I’ve noticed that a lot of Italian restaurants will have 1950s-era standards or crooners as background music. Sure, Frank Sinatra is a famous crooner, but I don’t think it’s a style that has a disproportionately large number of Italian-American performers.
I’m curious how crooners became associated so firmly with contemporary Italian-American culture. Is the association there just because of one performer (Frank Sinatra), or is there more behind it? Could it be a remote association with 1950s/1960s Las Vegas? (Crooners -> old-school Vegas casinos -> Mafia -> Italians?) What kind of music is played at Italian restaurants outside of the US?
Well, Sinatra isn’t the only famous crooner; there’s also Dean Martin, Perry Como, Jerry Vale, Louie Prima, Al Martino, Tony Bennett, Vic Damone, Bobby Darin, etc. All Italian-Americans. Sure, not all crooners were Italian-Americans, but I think a preponderance of them were…TRM (proud Italian-American who CANNOT sing)
It goes back to long before there was a Las Vegas, back to Naples in the old country. That’s where a major strain of what we call crooning comes from… men serenading their lovers, putting a lot of passion into it. “O sole mio” is one of the many Neapolitan classics and all of these Italian-American singers have been referred to at times as Neapolitan, after the style.