During Valentine's Day weekend Jim Paravantes will be singing songs of love at Andiamo Italia West and thinking about his wife of 31 years.

Marilyn Paravantes is the reason Jim's been singing at the Bloomfield Hills restaurant since April. Four years ago, she bought her husband a karaoke machine so he could practice songs by the Gershwins and Porter in the privacy of their Canton home.

While Paravantes isn't ready to quit his day job as a salesman for a software company to croon ballads and swing tunes - he definitely has stars in his eyes.

Who: Jim Paravantes & Company present a "Frank Sinatra Tribute."

When: 8:30 p.m. to midnight, Friday-Saturday, through February.

Where: Andiamo Italia West, Bloomfield Hills. Call (248) 865-9300 for information.

The 49-year-old singer is secretly hoping to make the big time with a CD to be recorded this spring on Trident Records. It will feature standards from the 30's and 40's as well as original music by Arnold Olenich of Massachusetts.

It Had to Be You

"It's just great to be able to do this," said Paravantes. "All the songs are basically about love and continue to be popular. People listen to them the same as back then. My wife enjoys coming up to the restaurant. Most of the songs I sing, I think of her."

Don't let Paravantes, "it's all been a lot of fun" attitude fool you. He's had to practice constantly over the last four years to land the weekend gig where he's accompanied by bass player Ron Anderson, drummer Tim Mycek and pianist Wayne White.

Jeffrey Allen's book and CD, the "Secrets of Singing," taught Paravantes the vocal exercises necessary to improve his singing skills but he had to do all the work. That included taking lessons with Allen after Paravantes corresponded with him over the Internet.

"My three grown daughters think it's really cool," said Paravantes. "My wife isn't as impressed because she knows what it took to do it."

First break

It was while Paravantes was in LA on business for the Canton computer company that he had his first singing break. Paravantes' job calls for frequent travel so during the long nights he would visit the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Burbank for entertainment. One evening, pianist Joanna Ezrin asked if anyone wanted to come up and sing a song. Paravantes couldn't resist the call of the bright lights.

"People seemed to like it and it became an addiction," said Paravantes. "It's a lot of fun for me and I do it as much as I can so it fits in with my life."

Early years

Like many kids, Paravantes was forced to take piano lessons. The experience colored how he felt about performing music for many years. It wasn't that Paravantes didn't love music. He originally planned to become an on-air personality after studying broadcasting at Lee Allen's school.

He worked briefly for WPON in Pontiac on the board before deciding to enroll in computer programming courses at Schoolcraft College and Macomb Community College. The computer studies led to his job in software sales. It's all relevant to his singing today.

"The sales is getting up in front of people," said Paravantes. "It's an evolutionary process. You learn each time you do it."

Paravantes admits the first few times he sang at Andiamo Italia West were unnerving.

"It was scary," said Paravantes. "It's a popular restaurant with people accustomed to hearing good performers like Paul Anka. My wife and many of my friends were there for support. It's gratifying to get up and do it but it's also stressful. The tragedy of performance is that you depend on people's response to continue."

Have an interesting idea for a story? Call arts reporter Linda Ann Chomin at (734) 953-2145 or send e-mail to lchomin@oe.homecomm.net.