Hugo Peretti

Hugo Peretti (December 6, 1916 - May 1, 1986) was an American songwriter and record producer.

Born in New York City, as a teenager, Hugo Peretti began his music career playing the trumpet in the Borscht Belt in upstate New York. He graduated to playing with orchestras then in the 1950s partnered with his cousin Luigi Creatore to form the Hugo & Luigi songwriting team that evolved to producing records. In 1957, they bought into Roulette Records where they both wrote songs for various artists such as Valerie Carr and produced major hits for Jimmie Rodgers including "Honeycomb" (Billboard # 1) and "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" (Billboard # 3), and "Oh-Oh, I'm Falling in Love Again" and "Secretly".

Two years later, Peretti and Creatore signed a contract with RCA Records where they produced crooner Perry Como. In addition, they produced Sam Cooke and Ray Peterson and wrote the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", producing the hit for The Tokens. With George David Weiss they co-wrote "Can't Help Falling In Love" for RCA's mega-star, Elvis Presley. Peretti and Creatore also wrote the Presley hit single Wild in the Country. He and Creatore left RCA in 1964 to join George David Weiss in writing a musical about the American Civil War. Titled Maggie Flynn, it ran on Broadway in 1968.

In the 1970s, Peretti and Creatore owned part of Avco Records and then established H&L Records which they operated until retiring at the end of the decade. Among their successes were recordings by The Stylistics and The Softones. They also won the 1977 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album as producers for "Bubbling Brown Sugar."

Hugo Peretti died in 1986 in Englewood, New Jersey, aged 69.

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