Frank D'Rone- Jazz Singer/Guitarist

Frank D'Rone is an American jazz singer and guitarist. He grew up in Providence,
Rhode Island and began singing and playing the guitar professionally at age 5.
At age 11, he had his own local radio show. At age 13, he won an Artist’s Degree
in classical guitar from the American Guild of Stringed Instruments. At 18,
D’Rone headed for New York and beyond, moving to Chicago in the late 1950s.
D'Rone achieved success in Chicago clubs, attracting the attention of such jazz
luminaries as Oscar Peterson, Stan Kenton and Nat King Cole. Dick LaPalm, a
record promoter for Nat Cole, Peggy Lee, and many others got him his first
record contract with Mercury records and introduced him to his great friend, Nat
"King" Cole.
His first album, Frank D'Rone Sings, was released in 1959, and
included liner notes penned by Cole himself, who later helped D'Rone earn
several appearances on the Johnny Carson Show in the 1960s and 1970s. An album
with arrangements by record producer Billy May, After the Ball, was released in
1960. D'Rone was a performer at the hungry i nightclub in San Francisco,
California, where he recorded a live 1962 album, In Person. However his
recording contract with Mercury Records ended at this time. He also recorded for
Columbia Records and RCA Camden.
His style was praised by jazz critic Will
Friedwald as "all singing from the heart and no put-ons." He had one hit in the
UK Singles Chart in 1960, with the song "Strawberry Blonde (The Band Rocked
On)". In 2012 he released a new CD "Double Exposure" (Whaling City Sounds) in
which solo vocals self-accompanied on guitar alternated with big band numbers
with charts written by Phil Kelley. This CD was enthusiastically received and is
currently getting nationwide airplay.