| Peter Lemongello | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1947 Islip, Long Island, New York, United States |
| Genres | Pop |
| Occupations | Singer, entrepreneur |
| Instruments | Voice |
| Years active | 1976–present |
| Labels | Private Stock Records |
| Associated acts | Walter Murphy[1] |
Peter Lemongello (born 1947) is an American singer from Islip, Long Island, New York, best known for his album Love '76, one of the first albums to be sold exclusively through television advertising. He is also the cousin of baseball player Mark Lemongello.
After spending years as a cabaret career, with several appearances on national TV (including three on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson), Lemongello hit upon the idea of creating an album to be sold exclusively on TV.[2]
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It is claimed that Lemongello is the first person to sell a million records through a television direct marketing campaign,[3] and was also the first entertainer to underwrite a television direct advertising campaign selling shares in the project to private investors.[4]
Using a city-by-city marketing strategy, he and his partners began their Love ‘76 advertising campaign on late-night TV in New York, New York on January 1, 1976 targeting all six New York metropolitan channels 70 to 100 times a week. Sales of the double album were slow at first: only 43,000 copies were purchased in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey in the first three months. Then the promoters began the same campaign in Los Angeles and Las Vegas[5] and the album began to sell in the millions, attracting widespread media attention.
The artist attracted the attention of Private Stock Records, who signed Lemongello in April 1976. His second album, released in early 1977, was less successful and failed to make the record charts. Lemongello was soon dropped from the label and concentrated on live performances, appearing at Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Lemongello has continued his career in Branson, Missouri, billed as Branson's "Italian Crooner". Most recently Peter has adopted The Great American Songbook and appears frequently across the country.
Lemongello was spoofed in the episode of Saturday Night Live that originally aired May 22, 1976, with Chevy Chase playing a singer named Peter Lemon Moodring. Chase would also invoke Peter Lemongello as an alias in his 1989 movie Fletch Lives.
The Love '76 commercial was parodied by recording artist Will Dailey in May 2009. This video captures the scene of two stereotypical show business managers coercing Dailey to appear in a TV advertisement for his new album, Torrent, so that he can recreate the success of Peter Lemongello, Zamfir and Slim Whitman. The commercial itself is a scene-by-scene recreation of the original Lemongello spot that first aired on television in 1976.