Frankie Laine, the singer with the booming voice who hit it big with such songs as "That Lucky Old Sun," "Mule Train," "Cool Water," "I Believe," "Granada" and "Moonlight Gambler," died Tuesday at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego. He was 93.
Laine entered the hospital over the weekend for hip replacement surgery but suffered complications from the operation, said his friend A.C. Lyles, a longtime producer at Paramount Pictures. According to Laine's family, the singer died of cardiovascular disease.
In all, Laine sold well over 100 million records and had 21 gold records. He was hugely popular not only in the United States but also in Britain and Australia.
Even after his popularity crested with the rise of rock 'n' roll, Laine was heard for many years singing the theme to the western TV series "Rawhide," which featured a young Clint Eastwood and ran until 1966.
Most of those who remember Laine for his biggest hits would hardly know that his body of work included "Baby That Ain't Right," "Rosetta" and many other songs that were more in the style of what Laine considered his roots -- jazz and blues.
"Years before Elvis Presley, Laine brought a potent blend of blues, jazz and country to popular music," jazz critic Don Heckman said. "Rarely acknowledged in Laine's work, he sang with the easy, loose phrasing and imaginative articulation of jazz performers."
Laine started out in jazz but was sidetracked by arranger Mitch Miller, who fashioned Laine into a popular artist.
"When I told him I'd probably lose all my jazz fans [with these songs], I was right. I did," Laine told David Kilby of Australian Broadcasting Corp. "But he said I would pick up a lot of other kind of listeners, and I did, so he was right, too."
Miller produced most of Laine's hits in the 1940s and 1950s, including "Mule Train" and "That Lucky Old Sun." He said he loved Laine's voice because it sounded like "the blue-collar man, the guy who didn't know where his next paycheck was coming from."
At first, Laine refused to do "Mule Train."
"You can't expect me to do a \o7cowboy\f7 song," he told Miller. "I won't do it!"
But Miller persuaded him to record it, and it was one of Laine's biggest hits.
Though Laine was big of voice, he said he didn't like being referred to as a "belter."
