Louis Prima
Encyclopedia
Louis Prima was a Sicilian American singer, actor, songwriter, and trumpeter. Prima rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his seven-piece New Orleans style jazz
band in the 1920s, then successively leading a swing
combo in the 1930s, a big band
in the 1940s, a Vegas
lounge act
in the 1950s, and a pop-rock band in the 1960s. In each of his musical endeavors, he incorporated his exuberant personality into his act.
. His family emigrated from Sicily
, Italy
, and after a brief stay in Argentina
settled in the United States. Louis Prima attended Jesuit High School
but was expelled for misbehavior.
Prima studied violin
for several years as a child. His older brother Leon
was a well regarded local bandleader. Prima was proud of his heritage, and made a point of letting the audience know at every performance that he was Italian-American and from New Orleans. His singing and playing showed that he absorbed many of the same influences as his fellow Crescent City musician, Louis Armstrong
, particularly in his hoarse voice and scat singing
. That's the same reason Disney wanted Prima to voice King Louie, a fictional orangutan who kidnaps Mowgli in Disney's 1967 animated musical adaptation of The Jungle Book, instead of Armstrong (they wanted Armstrong at first), because Prima sounds like Armstrong and, unlike Armstrong, has light skin (letting a black person voice a monkey could cause controversy).
In his youth, Prima played trumpet with Irving Fazola
, in his brother's band, and the pit band of the Saenger Theater. In 1933 he began his busy recording career, as part of the David Rose
orchestra at station WGN
, Chicago
; he was also part of the small recording group The Hotcha Trio, with Rose on piano and Norman Gast on violin. In 1934 Prima moved to New York
, working regularly on 52nd Street with old New Orleans friends like Eddie Miller
(tenor sax and clarinet) and George Brunies
(trombone
), and also new acquaintances like Pee Wee Russell
(clarinet
). Prima's informal jazz group was known as Louis Prima and His New Orleans Gang, and this band recorded prolifically for Brunswick through 1936, and then for Vocalion and Decca.
Prima's 1936 composition, "Sing Sing Sing", which he had released with the New Orleans Gang in March, 1936 as a Brunswick 78, Brunswick 7628, with "It's Been So Long" as the B side, became one of his biggest hits and one of the most covered standards of the swing era; Benny Goodman
's performance of the song at Carnegie Hall
with a featured performance by Gene Krupa
on drums
has become iconic.
to headline at the Famous Door nightclub
. He appeared in several Hollywood movie
s, including a featured performance with Bing Crosby
in the 1936 film Rhythm on the Range. Prima and his Dixieland Gang continued to play club dates across the nation, including a 1939 stint at New York's Hickory House.
Big bands were big business then, and Prima apparently bowed to pressure from booking agents and formed a conventional big band in 1940. He exploited a distinctive, shuffling beat (which he called "Gleeby Rhythm"); this trademark Prima shuffle remained part of his repertoire for two decades. Prima sang most of the band vocals, with Lily Ann Carol as the "girl singer." Prima's high-powered drummer at this time was Jimmy Vincent, an energetic teenager who remained with the Prima band for many years.
In 1947 he added singer Cathy Ricciardi, who recorded under the name Cathy Allen. She was succeeded in 1949 by Keely Smith
(who was to become his fourth wife), and the band concentrated on novelty songs like "Civilization (Bongo Bongo Bongo)"
and "All Right, Louis, Drop the Gun". Prima's big band continued into the early 1950s, with a series of novelty recordings supervised (sometimes heavy-handedly) by record producer Mitch Miller
.
warned him against the cramped Sahara lounge, and Vegas lounges in general were considered the domain of struggling newcomers and faded has-beens, but the financial pressure was too great for Prima to turn the gig down. Prima telephoned legendary New Orleans saxophonist Sam Butera
and instructed him to pick up a few musicians and go to Las Vegas in time for Prima's debut.
Prima acknowledged his new musicians for the opening-night crowd, and spontaneously asked Butera what the name of the band was. Butera ad-libbed, "The Witnesses!" From then on, Sam Butera and the Witnesses backed Prima and Smith on stage and records.
The initial Sahara gig was a resounding success, with Prima and Smith packing the lounge with every performance. They were soon promoted into the main showroom, and they quickly became one of the biggest acts in Vegas.
Prima and Smith worked hard throughout the 1950s, performing multiple shows a night and finishing at 6 a.m. Their efforts were rewarded with a resurgence in their popularity, and they were at least partly responsible for making the lounge at The Sahara a hotspot. On stage, Prima insisted on Smith adopting a humorless, poker-faced character that would play straight to Prima's zany ad libs. Smith actually had a fine sense of comedy that is often audible on the team's recordings; no matter how much the incorrigible Prima tried to disrupt her vocals, Smith would often come back with a funny remark of her own.
In 1959, Prima and Smith won the Grammy Award
for Best Performance by a Vocal Group or Chorus
for "That Old Black Magic".
In 1956 the Prima ensemble performed at the Sahara Hotel and Casino to record tracks for the album The Wildest!
. It was an attempt by Capitol Records
to capture the essence of the Vegas act. Over the next nine years, Prima and Smith raised two children, while he made scores of records, owned racehorses, appeared on television, and even opened a golf course. They outgrew the lounge and were promoted to the big room. They appeared in a few quickie musical films, including Senior Prom and Hey Boy! Hey Girl! Prima co-produced the feature Twist All Night, in which his band also appeared.
During this whirlwind of activity, according to Smith, the couple drifted farther and farther apart. One night, he refused to conduct for one of Smith's performances, delegating to Butera instead. A few days later they were in court, petitioning for divorce.
. Maione was a long-time fan of Prima's, was already familiar with all the arrangements to his songs, and even kept a signed photo of him in her purse. She eventually became Prima's fifth and final wife, and was with the band right up until 1975. By this point, the band was putting out a markedly different and more contemporary sound, with electric organs and synthesizers, even dabbling in progressive rock
.
In 1967 Prima's distinctive voice and jazzy delivery landed him a role in Walt Disney
's animated feature The Jungle Book
, as the raucous orangutan
King Louie
. He performed the hit song "I Wanna Be Like You" on the soundtrack, leading to the recording of two albums with Phil Harris
: The Jungle Book and More Jungle Book, on Disneyland Records
. He can also be heard on the soundtrack of another cartoon feature, The Man Called Flintstone
.
He suffered a mild heart attack in 1973. In 1975, following headaches and episodes of memory loss, Louis Prima sought medical attention, and found out he had a brain stem tumor
. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and went into a coma
following surgery to remove the tumor. He never recovered, and died three years later, having been moved back to New Orleans. He was buried in Metairie Cemetery
in New Orleans; his gray marble crypt is topped by a figure of Gabriel
, the trumpeter-angel, sculpted in 1997 by Russian-born sculptor Alexei Kazantsev. The inscription on the crypt's door quote the lyrics from one of his hits: "When the end comes, I know, they'll all say 'just a gigolo' as life goes on without me. Lovingly, your little family..."
, under his birth name Anthony Benedetto.
On July 25, 2010 Louis Prima received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame's
50th anniversary on the year of his 100th birthday. His son, Louis Prima Jr
, performed a concert in honor of his father, which included all of Louis Prima's hits.
On November 1, 2010 Chicago Review Press released That Old Black Magic: Louis Prima, Keely Smith, and the Golden Age of Las Vegas by Tom Clavin. The book focuses on many aspects of Prima's life, particularly his act and relationship with Keely Smith.
The Prima-Butera arrangements and recordings continued to be copied by younger musicians, including David Lee Roth
, who covered his medley of "Just a Gigolo
"/"I Ain't Got Nobody
" in the 1980s, and Brian Setzer
, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
and other nouveau swing bands of the 1990s, covering such Prima standards as "Jump, Jive and Wail". The pop band Smash Mouth
mentioned his name in the song "Heave-Ho" (from their album Fush Yu Mang
), and covered "I Wanna Be Like You" for the soundtrack album of The Jungle Book
. "I Wanna Be Like You" was also covered by Los Lobos
, Phish
and by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
for the soundtrack of the 1996 movie Swingers
. The surviving original members of Bill Haley & His Comets
have recorded and performed several of Prima's songs since the mid-1990s, most notably "Buona Sera", which they dedicate to Prima's memory. Alex Harvey and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band also came under the spell of Louis Prima.
Louis Prima wrote the swing classic "Sing Sing Sing" which was covered by Fletcher Henderson
and Benny Goodman
. In 1940, Glenn Miller
and his Orchestra recorded "Be Happy", a song Louis Prima co-wrote. "A Sunday Kind of Love
" was another Louis Prima composition that became a standard of the swing and big band era. "Jump Jive an' Wail" was a Louis Prima composition that became another standard, a song which was revived by Brian Setzer
.
Prima's original recordings have also featured in many films, including Mad Dog and Glory
, Big Night
, Anger Management
, Mickey Blue Eyes
, The Sopranos
, Casino
, Swingers
, Kicking and Screaming, Elf
, Swing Kids
, Analyze This
and Igor
, as well as the game Mafia II. Prima's character also plays an important role in the film Big Night
; he is the famous celebrity who never appears.
Sam Butera and the Wildest toured with their Prima tribute, between 2000 and 2004, before Butera retired. He died from complications due to pneumonia, on June 3, 2009.
Also in 2008, Louis Prima was posthumously inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame
.
With Sam Butera and The Witnesses:
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
band in the 1920s, then successively leading a swing
Swing (genre)
Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States...
combo in the 1930s, a big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
in the 1940s, a Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
lounge act
Lounge music
Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...
in the 1950s, and a pop-rock band in the 1960s. In each of his musical endeavors, he incorporated his exuberant personality into his act.
Early life and career
Prima was from a musical family in New OrleansNew Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
. His family emigrated from Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and after a brief stay in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
settled in the United States. Louis Prima attended Jesuit High School
Jesuit High School (New Orleans)
Jesuit High School is an all-male Catholic high school in New Orleans, Louisiana. The school was founded in 1847. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans....
but was expelled for misbehavior.
Prima studied violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
for several years as a child. His older brother Leon
Leon Prima
Leon Prima was an American jazz trumpeter.Prima was the older brother of the singer Louis Prima, and began on piano before picking up trumpet. He played early in his life with Leon Roppolo, Ray Bauduc, Jack Teagarden, and Peck Kelley...
was a well regarded local bandleader. Prima was proud of his heritage, and made a point of letting the audience know at every performance that he was Italian-American and from New Orleans. His singing and playing showed that he absorbed many of the same influences as his fellow Crescent City musician, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, particularly in his hoarse voice and scat singing
Scat singing
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.- Structure and syllable choice...
. That's the same reason Disney wanted Prima to voice King Louie, a fictional orangutan who kidnaps Mowgli in Disney's 1967 animated musical adaptation of The Jungle Book, instead of Armstrong (they wanted Armstrong at first), because Prima sounds like Armstrong and, unlike Armstrong, has light skin (letting a black person voice a monkey could cause controversy).
In his youth, Prima played trumpet with Irving Fazola
Irving Fazola
Irving Fazola was an American jazz clarinetist.-Biography:Fazola or Faz was born in New Orleans, Louisiana as Irving Henry Prestopnik. He got the nickname Fazola from his childhood skill at Solfege . He decided to use the nickname as his family name, and many fellow musicians were unaware that...
, in his brother's band, and the pit band of the Saenger Theater. In 1933 he began his busy recording career, as part of the David Rose
David Rose
David Rose was a British-born American songwriter, composer, arranger, pianist, and orchestra leader. His most famous compositions were "The Stripper", "Holiday for Strings", and "Calypso Melody"...
orchestra at station WGN
WGN
WGN may refer to:*World's Greatest Newspaper, former slogan of the Chicago Tribune and the namesake for the WGN broadcasting outlets in Chicago, Illinois.** WGN , a radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, United States...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
; he was also part of the small recording group The Hotcha Trio, with Rose on piano and Norman Gast on violin. In 1934 Prima moved to New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, working regularly on 52nd Street with old New Orleans friends like Eddie Miller
Eddie Miller (jazz saxophonist)
Edward Raymond Müller was a jazz musician who played tenor saxophone and clarinet born in New Orleans, Louisiana....
(tenor sax and clarinet) and George Brunies
George Brunies
George Brunies, aka Georg Brunis, was a jazz trombonist who came to fame in the 1930s, and was part of the Dixieland revival. He was known as the "King of the Tailgate Trombone"....
(trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
), and also new acquaintances like Pee Wee Russell
Pee Wee Russell
Charles Ellsworth Russell, much better known by his nickname Pee Wee Russell, was a jazz musician. Early in his career he played clarinet and saxophones, but eventually focused solely on clarinet....
(clarinet
Soprano clarinet
The soprano clarinets are a sub-family of the clarinet family.The B clarinet is by far the most common type of soprano clarinet - the unmodified word "clarinet" usually refers to this instrument...
). Prima's informal jazz group was known as Louis Prima and His New Orleans Gang, and this band recorded prolifically for Brunswick through 1936, and then for Vocalion and Decca.
Prima's 1936 composition, "Sing Sing Sing", which he had released with the New Orleans Gang in March, 1936 as a Brunswick 78, Brunswick 7628, with "It's Been So Long" as the B side, became one of his biggest hits and one of the most covered standards of the swing era; Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
's performance of the song at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
with a featured performance by Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa was an American jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style.-Biography:...
on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
has become iconic.
Louis Prima and His Band
Prima moved to Los AngelesLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
to headline at the Famous Door nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
. He appeared in several Hollywood movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s, including a featured performance with Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
in the 1936 film Rhythm on the Range. Prima and his Dixieland Gang continued to play club dates across the nation, including a 1939 stint at New York's Hickory House.
Big bands were big business then, and Prima apparently bowed to pressure from booking agents and formed a conventional big band in 1940. He exploited a distinctive, shuffling beat (which he called "Gleeby Rhythm"); this trademark Prima shuffle remained part of his repertoire for two decades. Prima sang most of the band vocals, with Lily Ann Carol as the "girl singer." Prima's high-powered drummer at this time was Jimmy Vincent, an energetic teenager who remained with the Prima band for many years.
In 1947 he added singer Cathy Ricciardi, who recorded under the name Cathy Allen. She was succeeded in 1949 by Keely Smith
Keely Smith
Keely Smith is an American jazz and popular music singer who enjoyed popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. She collaborated with, among others, Louis Prima and Frank Sinatra.-Career:...
(who was to become his fourth wife), and the band concentrated on novelty songs like "Civilization (Bongo Bongo Bongo)"
Civilization (song)
"Civilization" is a pop song. It was written by Bob Hilliard and Carl Sigman, published in 1947 and introduced in the 1947 Broadway musical Angel in the Wings, sung by Elaine Stritch...
and "All Right, Louis, Drop the Gun". Prima's big band continued into the early 1950s, with a series of novelty recordings supervised (sometimes heavy-handedly) by record producer Mitch Miller
Mitch Miller
Mitchell William "Mitch" Miller was an American musician, singer, conductor, record producer, A&R man and record company executive...
.
Vegas years
The popularity of the big-band sound started to wane, and Prima began losing money, just as he needed it to support the pregnant Smith. Prima found work with Smith in small venues all over the East Coast. Eventually he called up his friend Bill Miller, who was then entertainment director of The Sahara nightclub and casino in Las Vegas, and asked for a job. The main stage at the hotel was booked for months to come, but Miller had an opening on the small stage in the lounge. His friend Cab CallowayCab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
warned him against the cramped Sahara lounge, and Vegas lounges in general were considered the domain of struggling newcomers and faded has-beens, but the financial pressure was too great for Prima to turn the gig down. Prima telephoned legendary New Orleans saxophonist Sam Butera
Sam Butera
Sam Butera was a tenor saxophone player best noted for his collaborations with Louis Prima and Keely Smith. Butera is frequently regarded as a crossover artist who performed with equal ease in both R & B and the post-big band pop style of jazz that permeated the early Vegas nightclub...
and instructed him to pick up a few musicians and go to Las Vegas in time for Prima's debut.
Prima acknowledged his new musicians for the opening-night crowd, and spontaneously asked Butera what the name of the band was. Butera ad-libbed, "The Witnesses!" From then on, Sam Butera and the Witnesses backed Prima and Smith on stage and records.
The initial Sahara gig was a resounding success, with Prima and Smith packing the lounge with every performance. They were soon promoted into the main showroom, and they quickly became one of the biggest acts in Vegas.
Prima and Smith worked hard throughout the 1950s, performing multiple shows a night and finishing at 6 a.m. Their efforts were rewarded with a resurgence in their popularity, and they were at least partly responsible for making the lounge at The Sahara a hotspot. On stage, Prima insisted on Smith adopting a humorless, poker-faced character that would play straight to Prima's zany ad libs. Smith actually had a fine sense of comedy that is often audible on the team's recordings; no matter how much the incorrigible Prima tried to disrupt her vocals, Smith would often come back with a funny remark of her own.
In 1959, Prima and Smith won the Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Performance by a Vocal Group or Chorus
Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group or Chorus
The Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group or Chorus was awarded from 1959 to 1960. In 1961 the award was split into two awards for Best Performance by a Vocal Group and Best Performance by a Chorus....
for "That Old Black Magic".
In 1956 the Prima ensemble performed at the Sahara Hotel and Casino to record tracks for the album The Wildest!
The Wildest!
The Wildest! is an album by Louis Prima, first released in 1957. It features singer Keely Smith with saxophonist Sam Butera and the Witnesses. It is considered an innovative mixture of early rock and roll, jump blues and jazz as well as eccentric humor....
. It was an attempt by Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
to capture the essence of the Vegas act. Over the next nine years, Prima and Smith raised two children, while he made scores of records, owned racehorses, appeared on television, and even opened a golf course. They outgrew the lounge and were promoted to the big room. They appeared in a few quickie musical films, including Senior Prom and Hey Boy! Hey Girl! Prima co-produced the feature Twist All Night, in which his band also appeared.
During this whirlwind of activity, according to Smith, the couple drifted farther and farther apart. One night, he refused to conduct for one of Smith's performances, delegating to Butera instead. A few days later they were in court, petitioning for divorce.
Later years
Following the divorce, he began dating Gia MaioneGia Maione
Gia Maione is an American singer and widow of singer Louis Prima born 1941.Gia Maione is a 1959 graduate of Toms River High School . She first gained notice in 1962, when she was signed to sing lead female vocals for Prima and his band. Prima had divorced Keely Smith, his former lead vocalist, the...
. Maione was a long-time fan of Prima's, was already familiar with all the arrangements to his songs, and even kept a signed photo of him in her purse. She eventually became Prima's fifth and final wife, and was with the band right up until 1975. By this point, the band was putting out a markedly different and more contemporary sound, with electric organs and synthesizers, even dabbling in progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
.
In 1967 Prima's distinctive voice and jazzy delivery landed him a role in Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
's animated feature The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book (1967 film)
The Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Released on October 18, 1967, it is the 19th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was inspired by the stories about the feral child Mowgli from the book of the same name by...
, as the raucous orangutan
Orangutan
Orangutans are the only exclusively Asian genus of extant great ape. The largest living arboreal animals, they have proportionally longer arms than the other, more terrestrial, great apes. They are among the most intelligent primates and use a variety of sophisticated tools, also making sleeping...
King Louie
King Louie
King Louie is a fictional orangutan who kidnaps Mowgli in Disney's 1967 animated musical adaptation of The Jungle Book. He is voiced by Louis Prima in the film and therefore has his same mannerisms...
. He performed the hit song "I Wanna Be Like You" on the soundtrack, leading to the recording of two albums with Phil Harris
Phil Harris
Harris and Faye married in 1941; it was a second marriage for both and lasted 54 years, until Harris's death. Harris engaged in a fistfight at the Trocadero nightclub in 1938 with RKO studio mogul Bob Stevens; the cause was reported to be over Faye after Stevens and Faye had ended a romantic...
: The Jungle Book and More Jungle Book, on Disneyland Records
Disneyland Records
Disneyland Records is the original name of the Walt Disney Company's record company.After long associations with primarily RCA Victor Records, with a few select titles on Capitol, Disneyland Records was established by the Disney studio in 1956 with its first release entitled A Child's Garden of...
. He can also be heard on the soundtrack of another cartoon feature, The Man Called Flintstone
The Man Called Flintstone
The Man Called Flintstone is a 1966 American animated musical comedy film produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and released by Columbia Pictures. It was the second Hanna-Barbera feature, after Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!...
.
He suffered a mild heart attack in 1973. In 1975, following headaches and episodes of memory loss, Louis Prima sought medical attention, and found out he had a brain stem tumor
Brain tumor
A brain tumor is an intracranial solid neoplasm, a tumor within the brain or the central spinal canal.Brain tumors include all tumors inside the cranium or in the central spinal canal...
. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and went into a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
following surgery to remove the tumor. He never recovered, and died three years later, having been moved back to New Orleans. He was buried in Metairie Cemetery
Metairie Cemetery
Metairie Cemetery is a cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The name has caused some people to mistakenly presume that the cemetery is located in Metairie, Louisiana, but it is located within the New Orleans city limits, on Metairie Road .-History:This site was previously a horse...
in New Orleans; his gray marble crypt is topped by a figure of Gabriel
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an Archangel who typically serves as a messenger to humans from God.He first appears in the Book of Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions. In the Gospel of Luke Gabriel foretells the births of both John the Baptist and of Jesus...
, the trumpeter-angel, sculpted in 1997 by Russian-born sculptor Alexei Kazantsev. The inscription on the crypt's door quote the lyrics from one of his hits: "When the end comes, I know, they'll all say 'just a gigolo' as life goes on without me. Lovingly, your little family..."
Legacy
In 2010, honoring his lifelong commitment to the music of the city of his birth, and to commemorate the 100th anniversary of that event, Prima was honored by being the annual poster subject of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, in a painting created by artist and singer Tony BennettTony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
, under his birth name Anthony Benedetto.
On July 25, 2010 Louis Prima received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame's
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
50th anniversary on the year of his 100th birthday. His son, Louis Prima Jr
Louis Prima Jr
-Origins:Louis Prima Jr. is a Las Vegas-based entertainer best known for carrying on the legacy of his father Louis Prima, the original "King of Swing." Born on Father's Day in 1965, he is the youngest child of Louis Prima and Gia Maione Prima, and is Louis Prima’s only son...
, performed a concert in honor of his father, which included all of Louis Prima's hits.
On November 1, 2010 Chicago Review Press released That Old Black Magic: Louis Prima, Keely Smith, and the Golden Age of Las Vegas by Tom Clavin. The book focuses on many aspects of Prima's life, particularly his act and relationship with Keely Smith.
The Prima-Butera arrangements and recordings continued to be copied by younger musicians, including David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality. Roth was ranked nineteenth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Singers of All Time....
, who covered his medley of "Just a Gigolo
Just a Gigolo (song)
"Just a Gigolo" is a popular song, adapted by Irving Caesar in 1929 from the Austrian song "Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo", written in 1928 by Leonello Casucci and Julius Brammer .-History:...
"/"I Ain't Got Nobody
I Ain't Got Nobody
"I Ain't Got Nobody" was a c. 1915 song, written by Spencer Williams. Publisher Roger Graham received co-composer credits. It became a perennial standard, recorded many times over following generations, in styles ranging from pop to jazz to country music....
" in the 1980s, and Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He first found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly revival group The Stray Cats, and revitalized his career in the late 1990s with a jazz-oriented big band.-Career:Setzer was born in Massapequa, New York...
, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is a contemporary swing revival band from southern California. Their notable singles include "Go Daddy-O", "You & Me & the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight ", and "Mr. Pinstripe Suit". The band played the Super Bowl XXXIII half-time show in 1999.The band was originally formed in Ventura,...
and other nouveau swing bands of the 1990s, covering such Prima standards as "Jump, Jive and Wail". The pop band Smash Mouth
Smash Mouth
Smash Mouth is an American rock band from San Jose, California. The band was formed in 1994, and was originally composed of Steve Harwell, Greg Camp, Paul De Lisle and Kevin Coleman as lead vocals, guitar, bass and drums respectively...
mentioned his name in the song "Heave-Ho" (from their album Fush Yu Mang
Fush Yu Mang
Fush Yu Mang, released in 1997, is the first full length album from the San Jose, California rock band Smash Mouth. It includes their first major hit, "Walkin' on the Sun". The title of the album was taken from a line slurred by Al Pacino in Scarface...
), and covered "I Wanna Be Like You" for the soundtrack album of The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book is a collection of stories by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893–4. The original publications contain illustrations, some by Rudyard's father, John Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six...
. "I Wanna Be Like You" was also covered by Los Lobos
Los Lobos
Los Lobos are a multiple Grammy Award–winning American Chicano rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional Spanish and Mexican music such as cumbia, boleros and norteños.-History:The...
, Phish
Phish
Phish is an American rock band noted for its musical improvisation, extended jams, and exploration of music across genres. Formed at the University of Vermont in 1983 , the band's four members – Trey Anastasio , Mike Gordon , Jon Fishman , and Page McConnell Phish is an American rock band...
and by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is a contemporary swing revival band from southern California. Their notable singles include "Go Daddy-O", "You & Me & the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight ", and "Mr. Pinstripe Suit". The band played the Super Bowl XXXIII half-time show in 1999.The band was originally formed in Ventura,...
for the soundtrack of the 1996 movie Swingers
Swingers (1996 film)
Swingers is a 1996 comedy-drama film about the lives of single, unemployed actors living on the 'eastside' of Hollywood, California during the 1990s swing revival...
. The surviving original members of Bill Haley & His Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets was an American rock and roll band that was founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band, also known by the names Bill Haley and The Comets and Bill Haley's Comets , was the earliest group of white musicians to bring rock and roll to the attention of...
have recorded and performed several of Prima's songs since the mid-1990s, most notably "Buona Sera", which they dedicate to Prima's memory. Alex Harvey and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band also came under the spell of Louis Prima.
Louis Prima wrote the swing classic "Sing Sing Sing" which was covered by Fletcher Henderson
Fletcher Henderson
James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. His was one of the most prolific black orchestras and his influence was vast...
and Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
. In 1940, Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller
Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...
and his Orchestra recorded "Be Happy", a song Louis Prima co-wrote. "A Sunday Kind of Love
A Sunday Kind of Love
"A Sunday Kind of Love" is a popular song composed by Barbara Belle, Anita Leonard, Stan Rhodes, and Louis Prima, published in 1946.The song has become a pop and jazz standard, recorded by many artists.- Notable recordings :...
" was another Louis Prima composition that became a standard of the swing and big band era. "Jump Jive an' Wail" was a Louis Prima composition that became another standard, a song which was revived by Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He first found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly revival group The Stray Cats, and revitalized his career in the late 1990s with a jazz-oriented big band.-Career:Setzer was born in Massapequa, New York...
.
Prima's original recordings have also featured in many films, including Mad Dog and Glory
Mad Dog and Glory
Mad Dog and Glory is a 1993 American comedy-drama film directed by John McNaughton and starring Robert De Niro, Uma Thurman and Bill Murray.-Plot:...
, Big Night
Big Night
Scott and Tucci won the New York Film Critics Circle Award and the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best New Director. Tucci and Tropiano won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay...
, Anger Management
Anger Management
Anger Management is a 2003 slapstick comedy film starring Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson, directed by Peter Segal and written by David S. Dorfman...
, Mickey Blue Eyes
Mickey Blue Eyes
Mickey Blue Eyes is a 1999 film directed by Kelly Makin. Hugh Grant stars as Michael Felgate, an English auctioneer living in New York City who becomes entangled in his soon-to-be father in-law's mafia connections...
, The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
, Casino
Casino (film)
Casino is a 1995 crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese...
, Swingers
Swingers (1996 film)
Swingers is a 1996 comedy-drama film about the lives of single, unemployed actors living on the 'eastside' of Hollywood, California during the 1990s swing revival...
, Kicking and Screaming, Elf
Elf (film)
Elf is a 2003 comedy film directed by Jon Favreau, written by David Berenbaum and starring Will Ferrell, James Caan, and Zooey Deschanel. It was released in the United States on November 7, 2003 and grossed over $220,400,000 worldwide.-Plot:A baby crawls into Santa Claus' sack while he is...
, Swing Kids
Swing Kids
The Swing Kids were a group of jazz and swing lovers in Germany in the 1930s, mainly in Hamburg and Berlin. They were composed of 14- to 18-year-old boys and girls in high school, most of them middle- or upper-class students, but some apprentice workers as well...
, Analyze This
Analyze This
Analyze This is a 1999 gangster comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, who co-wrote the screenplay with playwright Kenneth Lonergan and Peter Tolan. The film stars Robert De Niro as a mafioso and Billy Crystal as a psychiatrist...
and Igor
Igor (film)
Igor is a 2008 computer animated family comedy film about the stock character Igor. The plot revolves around the grotesque title figure Igor and his dreams of winning first place at the Evil Science Fair. The movie was released on September 19, 2008...
, as well as the game Mafia II. Prima's character also plays an important role in the film Big Night
Big Night
Scott and Tucci won the New York Film Critics Circle Award and the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best New Director. Tucci and Tropiano won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay...
; he is the famous celebrity who never appears.
Sam Butera and the Wildest toured with their Prima tribute, between 2000 and 2004, before Butera retired. He died from complications due to pneumonia, on June 3, 2009.
Also in 2008, Louis Prima was posthumously inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame
Louisiana Music Hall of Fame
The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame is an IRS certified 501 non-profit organization based in the state capitol of Baton Rouge, La., that seeks to preserve Louisiana's rich music culture and heritage and to further educate its citizens and people worldwide about the state’s unique role contributing...
.
Discography
- The Manuelo TarantelThe Manuelo TarantelThe Manuelo Tarantel is an Italian-American song recorded in November 1949 by Louis Prima. It was originally recorded on Mercury 78 RPM Single 5339. It can now be found on the compilation CD "Beepin' & Boppin'" released May 18th, 1999....
(1949) Mercury 78 RPM Single 5339 - Breaking It Up!Breaking It Up!Breaking It Up! Is an album by Louis Prima, first released in 1953. It features an accompaniment by Keely Smith and was composed by Oscar Gomez and Gigi Gryce.-Track listing:# "Eleanor" - 2:04...
(1953)
With Sam Butera and The Witnesses:
- The Wildest!The Wildest!The Wildest! is an album by Louis Prima, first released in 1957. It features singer Keely Smith with saxophonist Sam Butera and the Witnesses. It is considered an innovative mixture of early rock and roll, jump blues and jazz as well as eccentric humor....
(1956) - The Call of the Wildest (1957)
- The Wildest Show at Tahoe (1957)
- Las Vegas Prima Style (1958)
- Strictly Prima (1958)
- Hey Boy! Hey Girl!Hey Boy! Hey Girl!Hey Boy! Hey Girl! is a 1959 film directed by David Lowell Rich. It stars Louis Prima and Keely Smith.-Cast:*Louis Prima as Himself*Keely Smith as Dorothy Spencer*James Gregory as Father Burton*Henry Slate as Marty Moran*Kim Charney as Buzz...
(1959) - Louis and Keely! (1959) - First album to be released by Dot Records.
- His Greatest Hits (1960) - First album to feature multi-instrumentalist Morgan Thomas.
- Together (1960)
- Pretty Music Prima Style, Volume 1 (1960)
- On Stage (1960)
- Wonderland by Night (1960)
- Blue Moon (1961)
- Return of the Wildest (1961) - The last record to feature Keely Smith.
- Doin' the Twist (1961)
- The Wildest Comes Home (1962) - Marks Prima's return to Capitol Records.
- Lake Tahoe Prima Style (1962) - The first Capitol LP to feature Gia Maione.
- Prima Show in the Casbar (1963) - The first LP released by Prima One Records.
- Plays Pretty for the People (1964) - Released by Jazz Band, live radio broadcasts from New Year's Eve 1963 and sometime during 1964.
- King of Clubs (1964)
- Let's Fly with Mary Poppins (1965)
- Golden Hits of Louis Prima (1966) - Last recording to feature trombonist Lou Scioneaux.
- On Broadway (1967) - United Artists release, solo release by Prima without Gia Maione and the Witnesses.
- The Jungle Book (1967) - Prima and the Witnesses are featured in a duet with singer Phil Harris on "I Wanna Be Like You".
- More Jungle Book (1969) - Prima and the Witnesses are featured on one track, "Strange Behavior".
- The New Sounds of the Louis Prima Band (1969) - First album to introduce Richie Varola on electric organ, marking the first time the band produced a markedly different, modernized sound.
- Blast Off! (1970)
- The Prima Generation '72 (1972)
- Just a GigoloJust a Gigolo (song)"Just a Gigolo" is a popular song, adapted by Irving Caesar in 1929 from the Austrian song "Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo", written in 1928 by Leonello Casucci and Julius Brammer .-History:...
(1973) - Angelina (1973)
- Let's "Hear" it For Robin Hood (1974)- Disneyland Records release, Prima tells the story of Robin Hood through spoken word and song.
- The Wildest '75 (1975) - Prima's last album before slipping into a coma, featuring the single "I'm Leaving You'.
External links
- Official Louis Prima website
- Louis Prima Discography
- An Introduction to Louis Prima at This is Vintage Now