In 1995, the late Tony Bennett released Here’s to the Ladies, a tribute album to the great tunes from the American songbook made famous by female singers, from Ella Fitzgerald to Barbara Streisand. It won him a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance.
Sadly, I must invoke the word “late” again upon learning that Josie Falbo, a legendary singer in the Chicago area, passed away on New Year’s Day. Part of Ms. Falbo’s legend, other than her amazingly flexible voice, is that one could also describe her, paradoxically, as the greatest singer you never heard. And yet, everyone did—she dominated TV ad jingles for 30 years. Chicago was a major hub in that niche industry, and her voice was heard on commercials for a list of Who’s Who of corporate America, including McDonald’s, United Airlines, and Coca-Cola.
A native of Chicago’s Taylor Street—she even named one of her albums after that historically Italian American neighborhood—Falbo, with typical Italian modesty, chose to live and work in Chicago, where she raised a family in-between her TV commercial work, local gigs at jazz clubs or Italian festivals, or the occasional project with superstar singers like Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, and the Staples Singers.
A visit to her website (link below) gives you ample examples of the power and range of her voice.
https://www.josiefalbo.net/about-josie
Poignantly, Falbo released a traditional jazz album on her own in 2025 and was eager to promote it and tour with it until taken ill. Godspeed.
Yet her passing got me to thinking: Was she a fluke? And the answer is, “No.” Great as she was, Falbo can be seen as part of a tradition of wonderful Italian American female singers who hailed from the Windy City.
One of the bigger ones was Vivian Della Chiesa, who parlayed her win at a singing contest in Chicago in 1935 into a national career. Della Chiesa accompanied Arturo Toscanini in the early 40s and was so well-known by the public (she also sang pop tunes on the radio) that she appeared on Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theater in 1951.
Della Chiesa even sang the national anthem at the last game of the World Series at Chicago’s Comiskey Park in 1959. Imagine an opera diva in 2025 being invited to sing at a baseball game. And the old saw about “the fat lady singing”? Della Chiesa exuded movie-star glamour; she was, to use the old English/French word (which was originally derived from an Italian verb), svelte.
(Alas, Della Chiesa’s voice wasn’t able to fully inspire her hometown team, the White Sox; they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, if you were born before 1958, the Brooklyn Dodgers; that was the year the team’s owner infamously moved them from New York to LA. Boo!)
In the mid-to-late 1950s, another singer from Chicago, Joni James (born Giovanna Carmella Bobbo) had a string of Top Ten Hits, including Why Don’t You Believe Me? and Your Cheatin’ Heart. Though James was a national figure, she retired in 1964 for a reason similar to Falbo’s: family. James’s husband, conductor-composer Anthony Aquaviva, grew sick and she wanted to care for him full-time. She did so until his death in 1986.
In 1962, Chicago-born Timi Yuro (born Rosemarie Timotea Auro) had a hit with Hurt, both on the pop charts and the R&B charts. The latter wasn’t a mistake; Yuro’s voice, like Falbo’s, to those who only heard her on recordings, was often mistaken as being African American, such was the depth of her “soulful” sound.
Yet despite having a mutual admiration society with Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Quincy Jones, all of whom were awed by her vocal skills, as well as Willie Nelson (who produced her last album, and who, as a struggling singer in LA, often ate at the Italian restaurant which her father owned), Yuro—also like Falbo—didn’t quite get the national recognition she deserved.
Yet thanks to YouTube, you can see and hear all of these great Chicago ladies extending that long, solid tradition of Italian vocal genius. –BDC
Sometimes it is important to preach to the choir…..I was not aware of these artists, and always enjoy expanding my experiences. Bottom line, it’s important to just do your own thing, with gusto, the world will just need to play catch up!……Bravo Bill and this site…..
Appreciate the articles from the Italic Institute. this is information not found elsewhere. it is inspiring to learn about what we don’t know about ourselves. And reaffirm what we do know. Hang in there!
Bill Cerruti, Executive director, Italian Cultural Society of Sacramento.
It’s always a delight to learn so many more Italian Americans have shown such great talent.
Perhaps you may be interested in a man named Leo Politi
He was an author of books and was a resident of Los Angeles for many years.
Thank you as always for bringing us such interesting facts about our “heritage”
GENTLEMEN: Kind comments all. Thanks! Please don’t keep us a secret. Send our web address (such a simple one: italic.org) to friends, families, colleagues, schools, etc.
Unlike other organizations, we don’t have money in the bank for public relations, so we largely rely on word-of-mouth or members (free membership! no dues!) mentioning us.
If we are ever able to clear the hurdles of low money flow and lack of media interest, things would absolutely change. We guarantee it. Like the Roman legions of yore, we march on.