Wow, you don't how excited I am to see this! I've been wanting to see this appearance for decades! The Jan Peerce documentary, "If I Were a Rich Man" only showed a few seconds of the very start of this clip with Ed introducing Jan and saying "You haven't heard "Vesti la giubba" until you've heard it sung by Jan Peerce" (I'm paraphrasing from memory). Thank you a billion times for posting this amazing performance! I hope we will also see the other song Jan performed on this episode "You'll Never Walk Alone" which I've also been hoping to see for decades. Thank you again so much! I love any Jan Peerce posts!
I like Peerce a lot, especially his recordings of jewish folk songs, which he performs beautifully with his lyric voice and brilliant musicality. I recommend these recordings to everyone interested in the beautiful jewish music. But also everyone has to admit that Verismo is not suitable for his voice. Compare this to Del Monaco's perfomance on the Ed Sullivan Show and you will understand. Nevertheless Jan Peerce was a gift to the world of music and deserved his place in opera history.
Tick, Tock, Tucker's Vesti la Guibba is vocally a lot better, much bigger, & a much more open sound than Peerce's, & I am no fan, particularly, of Tucker. NeitherTucker, nor Pierce, vary their vocal deliveries enough to make either performer really interesting, but Pierce is the better musician, & was always distiguishable for the professionalism of his attack, which is worth listening to. Indeed, that is why he auditioned, successfully, at the Met, way back when. His judges weren't that excited about his voice. By the way he sounded much better, through a mike, as his full throated, live sound, was very foggy, & projected poorly. I was sorely disappinted, with his Edgardo, at the old Met.
