Louis Prima
Louis Prima was a New Orleans’ singer, actor, songwriter and trumpeter of Italian descent. By the age of 18, he had developed his own song style, combining a shuffle beat with the New Orleans southern rock sound. He added a wailing sax to many of his songs to serve as the counter-melody to his smooth voice, and by the mid 1940s, Prima’s music had popularized Italian style, opening the doors for signature crooners like Perry Como and Tony Bennett to continue the tradition Prima began.

Charting the evolution of Prima’s career by era demonstrates just how versatile this legend truly is. In the 1940s, Prima ushered in the swing era by writing songs like, “Sing Sing Sing.” He began performing with his twenty-two piece orchestra, on a song called, “Angelina,” which brought the terms, “pizza,” “veal parmigiana, pasta fagiole, and antipasto,” to households around America.

He downsized the big band to a small ensemble in the 1950s and had success with a number of hits, including, “Just a Gigolo – I Ain’t Got Nobody,” “Buona Sera,” “Black Magic,” “Zooma Zooma,” and “When You’re Smilin’.” He performed in night clubs across the United States, on television, on stage, all while continuing to record music.

Prima maintained his popularity for nearly fifty years with his suave showmanship and remarkable charisma, and in the 1960s, he battled The Beatles and the British invasion by founding his own record company called, “Prima Magnagroove Records.”

In 1966, Walt Disney approached Prima to request that he provide the voice of “King Louis,” the orangutan, in the animated feature film, “The Jungle Book.” Louis received a gold album for the soundtrack recording, and the film also received an Oscar nomination for Best Music in 1968.

Prima lapsed into a coma in the fall of 1975, and passed away on August 24, 1978, but his music and legend live on at New Orleans Musical Legends Park.

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