Caterina Valente Discography

Caterina Valente (born 14 January 1931 in Paris) is a singer, dancer, and actress. She was born into an Italian artist family; her father Giuseppe was a well-known accordion player, her mother, Maria Valente, a musical clown. She had three siblings, of whom Silvio Francesco was also active in show business.

In 1952 she married juggler Erik van Aro (Gerd Eric Horst Scholz). He recognized her talent and accompanied her in her initial years of worldwide success, although they later divorced. In 1953, she made her first recordings with Kurt Edelhagen. Soon afterwards she achieved great success with songs such as "Malagueña", "The Breeze and I", and "Dreh dich nicht um" with the Werner Müller orchestra. In 1955 she was featured on the "Colgate Comedy Hour" with Gordon MacRae. In the mid-1960s, Caterina worked with the legendary Claus Ogerman and recorded material in both Italian and English that he arranged/conducted and/or composed on the Decca [1] and London [2] labels. Between 1966 and 1972 she was a frequent guest on the Dean Martin Show. In 1972, she married the British pianist Roy Budd; they had a son, Alexander, but they divorced in 1979.

In Germany she was a major performer of Schlager music. There she recorded Cole Porter`s I Love Paris i.e. Ganz Paris träumt von der Liebe, which sold more than 500,000 copies in (1954.)

Over the years, she has recorded or performed with many international stars, including Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Woody Herman, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Buddy Rich, Sy Oliver, Claus Ogerman, and Chet Baker. In 1959 she was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Valente was a regular on the short-lived CBS variety series The Entertainers (1964-65).

“A briglia sciolta”, the Italian Jazz CD recorded in 1989 and re-released in later years under the titles „Fantastica“ and „Platinum deluxe“ is Valente’s best sold CD worldwide.

In 2001, she released a new album Girltalk with harpist Catherine Michel. She is also the mother of singer Eric van Aro, Jr.

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