Search - Dominic Chianese :: Hits

Best known as Uncle Junior on the wildly popular HBO series The Sopranos, Dominic Chianese sings and plays on Hits, a charming debut of traditional, popular, and original songs. Listening is like stumbling upon a neighborhood Italian joint where the Chianti flows freely, pasta fills the belly, and the star songbird is known as a friend or family member. The theme throughout is home, as each piece speaks of the places, the people, the feelings, and as Robert Frost wrote, the ones who "have to take you in." That Chianese sells the songs with genuine emotional connection rather than a technically exacting voice may be a problem for vocal music aficionados, yet it's an invitation to fans of sentimental standards. In his humble liner notes, Chianese tells us, "We will all pass away: Let's sing, and let's sing heartily, before we go." This in mind, Hits stays right on course. The original "Love Is Real" opens as a moving talky, telling us that "A song of love is just a song, but love is real," and rhymes "sunrise" and "surprise" with such simplicity and conviction that it works like a child's storybook. These songs of life are for the ones taken in and the ones doing the taking. They are songs of merry hearts, common pleasures, and most especially, of home. --Paige La Grone