Julius La Rosa

Trackimage Playbut Trackname Playbut Trackname
Eh Cumpari 02:25 Tools
Eh, Cumpari 02:28 Tools
Domani 02:34 Tools
Eh, Cumpari! 02:27 Tools
In Times Like These 02:46 Tools
Domani (Tomorrow) 02:32 Tools
Torero 02:28 Tools
Anywhere I Wander 02:43 Tools
The Way You Look Tonight 02:59 Tools
Eh Cumpari (The Godfather Part 00:00 Tools
Lipstick And Candy And Rubbersole 01:52 Tools
On The Sunny Side Of The Street 02:30 Tools
Aren't You Glad You're You 01:41 Tools
Singin' In The Rain 02:33 Tools
Anywhere I Wonder 02:40 Tools
You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby 01:41 Tools
Milano 02:11 Tools
I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore 02:35 Tools
There'll Never Be Another You 02:29 Tools
When The Sun Comes Out 02:31 Tools
Mame 02:57 Tools
Eh Cumpari (OST The Godfather) 02:29 Tools
Yes Sir, That's My Baby 02:04 Tools
S'Wonderful 02:40 Tools
Mama Rosa 02:08 Tools
Yes Sir That's My Baby 02:29 Tools
Lover, Lover 02:47 Tools
Try A Little Tenderness 03:16 Tools
Three Coins in the Fountain 02:26 Tools
I Love My Bed 02:38 Tools
A Fine Romance 02:26 Tools
Just Say I Love Her 02:43 Tools
This is Heaven 02:38 Tools
Fine Romace 02:30 Tools
Mobile 03:10 Tools
How About Me 03:10 Tools
When I Fall In Love 03:43 Tools
In Times Like These - 2002 Remaster 03:43 Tools
Girl In My Office 02:51 Tools
My Melancholy Baby 02:58 Tools
You'Re My Girl 02:43 Tools
On The Sunny Side Of The Street 2 02:33 Tools
I Believe 03:43 Tools
I Couldn't Believe My Eyes 03:43 Tools
Eh Cumpari (The Godfather Part III) 02:29 Tools
I Remember You 02:51 Tools
's Wonderful 03:43 Tools
Let's Make Up Before We Say Goodnight 03:43 Tools
My Funny Valentine 03:43 Tools
Rosanne 03:43 Tools
I Hope You'll Be Very Happy 03:43 Tools
Lipstick and Candy and Rubbersole Shoes 02:46 Tools
But Beautiful 03:10 Tools
Suddenly, There's a Valley 02:48 Tools
You Are Too Beautiful 03:24 Tools
I Hate to Say Hello 03:24 Tools
Summer's Symphony 02:29 Tools
My Romance 02:20 Tools
Eh Cumpari! 02:29 Tools
Where do I Go 03:24 Tools
No Other Love 02:46 Tools
Suddenly There's a Valley 02:49 Tools
The Big Bell and the Little Bell 02:35 Tools
The Girl I'Ve Been Looking For 02:46 Tools
I've Got Love 02:46 Tools
My Heart's on a Fast Express 02:46 Tools
There's No Other Love 02:00 Tools
Our Love is Here to Stay 02:17 Tools
No Love, No Nothin' 02:22 Tools
If I Had You 04:03 Tools
Monday Date 02:00 Tools
O Holy Night 02:17 Tools
When You're in Love 02:17 Tools
Candy 01:58 Tools
The Christmas Song 02:35 Tools
Famous Last Words 03:07 Tools
Eh Cumparia 02:49 Tools
Priscilla 02:43 Tools
Every Time 04:03 Tools
Get Me to the Church on Time 02:16 Tools
My Lady Loves To Dance 02:17 Tools
Eh Cumpari (Remastered) 02:49 Tools
Silent Night 02:16 Tools
Every Time That I Kiss Carrie 02:49 Tools
Eh, Compari 02:43 Tools
Just Forever 03:31 Tools
Cryin' My Heart Out For You 02:16 Tools
Believe (In What You're Doin') 02:16 Tools
Campanelle (Jingle Bells) 02:49 Tools
A Heart for a Heart 02:49 Tools
Eh Cumapari 02:49 Tools
Pass It on 02:49 Tools
On The Sunny Side Of The Street - 2002 Digital Remaster 02:33 Tools
Wait Till You See Her 03:31 Tools
  • 21,408
    plays
  • 4,848
    listners
  • 21408
    top track count

Julius La Rosa (January 2, 1930 - May 12, 2016) was an Italian-American traditional popular music singer, who worked in both radio and television beginning in the 1950s. La Rosa was born in Brooklyn, New York. In 1947, at age 17, he joined the United States Navy after finishing high school, becoming a radioman. He sang in a Navy choir, at the officers club, and at bars to pay for his drinks. The young sailor's Navy buddies managed to promote him to Arthur Godfrey - at the time one of America's leading radio and television personalities, and himself a Naval Reserve officer, whom the Navy often accommodated as a nod to the good publicity he gave the service. The Navy buddy most instrumental in this was George "Bud" Andrews, from Omaha, Nebraska, the seaman mechanic on Godfrey's airplane. While working on Godfrey's plane, Andrews struck up a conversation with Godfrey and told him that he really should hear his buddy sing. They arranged a time for LaRosa to audition in Pensacola, Florida, where LaRosa was stationed. Godfrey was impressed, offering La Rosa a job. Godfrey had LaRosa flown to New York to appear on his television show, with Godfrey ending the spot by saying, "When Julie gets out of the Navy he'll come back to see us." Discharged from the Navy on a Friday, La Rosa went to Godfrey on the following Monday, and a week later, in November 1951, he appeared on Godfrey's variety show. He was a regular on both the morning Arthur Godfrey Time (broadcast on both the CBS radio and television networks) and the Wednesday night variety show Arthur Godfrey and His Friends. LaRosa was joining a show that was extremely profitable for the new CBS television network. CBS owner William S. Paley disliked much of the show, in which a Time magazine article found Godfrey to be vulgar and "scatological". Hearing that William Paley thought the Godfrey TV show 'lacked movement,' Godfrey brought on a line of hula dancers and leered into the TV camera: 'Is that enough movement for you, Bill?'" But CBS management supported the show, which was extremely successful and inexpensive to produce. La Rosa was on Godfrey's shows from November 19, 1951 to October 19, 1953. When Archie Bleyer, Godfrey's bandleader, formed Cadence Records in 1952, the first performer signed was La Rosa. Cadence's first single, which was also La Rosa's first recording, was "Anywhere I Wander". It reached the top 30 on the charts, and his next recording, "My Lady Loves To Dance", was a moderate success. As with the other "Little Godfreys", as the cast members were known, Godfrey had discouraged La Rosa from hiring a manager or booking agent, preferring to have his staff coordinate and negotiate on La Rosa's behalf. Godfrey's contracts with his artists, however, did not preclude them from doing so. After La Rosa's third recording, and a dispute with Godfrey over his failure to attend a Godfrey-mandated dance class required of all cast members (the singer claimed a family emergency), La Rosa hired his own agent and manager: Tommy Rockwell. With hit recordings and his appearances on Godfrey's shows, La Rosa's popularity grew exponentially. At one point, La Rosa's fan mail eclipsed Godfrey's. A year after La Rosa was hired, he was receiving 7,000 fan letters a week. Godfrey did not react well to receiving a formal notification that LaRosa had hired Rockwell as his manager. After consulting with CBS President Frank Stanton, on the morning of October 19, 1953 (in a segment of the show broadcast on radio only), after La Rosa finished singing "Manhattan" on Arthur Godfrey Time, Godfrey fired La Rosa on the air, announcing, "that was Julie's swan song with us." La Rosa tearfully met with Godfrey after the broadcast and thanked him for giving him his "break". La Rosa was then met at Godfrey's offices by his lawyer, manager and some reporters. Tommy Rockwell was highly critical of Godfrey's behavior, angrily citing La Rosa's public humiliation. The "humility" comment backfired badly on Godfrey. Stanton himself later admitted "maybe (the on-air firing) was a mistake." Comedians began working the phrase "no humility" into their routines. Singer Ruth Wallis, known for her raunchy double entendre novelties, recorded "Dear Mr. Godfrey", a biting satire on the matter, which made it to #25 on the Billboard charts in November 1953. Days after firing La Rosa, Godfrey also fired bandleader Archie Bleyer, owner of La Rosa's label Cadence Records, for producing spoken word records for Cadence featuring Chicago-based talk host Don McNeill, whose Don McNeill's Breakfast Club on ABC Radio opposite Godfrey's morning show was considered a direct competitor, even though McNeill's success was nowhere on a par with Godfrey's. The firing did not hurt La Rosa's career in the short run. Ed Sullivan immediately signed La Rosa for appearances on his CBS Toast of the Town TV variety show, which sparked a feud between him and Godfrey. La Rosa's first appearance on Toast of the Town following the firing got a 47.9 Trendex rating,[citation needed] and La Rosa would appear 12 more times on Sullivan's show that year. Shortly after he left Godfrey, La Rosa's third recording, "Eh, Cumpari", hit #1 on the Cash Box chart and #2 on the Billboard chart, and La Rosa got an award as the best new male vocalist of 1953. "Eh, Cumpari" was followed by another major hit, "Domani". For thirteen weeks during the summer of 1955, La Rosa had a three-times-a-week television series, The Julius La Rosa Show, featuring Russ Case and his Orchestra. The Julius La Rosa Show aired in an hour-long format in the summers of 1956 and 1957 at 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturdays on NBC as a seasonal replacement for The Perry Como Show. In 1981, Peter Kelley, who handled Godfrey's commercial bookings, suggested the host reunite with cast members from his morning show and record a reunion album. Though Godfrey initially balked, recalling his disputes with LaRosa and other cast members, he agreed to a meeting, and was amenable to having LaRosa participate. LaRosa, feeling sufficient time had passed, was also amenable. At the meeting, held at Godfrey's Manhattan office, Godfrey brought up the firing and asked LaRosa why he didn't tell the 'truth' as Godfrey saw it: that LaRosa had asked to be released from his contract and Godfrey had obliged. When LaRosa started to respond by reminding him of the dance class dispute, Godfrey exploded in anger. LaRosa left, and any talk of the reunion show ended forever. La Rosa tired of revisiting the Godfrey affair, in part because it had been rehashed so many times, but he was also known to declare publicly Godfrey was in fact the one individual who made his career, but La Rosa always added, "He wasn't a very nice man (to me)."La Rosa appeared on a range of television shows including The Honeymooners in 1953, What's My Line?, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, The Polly Bergen Show (two episodes, including the 1957 premiere), The Merv Griffin Show and Laverne and Shirley in 1980. He starred in the 1958 film Let's Rock. In 1977 he hosted an unsold game show pilot for NBC called "Noot's Game". In the 1980s, La Rosa received a non-contract, recurring role in the NBC soap opera Another World, for which he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor in the Daytime Emmy Award. La Rosa eventually moved on to a long-time disk jockey position at New York's WNEW and continued to sing and occasionally record. As late as 1999, LaRosa was a disc jockey on WNSW hosting "Make Believe Ballroom Time". La Rosa, profiled by jazz critic and composer Gene Lees, has continued to work clubs and release records and compact discs. New York Times film critic Stephen Holden says: "His singing is very direct and unpretentious - he can wrap his voice tenaciously around a melody line and bring out the best in it." He has also been a frequent contributor to comedian Jerry Lewis's marathon annual Labor Day telethon programs for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, often hosting the New York outpost of the shows. In 2008, LaRosa said "Music is 'a very egotistical thing.' 'It makes me feel good' and fortunately, I have the capacity to make people feel good who hear me feeling good.'" LaRosa lived in Westchester County, New York. La Rosa's name was used in a joke by Coach in the sitcom Cheers, in the episode "Friends, Romans, And Accountants". Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.