If, in the post-World War II era, the years before “The Voice” and “America’s Got Talent,” you wanted to make it as a pop singer, you appeared on radio shows like “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.” If you did well enough, bookings followed, at small clubs, and, in time, recording contracts.

If you were a stunningly handsome young baritone like Vito Farinola, you might be asked to change your name to something with more of an up-tempo swing to it — “Vic Damone,” in his case. But that was as much Americanization as was required. Thanks to the postwar ascent of a number of popular Italian-American singers — Sinatra, Bennett, Dean Martin, Perry Como — pop music had taken on a distinctly Neapolitan flavor.