Don Cornell
American singer (1919-2004)
Don Cornell (born Luigi Francisco Varlaro; April 21, 1919 – February 23, 2004) was an American jazz, big band and traditional pop singer and guitarist.
Early years
Cornell was born in The Bronx, New York, to an Italian family, Cornell attended Roosevelt High School in the Bronx.
Career
In his teens he played guitar in a band led by jazz trumpeter Red Nichols. When he was eighteen, he was a vocalist in the Sammy Kaye band. He became a solo act in 1949. Between 1950 and 1962, twelve of his records were certified gold. These included the million-seller "It Isn't Fair", plus "I'll Walk Alone", "I'm Yours", and "Hold My Hand". He appeared often on television programs hosted by Perry Como, Jackie Gleason, and Arthur Godfrey during the 1950s and 1960s.
When singing at the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Kentucky, he appeared many times on the Ruth Lyons television program and was a substitute host. In 1953, he was on the TV program Chance of a Lifetime.
“Don Cornell” enters the record as american singer (1919-2004). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cornell, American and singer can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Don Cornell” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Cornell, American and singer provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q558602. VIAF identifies the subject as 250149106294468492463. The Library of Congress control number is n96055192. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919, 2004, 1949 and 1950.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Don Cornell”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Don Cornell primary sources, Don Cornell archive and Cornell research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Don Cornell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.