so, we’re italian.

and happily so.

being italian means that i must have an uncle tony.

i do.

here he is:

i always knew that tony had, in his youth, done some recording and performing under the moniker of tony penn.

no…not this tony penn:

not this one either:

the one from the first picture (there is much to be thankful for).

i remember growing up we had an old cassette of some of tony’s music. other than that i didn’t know too much.

then one day, while perusing google for any family relations, i stumbled across this listing of PRI Records. as in, Pensiero Records Incorporated.

to answer your question: no, they won’t be signing me any time soon. namely due to lack of existence.

anyhow, this was the extent of my pensiero-recording-history knowledge.

until now.

see, last weekend my mom, dad, sister and niece attended my uncle’s wedding.

not uncle tony’s wedding, a different uncle.

uncle bobby.

while there they were able to catch up with the family a bit.

part of catching up was taking a lot of pictures.

one of those pictures was this one:

notice anything?

if not…look again:

that’s right.

a gold record.

turns out, my uncle tony’s ‘big hit’ entitled A King Or A Fool (released in 1959 and again in 1961) sold 500,000 copies.

five hundred.

thousand.

WHAT?!?

family history was never a big topic with the older pensieros.

a little search of ebay yielded this gem:

and it even came with a sound byte:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

so yeah…my mind is officially blown.

i thought i’d share my fun story.

now it’s time to start getting my hands on some old tony penn vinyls.

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check it out, in general, listen in | July 8th, 2009