Perry Como (May 18, 1912 - May 12, 2001) was a popular United States singer with a silky voice who became popular in the mid 1930s, and continued to have a following through the 1990s.

He was born Pierino Ronald Como to an Italian-American family at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, the seventh son of a seventh son. He worked as a barber until 1933, when he joined the bands of Freddie Carlone and then Ted Weems Orchestra as a vocalist. He began recording with RCA Victor in 1943, and recorded exclusively with them until 1987 when his final album, Perry Como Today, was recorded and produced by himself and his longtime conductor / arranger Nick Perito.

By the 1980s the atmosphere of recording had changed dramatically from the early days Perry had remembered and throughout his long association with the RCA Victor Records label. Perry's recording sessions had always been filled with laughter and joy, as evidenced by his performances, but in later years he likened the recordings sessions to that of "recording in a morgue" which was more the fault of the times than anyone in specific. Perry walked away from the label in the early 1980s but he returned to record his own album with his trusted friend and associate Nick Perito in 1987. His recording of The Wind Beneath My Wings was almost autobiographical and a fitting end to a long and successful recording career. Perry would record only once more in 1994, but privately, for his well-known Irish Christmas Concert. Had this been for RCA Victor (then BMG), he would have been with the label for a solid 50 years.

He had numerous Christmas television specials, beginning Christmas Eve, 1948, and continuing to 1994 when his final Christmas Special was recorded in Ireland. His regular television show, at first a spin-off from the Chesterfield Supper Club. It continued throught the early 1950s, becoming The Perry Como Show and then for five years as The Perry Como Kraft Music Hall, where he became the highest paid performer in the history of television to that date, earning mention in the Guinness Book of World Records. Prior to this Perry battled Jackie Gleason in what was billed "The Battle of the Giants" and won. This is rarely mentioned due to the fact that Perry commonly diminished his own achievements. He recorded many long-play albums of songs for the RCA Victor Records label between 1952 an 1987, and is credited with numerous Gold records. Perry had so many recordings achieving "Gold Record" status that he refused to have many of them certified. It was this characteristic which made him so different frim his peers and endeared him to legions of fans throughout the whole world. Throughout the decades, Como is reported to have sold millions of records but these figures were commonly suppressed by Perry himself. Perry's well known songs include:

  • "Goodbye Sue"
  • "There'll Soon Be a Rainbow"
  • "Have I Stayed Away Too Long?"
  • "I've Had this Feeling Before (But Never Like This)"
  • "Long Ago (and Far Away)"
  • "I Love You"*
  • "Lili Marlene"
  • "First Class Private Mary Brown"
  • "More and More"
  • "I Dream of You (More than You Dream I Do)"
  • "I Wish We Didn't Have to Say Goodnight"
  • "I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)"
  • "I Love You Truly"
  • "I'll Always Be With You"
  • "I'm Gonna Love That Gal (Like She's Never Been Loved Before)"
  • "(Did You Ever Get) That Feeling in the Moonlight"
  • "Here Comes Heavem"
  • "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows"
  • "You Won't Be Satisfied ( Until You Break My Heart"
  • "All Through the Day"
  • "Little Man You've Had a Busy Day"
  • "More than You Know"
  • "Kentucky Babe"
  • "A Garden in the Rain"
  • "Blue Skies"
  • "My Blue Heaven"
  • "If You Were the Only Girl"
  • "Girl of My Dreams"
  • "Surrender"
  • "They Say It's Wonderful"
  • "One More Vote (One More Kiss)"
  • "If I'm Lucky"
  • "That's the Beginning of the End"
  • "Sonata"
  • "What Am I Gonna Do About You?"
  • "I Gotta Gal I Love (In North and South Dakota)"
  • "That's Wher I Came In"
  • "I Want to Thank Your Folks"
  • "Easter Parade"
  • "Chi Baba, Chi Baba (My Bambino Go to Sleep)"
  • "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now?"
  • "When Tonight Is Just a Memory"
  • "Carolina Moon"
  • "White Christmas"
  • "Body and Soul"
  • "So Far"
  • "A Fellow Needs a Girl"
  • "When Your hair Has Turned to Silver (I Will Love You Just the Same)"
  • "What'll I Do?"
  • "If We Can't Be the Same Old Sweethearts (We'll Just Be the Same Old Friends)"
  • "When Day id Done"
  • "Love me or Leave Me"
  • "Two Loves Have I"
  • "I Never Loved Anyone"
  • "I've Got a Feelin' I'm Fallin'"
  • "Pianissimo"
  • "You Can Do No Wrong"
  • "Better Luck Next Time"
  • "Love of My Life"
  • "It Only Happens When I Dance with You"
  • "My Melancholy Baby"
  • "Roses of Picardy"
  • "When Is Sometime?"
  • "Laroo Laroo Lilli Bolero"
  • "Oh! How I Miss You Tonight"
  • "For You"
  • "When You're Smiling"
  • "If You Had All the World and It's Gold"
  • "Because"
  • "Marcheta"
  • "There Must Be a Way"
  • "Haunted Heart"
  • "Everytime I Meet You"
  • "Ramblin' Rose"
  • "By the Way"
  • "N'Yot N'Yow (The Pussycat Song)"
  • "Far Away Places"
  • "Missouri Waltz"
  • "Blue Room"
  • "With a Song In My Heart"
  • "I Don't See Me In Your Eyes Anymore"
  • "Forever and Ever"
  • "Bali Ha'i"
  • "Give Me Your Hand"
  • "Just One Way to Say I Love You"
  • "Till the End of Time"
  • "Prisoner of Love"
  • "Temptation"
  • "If I Loved You"
  • "Hubba Hubba Hubba (Dig You Later)"
  • "Some Enchanted Evening"*
  • "Hush Little Darlin'"
  • "When You Were Sweet Sixteen"
  • "Two Little New Little Blue Little Eyes"
  • "Ave Maria"
  • "The Lord's Prayer"
  • "A You're Adrable"
  • "Hoop Dee Doo"
  • "My Lady Loves to Dance"
  • "Ko Ko Mo (Love You So)"
  • "You'll Always Be My Lifetime Sweetheart"
  • "More"
  • "Glendora"
  • "Sweetheart's Holiday"
  • "Papa Loves Mambo"
  • "Wanted"
  • "The Things We Didn't Do"
  • "Dancin'"
  • "Marching Along to the Blues"
  • "Sow the Seeds of Happiness"
  • "Beats there a Heart So True"
  • "Just Born (To Be Your Baby)"
  • "Round and Round"
  • "Mi Casa Su Casa (My House is Your House)"
  • "My Little Baby"
  • "Kewpie Doll"
  • "Dance Only With Me"
  • "Come Rain or Come Shine"
  • "Birth of the Blues"
  • "When I Fall in Love"
  • "Vaya Con Dios (May God Be With You)"
  • "A Still Small Voice"
  • "Only One"
  • "I May Never Pass this Way Again"
  • "Prayer for Peace"
  • "When You Come to the End of the Day"
  • "Moon Talk"
  • "Magic Moments"
  • "Catch a Falling Star"
  • "Love Makes the World Go 'Round"
  • "Mandolins in the Moonlight"
  • "For the Good Times"
  • "Delaware"
  • "You're Following Me"
  • "Caterina"
  • "Island of Forgotten Lovers"
  • "I Love You (Don't You Forget It)"
  • "One More Mountain"
  • "Dream On Little Dreamer"
  • "My Own Peculiar Way"
  • "Coo Coo Roo Paloma"
  • "One Day Is Like Another"
  • "Forget Domani"
  • "How Beautiful the World Can Be"
  • "What Love Is Made Of"
  • "I Looked Back"
  • "Another Go 'Round"
  • "Happy Man"
  • "Seattle"
  • "Sunshine Wine"
  • "That's All This Old World Needs"
  • "It's Impossible"
  • "Don't Leave Me"
  • "Turn Around"
  • "Love Is Spreadin' Over the World"
  • "El Condor Pasa"
  • "I Think of You"
  • "My Days of Loving You"
  • "Bridge Over Troubled Water"
  • "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo"
  • "Dream Baby"
  • "And I Love You So"
  • "It as Such a Good Day"
  • "Take Me Home"
  • "Take a Look at Me"
  • "Welcome Home"
  • "Walk Right Back"
  • "Somehow"
  • "Woman of the World"
  • "I'll Take My Chances with You"
  • "Turn the World Around"
  • "Love Don't Care Where It Grows"
  • "Christmas Dream"
  • "Temptation"
  • "Brian's Song (The Hands of Time)"
  • "He Couldn't Love You More"
  • "You Are the Sunshine of My Life"
  • "World of Dreams"
  • "Wonderful Baby"
  • "Just Out of Reach"
  • "Yellow Beach Umbrella"
  • "Lovers Kids and Fools"
  • "Everything"
  • "Coming Back for More"
  • "Yes, No, Maybe!"
  • "To Make You Smile Again"
  • "When I Wanted You"
  • "Where Is Love"
  • "Girl, You Make It Happen"
  • "Let's Do It Again"
  • "There's a Kind of a Hush (All Over the World)"
  • "Where You're Concerned"
  • "You Light Up My Life"
  • "When I Need You"
  • "Send In the Clowns"
  • "I Needed You"
  • "Bing Crosby Medley"
  • "Not While I'm Around"
  • "Love"
  • "As My Love For You"
  • "When"
  • "Is She the Only Girl in the World"
  • "So It Goes"
  • "Goodbye For Now"
  • "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Forever"
  • "The Best of Times"
  • "Song on the Sand"
  • "Anima Mia (My Days of Loving You)"
  • "Forever"
  • "That's What Friends Are For"
  • "Rosemary Blue"
  • "Marie"
  • "You Are So Beautiful"
  • "Sing Along With Me"
  • "Bless the Beasts and the Children"
  • "The Wind Beneath My Wings"

  • Complete Como Discography

For millions of people throughout the world Perry Como was the personification of integrity. He once said, "I now have the things money can buy, whereas the things money can't buy, I've always had!" Perry was his own person from beginning to end and achieved recognition beyond his wildest imagination but he did this strictly on his own terms. He neither courted the media nor used it and this respect was mutual as the media treated his passing with the privacy he so richly deserved. As Bing Crosby said, Perry Como invented casual with his laid back style and silky baritone voice. He may have been casual in appearance but his high standards, personally and professionally, were second to none.

He died in May 12, 2001 at his residence in Jupiter, Florida, six days before his 89th birthday.