Song:If Ever I Should Leave You
Album:Camelot: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Anyone who reads this blog knows that I love to write about the unsung heroes of music. These are people you have heard but are unknown. Gene Merlino's claim to fame is he dubbed Franco Nero's singing in the 1967 film Camelot. Merlino's fifty year singing career was mostly in the recording studio. He was born in 1928 in San Francisco. Merlino admired Harry James so he wanted to play the trumpet. But settled on the clarinet and then the sax. After attending San Francisco State and the Eastman School of Music, Merlino took a job playing sax on Bill Weaver's radio show at KCBS in San Francisco in 1950. He eventually became the main singer. After three years, Merlino moved to Los Angeles. His big break came when he sang on Ray Anthony's 1956 TV show. There's a clip of Merlino performing on Youtube. After the show was canceled, Merlino joined Freddy Martin's band and they had a steady gig at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles. He stayed until 1963. Merlino got a job on The Red Skelton Show. And that led to working as a background singer on many TV variety shows. He got into studio work when he joined The Mellomen with Thurl Ravenscroft and Bill Lee. The Mellomen worked for Disney and many others. Merlino was also a member of the very successful Anita Kerr Singers. He remained with them until they disbanded in 1973. And that's also when he got to dub Franco Nero's singing voice in Camelot. Merlino was a part of the 1973 musical remake of Lost Horizon produced by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Unfortunately the film flopped and Bacharach and David split up. Merlino returned to studio work. His vocal group L.A. Voices were nominated for a Grammy for the 1983 album Supersax & L.A. Voices. Merlino was also featured in the 2003 PBS documentary Off The Charts about song poems. Merlino is now retired. His wife for over fifty years died in 2009. They had two kids. And his story makes Gene Merlino an unsung hero of music. Here's Gene Merlino performing If Ever I Should Leave You as it appeared in the 1967 film Camelot. The soundtrack is available as a digital download.
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