BUDDY Greco used to perform with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jnr at The Sands in Las Vegas. Now the last survivor of the original Rat Pack is on tour with David Alacey, Des Coleman and Andrea Morelli, alias Frank, Dean and Sammy in the tribute show The Rat Pack Is Back.

On Sunday night, Buddy, the man who began his career as Benny Goodman’s pianist and has built up a catalogue of 100 singles and 70 albums, will be swinging into old York. Charles Hutchinson stirs the memories.

What keeps you performing at 83, Buddy?

“Because I love the business and I love the work. I’ve got 70 albums, but the fact that all my mates have gone means people want to know about them, and I worked with them many times. Having Lezlie (partner Lezlie Anders) on the show has been a huge difference; our show is about the music, but when people ask me what it was like working with Dean and Frank and Sammy…”

Well, what was it like?

“I was like a kid in a candy store, performing with those guys. It was so wonderful; I thought it would never stop. Certainly it did a lot for me, in terms of being associated with them, though I also had my own career. It was great performing with them and having fun afterward… drinking, smoking, though that was a façade. Dean Martin didn’t drink that much!

“When we were performing, the hardest thing was to make it look like it’s off the cuff, but we really had to work hard at it over many, many nights. And working with the giants, something rubs off, working with them for 30 years.”

What did you learn?

“How to perform, not to play piano or sing, but how to perform. Frank taught me that you had to get the lyrics out there and make people feel like you were singing for each of them, looking them in the eye.”

Sinatra once paid you the compliment, “Buddy can make anything swing – nobody comes close in that department”. What makes swing music so special and why does it remain so popular?

“Because it’s the best music in the world. The old songs are still the best songs – though there aren’t many of us doing swing: I’m doing it, Michael Buble’s doing it, Harry Connick Jnr…”

And you will keep doing it?

“Why should we retire? If Lezlie and I can perform and make ourselves happy and still produce good songs and make people laugh and cry, why shouldn’t we do that?”

Is it true that you have moved to England?

“Yes, and we’ve had so many lovely days since we moved here two months ago. We decided that when our agent said we had 33 concerts coming up here between now and September, ‘that’s it, we should move here’, so we’ve given up Palm Springs.

“We’re in London now and we’re going to settle in Leigh on Sea: we’ve just found a lovely flat on the coast.”

* The Rat Pack Is Back tribute show with celebrity guest Buddy Greco, Lezlie Anders and The Buddy Greco All Stars, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 7.30pm. New ticket offer: two for £10 on 0844 847 2322 or online at grandoperahouseyork.co.uk

Did you know?

Buddy Greco was the only American on the bill when The Beatles played the Royal Variety Show in 1964. “I was asked how long I thought they would last. ‘A year,’ I said. Boy, was I wrong!”