Stefano Langone Sings “Ooh Baby Baby” Tribute to Motown (VIDEO)

By On 02/10/2012 · 23 Comments · In American Idol, Stefano Langone

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Stefano Langone displayed his awesome pipes when he performed Smokey Robinson’s “Oooh Baby Baby” at Carnegie Hall in New York City last night as part of a Motown tribute.

American Idol music director, Ray Chew conducted musical performances by Boys II Men, Dionne Warwick, Paul Shaffer, Melba Moore, Martha Reeves, BeBe Winans and more.

I’ve got to admit I’m feeling that! Are you? Stefano is set to release an album later this year on Hollywood Records.

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  • Anonymous

    Good job Stefano!

  • Tess

    Stefano did very well with this material…anything by Smokey is out of the park.  I think if Stefano goes for the piano bar lounge persona he may have a winner….I think I can see him making lots of dough as a retro singer in Las Vegas or other hot spots.  Modern, popular, today singer…not so much.  By the way he looks very good in a tux.

  • Anonymous

    He’s so good.  I really wish he had showed this side of himself on idol.  It may be old fashioned but he probably would have gone farther showing his pipes off in this way.  He’s better than some of the winners we’ve had and it’s a shame he couldn’t find his way on idol.

  • fuzzywuzzy

    Nice job, Stefano.  :)

  • Anonymous

    Stefano has a very soulful voice, and his r&b and hip-hop covers are very good and believable.  It’s when he falls back on coming across as a lounge singer that he fails.  IMO, this performance is verging in on that territory.  It’s odd that in some of his performances he comes across as very modern, and manages to connect with the songs, and in others, it’s like he’s putting on a show for his mother’s church friends.  

  • Anonymous

    I don’t know where he belongs in the music world,  but it’s hard to deny a set of pipes like that.  Awesome.  I hope he finds his niche and will be able to enjoy a successful and lucrative career from it.  I like him quite a bit.

  • Anonymous

    I’ve always equated Stefano with a lounge singer but I never considered it a good thing. Maybe he can make a living that way? I’m not knowledgeable enough on that side of the music industry to know.

    He certainly does have a very good set of pipes and, as others have said, I hope he can find a way to make a living with them.

  • Anonymous

    His voice is effortless,  and the song does fit his personality.

    I still don’t think he really really gets “blues” and this song has a blues and gospel base.

    He’s got to spend a lot more time (in private) imitating (or scatting) sounds of Robert Johnson and maybe diverse older stuff like Billie Holliday and get a sense of blues ironies and tonal rythems.

    He’ld take that in very very sublte ways to songs like this and into even modern songs which would never be desribed in rythem an blues in any way.

    Kelly Clarkson wouldn’t be called a blues singer but from her Brodway stuff to her more modern stuff you can hear her musical base.   Eddie Vanhalen for example brings all sorts of blues influences and riffs to his entirely different metal style.

  • Anonymous

    Nice job great voice.  I agree that he does this type of material better then I have heard his covers of today’s sound.  I will be interested in hearing his album to see what sound he goes for.  Unfortunately there is something about the way he smiles and holds himself that is off putting to me.  I think he is  a nice guy but just don’t get that vibe from his body language somehow.   I wish him success.

  • larc

    I’ve always equated Stefano with a lounge singer but I never considered it a good thing.

    Singing songs that some lounge singers might perform doesn’t mean somebody is necessarily a lounge singer.  Stefano does a particularly good job singing kinds of music that are always around to one degree or another.  That could be a better indicator of his staying power than if he were completely tied to something current but more transitory.  What’s new today will likely be gone tomorrow.  The evergreens won’t.

  • Anonymous

    I like your comments and I might add that musical trends cycle.

    There isn’t any hard written law that there won’t be more melodically sung popular songs in the future and/or with less studio poish or heavy rock beats.

    A modern day Neil Sedaka or the group Chicago ?  (both of those followed decades of increasingly harder rock and a increasinly complex jazz.  It kind o scares me to mention it, but along with the classic rock of the 1970s by the who , and the stones we had (and sedaka and chicago on the smooth side) there were also commercial successes by the Captain and Teneal (lol)  If not in the neil sedaka group.. maybe a “hey mister postman” equivalent for Stefano ?

  • Anonymous

    Love his voice, love the song, win, win!  Oh yeah, he cleans up nicely too.  Good to see young men in something other than street wear.

  • Anonymous

    He’s fluent on keyboard… If it’s professional level, I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter.  He’d be a knockout singing at the piano, away from it, and generally working the song and the audience.  And he’s stunning in a tux.

  • Anonymous

    Effortless is not a word I would use for Stefano’s singing style.  That was one of his downfalls on Idol, he always looks like he’s straining when he sings, veins popping out from his neck.

    I’ve never been a fan of his tone, and the way he strains the note…really hard for me to watch or hear.

    That being said, this performance gave me a sense of a Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons vibe, with the notes he hit.  I can see him going that kind of retro route and succeeding.  People have said, and he himself has said, he wants to go the modern R&B route, but I disagree.

    IMO this path seems more, him.  Even his name, Stefano, fits into a Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons personality.

    I have always pictured him as part of an ensemble, not as a solo.  Either a ‘boy band’ and now, early motown or 50′s singing group.

  • Chris

    Good job, he looks great. What’s missing a bit is that Motown smooth of Smokey.

  • Ringo

    Stefano’s wonderful pipes and quirky phrasing do him well here.  MoTown is suited for him -  he has one of the few voices that can do a Stevie Wonder song justice.  His voice is far too distinctive to be termed a “lounge singer”  but if he were singing in a lounge, I might be tempted to watch.

  • Anonymous

    I’ve never equated Stefano as a lounge singer merely b/c of the songs he sings. Most of the songs he covered on Idol and the tour I would not consider lounge material (from my limited classification).

    On the contrary, it’s the whole package. The presentation, the mannerisms while he performs, the delivery of the song….everything. Just as Scotty oozed country and “countrified” every cover he sang, Stefano “Anka-izes” every song he sings to me.

    The reason I never considered his lounge-act characteristic to be a good thing is primarily b/c I don’t know how well you can make a living now-a-days with that kind of shtick. But, as Tess said, maybe he can and good for him if he’s successful.

  • Anonymous

    That’s interesting you said Stevie Wonder b/c Stefano does have somewhat of the same tone. (btw, Stevie is one of my faves) But what Stefano lacks to me is the depth and emotional connection that is needed for R&B.

    Like Pia, he is a technically good singer but his singing just doesn’t move me in any way. But, obviously, that’s just me. His music may very well illicit more from other people.

  • rayni

    Wow – he did a great job!  That song offers so many opportunities to screw up and he just didn’t!  That was lovely.

  • Chris

    I think we’re the same page, with Motown there is a level deeper. I went to YouTube for the original and it feels more meaningful. He lost his girl, he’s at the end of his rope. Bruno Mars does this kind of vibe very well e.g. Grenade or It Will Rain.

    Maybe he needs his heart broken a few times, then he will get it.

  • Anonymous

    i follow what you mean by effortless.  Yeah, the words seem to come out squeezed from a toothpaste tube, which I guess was part of my feeling like he needed to listen to more blues and have the notes perhaps cascascade in a more flowing way.

    Hitting the notes, sustaining the notes…loud and clear was easy for him thats what i meant, yet as I said…thats only one part of making music

  • http://twitter.com/ladymctech ladymctech

    I was thinking the exact same thing with the Frankie Valli comparison. I just saw the Jersey Boys production in Philadelphia over Christmas. Stefano would fit right into one of the lead roles there.

  • http://twitter.com/HaleysShindig HaleysShindig

    I think the term everyone is searching for in regards to Fano is “connecting with the audience” He has a hard time doing that and Jlo was correct in pointing that out, that he needs to open his eyes and get out of his head when he sings. I won’t fault him too much on this gig, frikking Carnegie Hall, I’m pretty sure he was just doing his best to keep his nerves under control and hold it together without feinting:) 
    I think he could do well in Top 40/R&B music and he is working with some folks that can pull that out of him in RockMafia. For the record, he is way beyond “lounge singer” talent IMO.