Snappy tux with a pocket handkerchief? Check. Backing of a seven-piece swinging band? You got it. Any chance he’s not Italian? Fuhgeddaboudit! That meant Allentown’s Miller Symphony Hall was ready for a two-hour Christmas show last Saturday night celebrating crooners of bygone days. Sal “The Voice” Valentinetti delivered it, baby, with Christmas songs and standards, and with a few stories mixed in.

After a medley by his band Black Tie Brass, Valentinetti made an exuberant entrance and sang an upbeat “Sleigh Ride,” followed by “The Christmas Song.” He said he didn’t believe in the quiet Yule described in the latter song’s lyrics, since he came from an Italian family that made enough noise to make the police visit.