Vale was born Gennaro Louis Vitaliano in the Bronx, New York, to Italian immigrant parents, and grew up in the Wakefield section of the Bronx which at the time was composed mainly of Italian-American families. In high school, to earn money, Vale took a job shining shoes in a barbershop, singing while he worked. His boss, Vito Veneziano, liked the sound so well that he paid for music lessons for the boy. Vale started singing in high school musicals and at a local nightclub. Still a teenager, he left school to work in a factory as an oiler alongside his father.
Vale’s early nightclub performances led to additional shows in the early 1950s, including one lasting for three years at the Enchanted Room, a club in Yonkers, New York. When Paul Insetta (road manager for singer Guy Mitchell and hit songwriter) heard him there, he signed him to a management contract and further coached him. Insetta arranged for Vale to record some demonstration records of songs he’d written, and he brought them to Columbia Records. Guy Mitchell introduced Vale to Mitch Miller, then head of A&R at Columbia Records. Vale signed a recording contract, with Insetta as his manager for many years to come.
Jerry Vale appeared on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour in 1950 singing “It Isn’t Fair”.
Vale’s first recording with the Columbia label, with accompaniment by Percy Faith and his band, was “You Can Never Give Me Back My Heart”, reached #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming Vale’s first U.S. hit.
His version of “The Star-Spangled Banner”, recorded in late 1963, was a fixture at many sporting events for years, and the gold record Vale received was displayed at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Vale frequently sang the song at Yankee Stadium. Additionally, he owned the Daytona Beach Admirals.
He sang the Late Night with David Letterman anthem “It’s A Late Night World” on the program’s eighth anniversary special in 1990. He made cameo appearances as himself in the 1990 film Goodfellas and the 1995 film Casino, both directed by Martin Scorsese.
Vale reportedly suffered a stroke in 2002 and did not perform in his later years.
Jerry Vale died of natural causes in his sleep on May 18, 2014, at his home in Palm Desert, California. Vale was 83 years old.
As an actor, Vale appeared as himself in the films Goodfellas and Casino as well as in television series such as The Sopranos, Who’s The Boss and Growing Pains.
In the 2016 Disney animated film Zootopia, Nick Wilde finds a CD by “Jerry Vole”. Vale is portrayed by Steven Van Zandt in the 2019 film The Irishman.
In 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to Vale.