical director in concerts and specials. The Ray Charles Singers were practically part of the family, defining the choral sound of his television years. As peers, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra shaped the field in which he worked; Como, while less theatrical than Sinatra and less laconic than Crosby, shared with them a belief in craft and song-centered storytelling. At RCA Victor, a steady studio team and a stable repertoire policy helped him navigate changing tastes without abandoning his core identity.

Personal Life and Character
Fame never unraveled the habits of decency he learned at home. He was widely known as Mr. C not just on cue cards but in the way he treated people. Colleagues remembered that he kept friendships across decades, valued rehearsal punctuality, and preferred collaboration over showy displays. Roselle was central to that balance, encouraging work that fit the family's needs and shielding their private life from publicity. He rarely courted controversy, avoided flamboyance, and gave generously to church and community causes without fanfare. During hectic tours he might still pick up the scissors and give a friend a trim, a small symbol of his refusal to let celebrity rewrite his character.

Specials, Tours, and Later Years
As weekly variety television changed, Como pivoted to periodic specials, especially at Christmas, that became traditions in many households. These programs took him across the United States and abroad, combining carols with secular standards and local color. Backed by Perito and familiar chorus and orchestra personnel, the specials extended his presence into the 1970s, 1980s, and beyond, even as he recorded more selectively. He toured at a measured pace, favoring venues where the music could be heard rather than shouted over. Late-career hits and album projects, including interpretations of contemporary writers, demonstrated an artist attentive to new material when it suited his sensibility. Honors accumulated: additional Emmys, industry awards, and stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recordings, radio, and television. His hometown celebrated him with public tributes and a statue, emblematic of the affection he inspired.

Legacy
Perry Como's influence rests on the idea that quiet confidence can carry a song farther than force. In an era that produced larger-than-life stars, he represented a humane, durable version of celebrity: a professional who made excellence sound effortless, a family man who kept the spotlight at a comfortable distance, a collaborator who lifted colleagues like Nick Perito, Mitchell Ayres, and the Ray Charles Singers into the story of his success. His recordings remain models of phrasing and balance, studied by singers who value narrative clarity and tonal warmth. His television work set standards for variety production that prized hospitality over spectacle, and his Christmas specials helped define a genre of holiday programming built around sincerity rather than sentimentality alone.

Passing and Remembrance
Como died in 2001 in Florida, a few days before what would have been his eighty-ninth birthday. Roselle had preceded him in death, but the world he built with her endured in family, friends, and a public that felt they knew him personally. The catalog he left behind spans the transition from big bands to television to the modern recording era, and it continues to circulate widely. For many listeners he remains the voice of calm, the host who never hurried, the singer who made space for the song. In the constellation of twentieth-century American popular music, he stands as a fixed, reassuring star: not the brightest in glare, perhaps, but among the most enduring in glow.

Our collection contains 16 quotes who is written by Perry, under the main topics: Music - Friendship - Love - Parenting - Sports.