# Italian restaurants (in the United States) and standards/crooner music **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 5, 2009, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/italian-restaurants-in-the-united-states-and-standards-crooner-music/512725 "2009-10-05T20:48:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/italian-restaurants-in-the-united-states-and-standards-crooner-music/512725/1 "2009-10-05T20:48:21Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/italian-restaurants-in-the-united-states-and-standards-crooner-music/512725/2 "2009-10-05T20:58:43Z")
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) ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/italian-restaurants-in-the-united-states-and-standards-crooner-music/512725/3 "2009-10-05T20:59:58Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > 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. Dean Martin? Tony Bennett? Louis Prima, Vic Damone, Al Martino? ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/italian-restaurants-in-the-united-states-and-standards-crooner-music/512725/4 "2009-10-06T19:31:55Z")
Not to mention Dean Martin? Tony Bennett? Louis Prima, Vic Damone, Al Martino? ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/italian-restaurants-in-the-united-states-and-standards-crooner-music/512725/5 "2009-10-07T04:46:26Z")
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. > **[Canzone napoletana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canzone_Napoletana)** > > Canzone napoletana (pronounced  ; Neapolitan: canzona napulitana ), sometimes referred to as Neapolitan song, is a generic term for a traditional form of music sung in the Neapolitan language, ordinarily for the male voice singing solo, although well represented by female soloists as well, and expressed in familiar genres such as the love song and serenade. Many of the songs are about the nostalgic longing for Naples as it once was. The genre consists of a large body of composed popular music—...