LAS VEGAS (CelebrityAccess) — Singer and pianist Buddy Greco, who scored major hits with songs such as "Around the World" and "The Lady Is a Tramp," has died. He was 90.
According to the Las Vegas Journal-Review, Greco died in Las Vegas on Tuesday, but a cause of death was not disclosed.
A Philadelphia by birth, Greco began playing the piano at a precocious age, learning to sing at the age of four and taking up piano the following year.
“My father had a record store in Philadelphia and he was one of the city’s top opera critics, so I was surrounded by all kinds of music from the beginning,” he recalled in a 1994 interview with the Record Review.
With his early interest in music, Greco soon graduated to the local club scene before being recruited by Benny Goodman for Goodman's orchestra, touring with the legendary band leader for four years.
After his stint with Goodman, Greco returned to the Las Vegas lounge scene where he would become a fixture for years, during both the rat pack era and then again in the late 1980s and 1990s, with gigs at famed venues such as the Starlight Room at the Desert Inn. As well, he also opened his own club in Cathedral City, California and performed there until it closed in 2009.
He also recording a variety of music, ranging from jazz and pop to country, finding success with hits such as "Oh Look A-There", "Ain't She Pretty", "Up, Up and Away" and "The Lady is a Tramp," which sold more than a million copies. Over the course of his career, he would record more than 60 albums but never quite achieved headliner status.
Greco's final public was in November when he attended his induction into the Las Vegas Entertainment Hall of Fame, the Hollywood Reporter said.
He was survived by his fifth wife, Lezlie Anders and his seven children. – Staff Writers
