Tune Tuesday

The Nostalgic Italian would feel terrible if he did not honor the birthday of another Italian. So today, we wish Jasper Cini a Happy Heavenly Birthday. We know him as Al Martino. Al was born on this day in 1927.

Long before his days as a popular singer, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was wounded when he took part in the Iwo Jima invasion. In 1949, he won Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts singing a Perry Como song. This is how he got his first recording contract.

Mario Lanza was a family friend of Al’s. Mario was having great success as a singer and Al took notice. Mario, who changed his name from Alfredo Cocozza, encouraged “Jasper” to change his name too. So Jasper became Al Martino.

In 1965 he recorded one of his biggest hits – Spanish Eyes. The song was originally called “Moon Over Naples” which was a song composed by Bert Kaempfert. The song was first recorded by Sergio Franchi and was a Neapolitan song and contained the original lyrics. However, a second set of lyrics were written

Martino said Kaempfert was interested in him recording the song, and sent him a copy of the instrumental version of “Moon Over Naples”, which Martino thought had the potential to be a hit. However, Martino did not like the lyrics of a vocal version he later heard, and told Kaempfert’s publisher so.

Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder, the original lyricists, were employed to rewrite the lyrics. Martino, satisfied with the new lyrics, contacted Bert to request that he come and help with the recording in New York because he liked the sound of Kaempfert’s recording. Martino recorded the song as “Spanish Eyes”, with Bert also playing on the record.

“Spanish Eyes” was released in the late 1965 in the United States, and it reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. It also spent four straight weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Easy Listening Chart.

Happy Birthday, Al!