ARMANDO “Buddy” GRECO, 90, on Jan. 10 at Las Vegas. Born in Philadelphia, Buddy Greco sang on the radio when he was 4 and began performing in his teens. He was vocalist-pianist-arranger for the Benny Goodman band before going out on his own. He had a minor hit in 1947, “Ooh, Look-a There, Ain’t She Pretty.”
He said he played every nightclub “at least twice” and became a second-tier star and first-rank hothead. He once pushed a piano off stage toward a patron who wouldn’t put out his cigar. He was also a notorious ladies’ man who was married five times and was a fringe member of the Frank Sinatra-Dean Martin-Sammy Davis Rat Pack when performing in Las Vegas. He recorded over 60 albums, and his most successful single was “The Lady Is a Tramp,” which sold more than a million copies.
