Hugo & Luigi were an American record producing team, the duo of

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

s and producers

Hugo Peretti Hugo E. Peretti (December 6, 1916 – May 1, 1986) was an American songwriter, trumpeter, and record producer. Born in New York City to an Italian American family, Peretti began his music career as a teenager, playing the trumpet in the Bor ...

and

Luigi Creatore Luigi Federico Creatore (December 21, 1921 – December 13, 2015) was an American songwriter and record producer. Creatore was born in New York City in 1921, the son of noted Italian-born bandleader and composer Giuseppe Creatore. After serving ...

. They shared an office in New York's

Brill Building The Brill Building is an office building at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and farther uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood. The Brill Building hous ...

, and besides their working relationship, were cousins.

Background

First coming to attention with singles released on

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

in the mid-1950s, they went on to produce

Perry Como Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer, actor, and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, from 1943 until 1987 ...

Sam Cooke Samuel Cooke (; January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964) was an American singer and songwriter. Considered one of the most influential soul music, soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred to as the "King of Soul" for his distin ...

and several other

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

artists, including the

hit record A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...

s " Twistin' the Night Away", "

Another Saturday Night "Another Saturday Night" is a 1963 hit single by Sam Cooke from the album '' Ain't That Good News''. The song was written by Cooke while touring in England when staying in a hotel where no female guests were allowed. It reached No. 10 on the ' ...

", "

The Lion Sleeps Tonight "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is a song originally written and first recorded in 1939 by Solomon Linda under the title "Mbube", through South African Gallo Record Company. In 1961, a version adapted into English by the doo-wop group the Tokens bec ...

" by

the Tokens The Tokens were an American doo-wop band (rock and pop), band and production of phonograph records, record production company group from Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York City. The group had four top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' H ...

, " Shout", a classic by

The Isley Brothers The Isley Brothers ( ) are an American soul group originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, that began as a vocal trio consisting of the brothers O'Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley in the 1950s. With a career spanning over seven decades, ...

, and "

I Will Follow Him "I Will Follow Him" is a popular song that was first recorded in 1961 by Franck Pourcel, as an instrumental entitled "Chariot". The song achieved its widest success when it was recorded by American singer Little Peggy March with English lyrics on ...

" by

Little Peggy March Peggy March (born Margaret Annemarie Battavio, March 8, 1948) is an American popular music, pop singer. In the United States, she is primarily known for her 1963 Music recording certification, million-selling song "I Will Follow Him". Although sh ...

. They co-wrote

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

's hit "

Can't Help Falling in Love "Can't Help Falling in Love" is a song written by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss and published by Gladys Music, Inc. The melody is based on " Plaisir d'amour", a popular French love song composed in 1784 by Jean-Paul-� ...

", with

George David Weiss George David Weiss (April 9, 1921 – August 23, 2010) was an American songwriter and arranger, who was a president of the Songwriters Guild of America. He is an inductee in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Biography Weiss was born in a Jewish f ...

. They also produced albums by

Della Reese Della Reese (born Delloreese Patricia Early; July 6, 1931 – November 19, 2017) was an American singer, actress, television personality, author and ordained minister. As a singer, she recorded blues, gospel, jazz and pop. Several of her singl ...

including '' The Classic Della'', a collection of pop songs based on classical themes and ''Waltz With Me, Della'', a collection of popular songs in 3/4 time. Their track, "La Plume de Ma Tante" (written by

Al Hoffman Al Hoffman (September 25, 1902 – July 21, 1960) was an American song composer. He was a hit songwriter active in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, usually co-writing with others and responsible for number-one hits through each decade, many of wh ...

and

Dick Manning Dick Manning (born Samuel Medoff (Самуил Медов), June 12, 1912 – April 11, 1991) was a Russian-American songwriter, best known for his many collaborations with Al Hoffman. Manning composed the first full-length musical to be broad ...

), reached #29 in the UK Singles Chart in July 1959. Hugo & Luigi were also onetime co-owners of

Roulette Records Roulette Records was an American record company and label founded in 1957 by George Goldner, Joe Kolsky, Morris Levy and Phil Kahl, with creative control given to producers and songwriters Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore. Levy was appointed ...

. Songs composed by the duo were often credited to "Mark Markwell", and records they produced carried their distinct logo. While at Roulette Hugo and Luigi did a series of Beautiful Music recordings of "Cascading Voices" and later "Cascading Strings."

Career

1960s

It was announced in the 30 January 1960 issue of ''The Cash Box'' that Mike Collier had taken on the role of personal assistance in the Artists and Repertoire Department. Prior to that he was working for Hugo & Luigi overseeing the promotion men working in the field.''The Cash Box'', January 30, 1960
Page 31 ''Music'', Collier Named A&R Asst. To Hugo & Luigi
/ref>

1970s

After founding

Avco Records Avco Records was a record label started by music producers/composers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore together with film and TV producer Joseph E. Levine in 1968 as Avco Embassy Records. History Hugo and Luigi had previously worked together ...

and producing artists such as

the Stylistics The Stylistics are an American Philadelphia soul group that achieved their greatest chart success in the 1970s. They formed in 1968, with a lineup of singers Russell Thompkins Jr., Herb Murrell, Airrion Love, James Smith, and James Dunn. All ...

in the 1970s, Hugo & Luigi launched a new label, H&L Records, which they ran until they retired, at the end of the decade. Peretti (born December 6, 1916) died on May 1, 1986. Creatore (born December 21, 1921) died on December 13, 2015.

References

External links

The Hugo & Luigi Sessions
Record production duos Grammy Award winners RCA Victor artists Apex Records artists American songwriting teams American musical duos {{Record-producer-stub