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When A Chicago Outfit Guy Wants You To Record a Song He Wrote, You Sing

By Mark Konkol | May 8, 2015 5:01pm | Updated on May 11, 2015 8:20am
 Johnny Veliotis, owner of Johnny O's, once was a singer with the stage name Johnny Powers. He recorded two songs written by a guy in the Chicago Outfit.
Johnny Veliotis, owner of Johnny O's, once was a singer with the stage name Johnny Powers. He recorded two songs written by a guy in the Chicago Outfit.
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DNAinfo/ Mark Konkol

BRIDGEPORT — Before Johnny Veliotis became a hot dog joint owner admired by foodies the world over, the Bridgeport guy was a crooner admired by his neighbors in The Outfit — that's the Chicago mob.

Veliotis, who sang ballads and jazz standards under the name Johnny Powers, was working at his hot dog stand one day when a well-dressed mob guy came in with a pal and asked him — in the friendliest way a neighborhood mobster asks a guy for a favor — to record a couple songs he wrote. 

“The guy who wrote the songs — an Outfit guy, can’t remember his name, but he was always dressed immaculately  —said, ‘Johhny O, we hear you can sing.’ I told ‘em I did a little singing. And he said, 'We’d like you to record our songs,'” Veliotis said.

The Outfit guys thought the songs, titled, "Back to Rome" and "Lovers Quarrel" would be a smash hit if Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett got ahold of them. 

"So I recorded the songs," Veliotis said. "I did a hell of a job singing but, eh, they didn’t go anywhere.”

Give a listen to Veliotis' rendition of Lovers Quarrel: