Gina Lollobrigida & Perry Como Live - Oh Marie

The Perry Como Show. December 15, 1956. With Mitchell Ayres' Orchestra. Music: Eduardo Di Capua, Lyrics: Vincenzo Russo. Original Italian melody arranged and adapted by Ray Charles. Perry's Italian heritage comes to the four in this simple and touching love song. His parents came from the district of Abruzzi in Italy, and as a child, he absorbed the customs and the language of the Italian neighborhood he was born into in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. Nick Perito, pianist, accordionist, and musical director for Perry, adapted the old Italian melody for today's style. Ray Charles, conductor of the Ray Charles Singers, has been with Perry as choral director since 1954. He had the assignment of tailoring the Italian chorus to Perry's style for (these songs) which were cut in the RCA studios in Rome.