Real name: Luigi Antonio Schiavone

Effective period / Period of releases: 1953 - 1959

Sonny King was an Italian American trad pop lounge singer.

He was born as Luigi Antonio Schiavone on April 1, 1922, in Brooklyn, New York. Being brought up in vaudeville and trained in operatic vocals and comedy, all these elements composed the foundation of what became the quintessential "Vegas lounge singer" persona. In the 1950s he was the sidekick of Jimmy Durante, role which lasted for 28 years until Durante's death in 1980. They appeared together on The Ed Sullivan Show five times in the 1960s.

He shared the stage with jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Joe Williams and many more. King moved to Las Vegas in the early 1950s and was a fixture on the strip and local clubs until his death on February 3, 2006, from cancer. He was 83 years old.