Nicky DeMatteo was born on October 15, 1941 in South Philadelphia, where he started singing at the age of 2-1/2 at St. Agnes’s Hospital. Laid low by double pneumonia and pleurisy, he would have died had it not been for penicillin, which had just been released from military to civilian use. The nuns at the hospitall told his parents that Nicky was serenading the children’s ward with his precocious rendition of Marsey Dotes.
He started serious lessons when recruiters came looking for talented performers in his talent-filled South Philadelphia neighborhood at 12th and Reed. By the age of 10, he was on the local Philadelphia Horn & Hardart Children’s Hour on WCAU Channel 10, hosted by Stan Lee Broza and produced by his dynamic wife Esther.
Nicky won the Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts at the age of 15, moved on to the Arthur Godfrey Morning Show and would have appeared on the culminating contest show, the Wednesday night Arthur Godfrey and Friends had his age not interfered. Godfrey insisted that performers be at least 16 and at the age of 15 years 4 months Nicky was too young. When caught, he was kicked off the show.
Nicky DeMatteo’s first recording was for Ace Records in 1957, then Paris Records in early 1959 and finally two releases on Guyden in October 1959 and October 1960.
The first, “Suddenly” (Guyden 2024) was the only Top 100 record of any Nicky DeMatteo release, getting into the 70s in Cash Box. As a result, Nicky went on the same tour that the year before resulted in the deaths of the Big Bopper, Richie Valens and Buddy Holly. The tour started in Chicago in February and was 31 stops, sleeping on the bus except for maybe six or seven nights they got to stay in hotels.
The Guyden records were produced by Norman Baker, who later opened the Baker Studio above the notorious Oasis Motel in Camden, New Jersey.
Nicky interrupted his career to go to college, where he was Tony in an award-winning performance of “West Side Story” and Birdie in “Bye Bye Birdie.” He started teaching but went back to music full time and from 1970 has had a long string of piano-singing gigs throughout the Delaware Valley and a slew of releases on labels like End, ABC Paramount, Kelso, Axel, and 20th Century Fox.
Wednesday nights he performs from 7:30 to 11 at the Links in Marlton and still teaches piano.
