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HIGHLIGHTS
“CITY OF ANGELS”
(Nick Joven, Bev Dusham)
Bally 1016
No. 19 November 24, 1956
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“The Highlights. God, I haven’t seen any of those guys in years, years,” said Frank Pizani
(b. Jan. 24, 1935, Chicago), the group’s lead voice, in an exclusive interview. “Nobody has even
asked me of them in ages, ages.
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While attending DePaul University as an education major, Frank worked as an usher for Chicago’s
answer to Philadelphia’s “American Bandstand.” “I ushered for Jim Lounsbury’s ‘Bandstand.’ This
show was starting to get out of hand. Now and then, they’d have like a riot, so what I did was sing to
them while they were waiting in line outside the studio to get let in. One day, some of the kids asked
Jim to put me on the show. I remember I sang ‘Sh-Boom’, a cappella. Now, the show’s producer
Holly Christensen and another fellow Jim Cross heard me and lined it up for me to make a record;
‘Cry Baby,” it was called. For Klick records, yeah. I recorded it with the George Rank Orchestra. On
the other side was this instrumental, ‘Tic Toe Melody.’ You won’t find that record. I don’t even have
a copy. It got some play on the show and did okay, locally.”
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Meanwhile at DePaul, Pizani met Frank Calzaretta (lead vocals). “He had a group with his brother
Tony (tenor) and a couple of other guys [Bill Melshimer (baritone) and Jerry Oleski (bass)] that he
called the Highlights. They’d do hops and high school dances. I knew a Frank McNulty [later, music
coordinator for the “Oprah Wmfrey Show”] and had done some demos for him. He had this song
he wanted me to do called ‘Jin gle-Lo;’ with all kinds of complex parts. I told him, ‘I know this group
and together I think we can do a good number on it.’ So we went downstairs in the hallway of WGN
Studios. There was this great echolike chamber sound and with the help of Joe Scotti on piano we
did a take on the song right there in this hallway on Michigan Avenue. Scotti had cerebral palsy. He
was a genius, but he’d hit the wrong notes; he couldn’t help it. McNulty said, ‘This is great’ and took
the tape around. He brought it to Bally Records, and they liked it and wanted to sign us up, immediately.
Immediately! It was all happening fast.
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“Now, from my way of looking at it, this was the beginning of the end for the Highlights. Frank
[Calzaretta] wanted to sign as a group, without me, Frank Pizani. There was some friction as to who
was going to sing lead and all that, but we did sign up. Unfortunately, looking back, we had a really big
hit record with ‘City of Angels’, the very first thing we cut. The group was still not happy. They wanted
to be their own group, not some back-up for me. So the fellows’ parents got a lawyer, and they took the
name away. They then approached the label and me and said that if I wanted to record with them I’d
have to work for them. I wasn’t happy with this and left.. . . Ah, what are ya gonna do? Even if we had
our problems most of the guys were still underage and in high school so we wouldn’t have been able to
travel or work the night clubs. Hey, it wasn’t meant to be”
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Bally had “To Be With You,” with Frank singing lead, in the can and issued it posthumously. It charted
(#84, 1957). Pizani was signed on as a solo act and charted with “Angry” (#70, 1957). “Indiana Style,”
the first and only Pizani-less Highlights record, was released during the summer of 1957. It bombed
and the group broke up. Pizani, meanwhile, went into the service. “When I returned, Bally Records
was gone. The other guys, well, they finished their schooling and college and got 9-to-5 jobs. Jerry,
he’s an insurance salesman. Billy is a high school coach. Tony works at Ditka’s [a night spot owned
by former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka] as their entertainment director. His brother, Tony is off
doing business type stuff somewhere.
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Before his momentary retirement, Pizani had a few singles issued (“Wanna Dance” for Alton and Warwick
and “You’re Breakin’ My Heart” for Carlton) and then returned to college to complete the requirements
for his teaching certificate. For years in the ’60s and ’70s, he taught in Chicago’s grammar schools. Most
recently, Frank appeared in a number of local TV commercials, worked as a comedian, and for some years
was the Vice President of Carl Bonedfede’s Chi-Town Records. The label and Pizani’s own Happyday label
released a few Pizani obscurities [“Fighting Jane,” “ILove You Papa”…]. In the 80s, he signed up with Ron
Smith’s Look-a-Likes, as a Tony Bennett imitator. In that capacity he briefly appeared in the Rick
Springfield flick Hard to Hard (1984) crooning–yeah, you guessed it–“I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”
They didn’t even included me on the soundtrack album. That Springfield, he was an ass.”
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Piazni also heads Custom Phone Announcements, a firm that creates personalized celebrity impersonation
messages. Their moto: “We Touch Tone Your Funny Bone.”