Exploring Joe Pesci’s bizarre musical career
American actor Joe Pesci has always been part tough guy, part comedian. He rose to mainstream prominence in 1980 when he starred in Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actor’.
In 1984, he starred in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time in America alongside his frequent collaborator Robert De Niro before reuniting with the actor and Scorsese for Goodfellas in 1990. His mobster performance in the latter allowed Pesci to finally win the Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actor’. Since then, he has joined forces with De Niro and Scorsese multiple times for movies such as Casino and The Irishman.
Despite these acclaimed roles giving Pesci the appearance of a cold, scary figure, he has balanced these parts with memorable comedic performances. In 1990, Pesci played one of the comically pathetic burglars in Home Alone, reprising the role in the 1992 sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Shortly after, he starred as the titular character in My Cousin Vinny, which resulted in further praise from critics.
His comedic acting abilities stem from his career in stand-up comedy, which he honed before becoming a serious actor. In the 1970s, the actor was one half of the duo Vincent and Pesci with Frank Vincent, even appearing together on Broadway. However, before that, Pesci attempted to make it as a musician, starting out as a guitarist in Joey Dee and the Starliters in the 1960s.
From a young age, Pesci expressed an interest in music, such as jazz and doo-wop, even becoming partly responsible for the formation of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons after introducing some of the members to each other. While Pesci didn’t exactly become an acclaimed musician during the 1960s, he was known in Jersey’s music scene, eventually releasing a solo record at the tail end of the decade.
Little Joe Sure Can Sing marked Pesci’s debut, although it primarily consisted of pop covers, including ‘To Love Somebody’, ‘Got to Get You Into My Life’ and ‘The Fool On The Hill’. While the songs aren’t awful, it’s safe to say that Pesci is much more of an actor than a singer. Still, that didn’t stop him from returning to music a few decades later with the comedic album Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just for You, based on his character from My Cousin Vinny.
The album featured Pesci’s best-known song, ‘Wise Guy’, which features the singer rapping lines like “It’s the bitches that’ll get yas.” Using an interpolation of Blondie’s ‘Rapture’, he puts on a tough-guy persona while referencing some of his previous movies, with lines such as “I’m a goodfella, I’ll tell ya if I did it/ Freak scenes with your wife last time I hit it/ Cuz I’m more man than you’ll ever be/ And it was probably your wife in bed with me.”
Moreover, the album contains songs like ‘Take Your Love and Shove It’, which features the unforgettable lines “Why don’t you take your love and shove it up your big fat ass / you know you’re the reason we’re through!”
Pesci’s music career didn’t end there. Despite his retirement from acting, he appeared as ‘Joe Doggs’ on Joey DeFrancesco’s 2003 album Falling in Love Again. His most recent effort is the 2019 record, Pesci… Still Singing, which sees him take a serious approach to the medium as he did in the past, accompanied by beautifully arranged string and piano arrangements.
Listen to some of Pesci’s songs below.