Ralph Marterie (24 December 1914 – 10 October 1978) was an Italian

big-band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

leader born in

Acerra Acerra () is a town and ''comune'' of Campania, southern Italy, in the Metropolitan City of Naples, about northeast of the capital in Naples. It is part of the Agro Acerrano plain. History Acerra is one of the most ancient cities of the regi ...

(near

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

), Italy.

Life and career

Marterie first played professionally at age 14 in Chicago. In the 1940s, he played

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

for various bands. His first job as a bandleader was courtesy of the US Navy during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He was then hired by the ABC Radio network, and the reputation built from these broadcasts led to a recording contract in 1949 with

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 ...

. His highest success in the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent t ...

was a cover of "

Skokiaan "Skokiaan" is a Popular music, popular Melody, tune originally written by Zimbabwean musician August Msarurgwa, August Musarurwa in the "Tsaba-tsaba" big band-style that succeeded Marabi. "Skokiaan" ("Chikokiyana" in Shona language, Shona)

" in 1954. In 1953 he recorded a version of Bill Haley's "Crazy, Man, Crazy", which is generally regarded as one of the first rock and roll songs. His version of "Crazy, Man, Crazy" reached No. 13 on the Billboard jockey chart and No. 11 on Cashbox in June, 1953. His

recordings A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

of " Pretend" and "

Caravan Caravan or caravans may refer to: Transport and travel *Campervan, a type of vehicle also known as a motor caravan *Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together **Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop *Caravan (trail ...

" also made the Top 10. "Caravan" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

. In 1957, he hit No. 25 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 with "Tricky", and in 1957 he reached No. 10 with "Shish-Kebab". His compositions included "Dancing Trumpet", "Dry Marterie", and "Carla".

Joel Whitburn Joel Carver Whitburn (November 29, 1939 – June 14, 2022) was an American author and music historian, responsible for setting up the Record Research, Inc. series of books on record chart placings. Early life Joel Carver Whitburn was born in W ...

's pop chart research books say that Marterie's version of "The Song Of Love" peaked at No. 84 for the week ending December 26, 1955. However, ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' did not put out an issue that week and Marterie never recorded this tune; the listing is in fact a copyright trap, to prevent others from stealing Whitburn's work. He died on October 10, 1978, in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

Partial discography

Albums

*''Ralph Marterie'' (1955) *''Music for a Private Eye'' (1959) *'' Marvelous Marterie'' (1959) *''Dance Band In Town'' - Esquire Mercury MG20066 Australia *''Dancers Choice'' (1967) ''N.B''.: A separately published discography of Ralph Marterie's recordings and of his recording sessions is ''Ralph Marterie and His Orchestra'', by Ross Brethour, Charles Garrod, and Edward Novitsky (Zephyrhills, Fla.: Joyce Record Club Publications, 1992; 65 + 5 leaves).

References

External links

Ralph Marterie on the Big Band database

1914 births 1978 deaths People from Acerra Italian trumpeters Italian male trumpeters Mercury Records artists 20th-century trumpeters 20th-century Italian conductors (music) 20th-century Italian male musicians Italian emigrants to the United States {{italy-conductor-stub