Sam Butera

I was very sorry to hear of the death of Sam Butera. He died yesterday at a hospital here in Las Vegas. I never got to see him perform with Louis Prima, but my mom and her friends caught the lounge act Louis and Sam did with Keely Smith and they loved them. Years later (after Louis Prima had passed away), I got to see Sam Butera and Keely Smith perform. They were wonderful - swinging music and lots of laughs. In case you aren't familiar with their music, it's a New Orleans jazz sound. Do you remember the David Lee Roth version of "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody"? That was done earlier by Prima and Butera. In fact, Sam Butera wrote that arrangement. He performed all over the world and was very popular in Europe. We're going to miss him terribly.