Frank Virtue

About

Frank Virtue (born on January 21, 1923 - died June 11, 1994) was an American musician of Italian descent (his family migrated from Abruzzo - a region of central Italy - to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). He played the violin as a child and took up the guitar and the double bass as a teenager. He continued with the latter as a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra and studied orchestration at Temple University. He enlisted in the Navy in 1945 and became bandleader of the Regular Navy Dance Band in Bainbridge, Maryland. He was discharged in 1946 because his father, who had been diagnosed with cancer, could no longer support his family. Virtue considered putting together a big band but, due to financial constraints, assembled an amplified trio instead, with Ralph Frederico on the piano and Steve Rossi on the guitar. Virtue named the band the Virtuoso Trio after their formation in 1947. In 1958, he was founder member of American rock 'n' roll band The Virtues from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their first single Guitar Boogie Shuffle (a re-arrangement of Arthur Smith's Guitar Boogie) became a hit in 1958. Later singles did not become succesful, however, and towards the end of 1962, Virtue disbanded the group and pursued a career as a record producer and recording engineer. His studio, Virtue Recording Studios (Virtue Studios), located at 1618 N. Broad St., was one of the top studios in Philadelphia for a number of years until closing in the early 1980s. His original studio, in the basement of his house on Fayette Street, was where Guitar Boogie Shuffle was originally recorded.