This season of love can make us tongue-tied and fretful over what to say and how and when to say it. But singer Peter Oprisko doesn’t stumble over any of it. He relies on what’s tried and true.
The popular Orland Hills singer with the smooth voice has more than 2,500 songs in his repertoire including 700 love songs.
He is living proof, he says, that what he calls “the adult pop standards,” the music of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole and others, is as timeless and everlasting as true love.
Theirs are the songs Oprisko, 47, has cherished all his life and been paid to sing for the last 15 years. And the fact that he has 300-350 bookings a year (sometimes two or three in one day) is a sign to him that others love the music as well.
“Everywhere I go people want to hear ‘My Way,'” Oprisko said shortly after wrapping up a recent show with the song made popular by Sinatra in the late ’60s.
“I’m just a messenger of this type of timeless music. I’m living proof that there is still a strong demand for it. “
Oprisko had 25 engagements in January, including four performances on New Year’s Eve.
He admits to having no musical training or voice lessons, and to the fact that he can’t read music. But his fans don’t care.
“Men who can sing like him don’t come along very often. This is magic. Pure magic,” said fan Tom Hanks as he and his partner headed for the dance floor at the Willowbrook Ballroom in Willow Springs. “He is every bit as good as Sinatra.”
Hanks had driven up from central Illinois with his date to spend a recent Sunday afternoon dancing at the Ballroom where Oprisko performs with the Teddy Lee Orchestra twice each month. They will take the stage there for Valentine’s Day as well.
He expects some of his most requested songs will be sung again, including “It Had To Be You” from 1924 and “The Way You Look Tonight” from 1936.
This old music is a natural for him, Oprisko says. He grew up on it but never realized as a child that it would one day be his career. While other young singers were fine-tuning their musical talents at Indiana University, he was studying broadcast media and theater.
He worked in the radio broadcast business until the year 2000 when he decided to take a chance and pursue a full-time singing career. Although he kept the radio voice, he never went back to broadcasting.
Since 2000, he has recorded eight albums, been frequently asked to sing the national anthem at Chicago White Sox games, and had his original songs and recordings featured on television series, including “Criminal Minds” and “NCIS.”
In 2015, he was named the Chicago Music Awards’ Best Jazz Entertainer.
Although 75 percent of his performances are in the Chicago area, engagements from concerts to weddings take him elsewhere, including the Jersey shore for a Memorial Day show each year.
“I’m not big-time by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve had my moments. And I hope there are some big moments to come,” he said.
It isn’t just the music or the performing he enjoys, but also researching the old songs. He delights in sharing details with his audience. “Did you know that ‘Always’ was written by Irving Berlin as a wedding present to his wife?” he asks.
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He tells more of these stories behind the songs at tribute shows like those scheduled for April at the White Fence Farm in Romeoville.
Oprisko has no agent, not because he didn’t want one, but because agents keep telling him there is no demand for his kind of music, he said. “But obviously people do want to hear it.”
So, he skips the agent and does things his way, he says. And he appreciatively relies on the assistance of his wife, Melissa, who left her career to help further his.
They have a song: “That’s All,” first sung by Nat King Cole in 1957.
Joan Cary is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
A Valentine’s Affair
What: Peter Oprisko will perform with the Teddy Lee Orchestra
When: Feb. 14 at 2 p.m.; doors open at 1 p.m.
Where: Willowbrook Ballroom, 8900 S. Archer Ave., Willow Springs; $15 per person, tickets available at the door. Valentine’s Day dinner follows at 4:30 p.m.; cost for that starts at $40; make dinner reservations by Feb. 5.
Contact: 708-839-1000; http://willowbrookballroom.com