Addrisi, Don

Donald J. Addrisi was one half of the American pop duo, the Addrisi Brothers. The brothers were born in Winthrop, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, to a couple from Europe known as the “Flying Addrisis,” an acrobatic trapeze act. Although they sometimes claimed to have been part of the act as youngsters, Dick has later said that his father was a businessman. It soon became apparent that the brothers had musical talents, and encouraged by comedian Lenny Bruce, who heard them perform, the family headed west in 1954, performing along the way for various fraternal organizations. Bruce helped them find an agent who lured them to Calfornia in 1956 with the possibility of an audition for mouseketeers on the Mickey Mouse Club RV show. That fell through, but the family stayed on and in 1957 Richard started going to the Hollywood Professional School. The next year they performed in Las Vegas and claimed to be the youngest act ever to work there. They recorded for Del-Phi Records, then Imperial Records and Warner Brothers Records. After it became clear they were not cut out for singing careers, they switched to song-writing and had a few hits among some 22 singles. Their greatest success was “Never My Love,” a gentle ballad written in 1967 for The Association; in 2011, this song was named the second most performed song ever, according to a tabulation by the performing rights organization BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) In the 1970s they composed music for television, including the theme for the television show “Nanny and the Professor.” The brothers’ careers as a duo ended in 1984 when Don died of pancreatic cancer. Dick later moved to Argentina.