Jimmy Roselli

Anyone who is what is known as "of a certain age" and comes from the New York area and listened to AM radio will likely remember the singer Jimmy Roselli, who just passed away, amazingly at 85.  No harm was done to him other than what it seems he did to himself.

Margalit Fox, in her NYT obituary, cleverly recounts the life and times of Jimmy Roselli, a widely popular singer in the 60s whose star was going up like the rockets from Cape Canaveral.  Jimmy could do no wrong, until he did, and seemingly torpedoed his own career.  He fell off the turntable, and was only heard from by those who sought him out on purpose.  He didn't come at you anymore in a media blitz.

Adding to Ms. Fox's recount is a passage I came across in the book 'Donnie Brasco', an FBI agent's 1980s account of his infiltration of the mob in the late 70s.  Donnie Brasco was the name he used, and he kept his undercover role up for an incredible six years.  The Al Pacino/Johnny Depp movie wasn't bad, and got good notices for its actors and creators.

Reading the obituary's account of Mr. Roselli's career as well as the passage from the book, you get a sense of what a pariah Jimmy had become. Also, how far his career had fallen and what he was resorting to to keep it going. The account, related from events at the NYC's famous Little Italy San Gennaro festival, is I would think from the late 70s.

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The book 'Donnie Brasco' is written in the first person by the FBI agent Joseph Pistone, with Richard Woodley.

One time during the Feast of San Gennaro, Lefty and I and Mike Sabella were sitting in a club across the street from CaSa Bella, which Mike usually closed during the feast because he hated tourists.

Jimmy Roselli, the Italian singer, had his car parked out on the street. He opened the trunk, and it was filled with his records. He started hawking his own records out of his car trunk right there at the feast.

Mike couldn't believe it. He went outside and said to Roselli, "Put the fucking trunk down because you're fucking embarrassing me by trying to sell your fucking records here on the street."

Roselli closed the trunk immediately.
"He'll act different from now on," Lefty says.
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According to the obituary, perhaps not.

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