One of my favorite mentors was conductor Nick Perito. We first met in Las Vegas during the early 1970s when I was the music director for Perry Como’s singer/dancers. When I later conducted for celebrity singers whose sense of rubato was “random” to say it kindly, the tricks I learned from watching and hanging out with Nick saved many performances. Always sweet and kind, our friendship lasted for many years, and it was always great to get heartwarming hugs from both Perry and Nick whenever we’d bump into each other in the studios.
Nick studied at the Juilliard School of Music, graduating in 1949. He spent the 1950s as a New York City songwriter, penning hits such as “Stay with Me” and “We Are Love,” before joining Perry Como in 1963, just months prior to the end of the singer’s long-running television show.
Perito nevertheless remained Como’s closest collaborator for 40 years, a span that included countless TV specials, recordings, and tours — he also served as music director for broadcasts headlined by Andy Williams and the husband/wife duo of Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme, and over the course of his career earned a dozen Emmy nominations, earning the most acclaim for his work with the Kennedy Center Honors broadcasts. In 2004, Nick published his memoir, I Just Happened to Be There: Making Music with the Stars. He died of pulmonary fibrosis in Hollywood on August 3, 2005.