10 Facts About Gene Merlino

Gene Merlino was born Mario Gino Merlino on April 5,1928, in San Francisco, California, to Cesare and Teresa Merlino.

Gene Merlino's first exposure to music came from his two older brothers; John was an accomplished accordionist, and Victor took up the clarinet but did not stick with it for long.

Gene Merlino spent one semester at Eastman School of Music.

In 1950, Gene Merlino left college before graduating when he got his first steady musical job with the Bill Weaver show on KCBS radio, which at that time broadcast out of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

Gene Merlino stayed with KCBS for three years before moving to Los Angeles, California.

Anthony then started his short-lived television variety show, The Ray Anthony Show, in 1956, allowing Gene Merlino to be seen by a nationwide audience.

In 1966, Gene Merlino joined the male singing quartet, The Mellomen, with Thurl Ravenscroft, Bill Lee and Bill Cole, after Max Smith retired.

Thanks to this, Gene Merlino began to get regular work as a session singer in the various recording studios in Hollywood and Los Angeles, eventually singing for thousands of movies, television programs, radio and television commercials, audio recordings, and song poems, during a career that lasted more than 50 years.

Gene Merlino claimed to have recorded more than 10,000 song poems, primarily under the pseudonyms Gene Marshall or John Muir, and was featured in the 2003 PBS documentary "Off the Charts".

Gene Merlino died in his home in Camarillo of natural causes on January 8,2024, at the age of 95.