Peter Lemongello
| Peter Lemongello | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 11, 1947 Jersey City, New Jersey, United States |
| Genres | Pop |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, entrepreneur |
| Instruments | vocals |
| Years active | 1976–present |
| Labels | , Rapp Records |
Peter Lemongello (born February 11, 1947) is an American singer from Jersey City, New Jersey and North Babylon, New York, best known for his double album Love '76, the first album to be sold exclusively through television advertising.
Lemongello spent the first part of his career as a cabaret singer, with several appearances on national TV, including 25 times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Lemongello hit upon the idea of creating an album to be sold exclusively on TV. Using a city-by-city marketing strategy, he and his partners began their Love ‘76 advertising campaign with an around-the-dial TV blitz in the New York market starting January 1, 1976, and ran commercials on all six New York channels 70 to 100 times a week. Sales of the double album skyrocketed him to fame, and the campaign entered Los Angeles and Las Vegas and the album began to sell in the millions, attracting widespread media attention.
In a New York Times profile he claimed, "Look what this country needs is a white, male superstar they can hang their hat on. They want him clean, and they want him now. That's why I'm playing it this way. I can be what they want. I can fill that void." After years of toiling in obscurity, Bob Pascuzzi bankrolled a promotional roll-out meant to generate interest from financial backers that would result in a deal for an album and concerts. To "attract they backers [the plan] was to rent out Westbury Music Fair for one show, [to] put Lemongello in the spotlight... It cost Lemongello $32,000 for the hall, the musicians, the arrangements and the publicity." With backers in place, the details of assembling the songs and personnel for the album coalesced. "He made the album - one side was completely done in the studio: the other side is a re-mixing of all his old tapes from live shows, even some that were recorded on cheap cassettes," wrote Kornheiser in the New York Times profile. Prophetically, a concert promoter opined: "He drew 2,400 people in New York, which is heavily Italian, where he spent 100 grand into commercials. For 100 grand you gotta get 2,500 curious people. Benny the Horse gets 2,500 curious people. Now he can work lounges the rest of his live. Benny the Horse can work lounges. Big deal... But can he deliver the goods? Can he deliver in Cleveland? In Chicago? In the places were he didn't buy TV time?" It turned out that he could not. And the short promotional blitz did not evolve in to a career memorable for the music. Instead it is a career memorable for its marketing and promotional gambit, which succeeded with a one-time return. It was not a sustained career so much as it was a financially successful gambit staged for a small, defined audience.
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