[2] But success came slowly: by his own account, although he sang and played guitar in a number of clubs,[3] he did not begin to gain a large following for about fifteen years.

Joe Carlton was an A&R for RCA Victor Records and heard him performing in a spaghetti joint south of Secaucus.

[7] Co-written by Ray Allen and Wandra Merrell and sung alternately in English and a pastiche of Calabrese, "Pepino the Italian Mouse" tells the humorous tale of a mischievous mouse who lives within the walls of a man's home and who pesters him by eating his cheese, drinking his wine and frightening his girlfriend.

Arranged by Joe Reisman, who was Monte's longtime collaborator, the single is credited to Don Costa Productions.

[9] The "flip side" of the single featured another Italian-American hybrid novelty song called "What Did Washington Say (When He Crossed The Delaware?)."

The song presumes that George Washington was cold, tired, hungry and without a change of underwear on his famous trip.

"Lazy Mary", a remake of the Italian song "Luna Mezzo Mare", tells the tale of a conversation between a young woman who wishes to be married, and her mother.

[10] "Lazy Mary" is routinely played during the seventh inning stretch at New York Mets games (both at Shea Stadium and now at Citi Field), immediately after "Take Me Out To The Ballgame".

During the week leading up to Christmas of 2011, the show suggested or hinted that users download the song from iTunes and Amazon.

He contributed to the founding of the Lou Monte, Jr., leukemia laboratory at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, in memory of his son who died of the disease at age 21.

Monte's 1971 recording "I Have An Angel In Heaven" was highly popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s satellite radio version of the "Music Of Your Life."