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Tommy Petillo is best known as the longtime lead singer of The Duprees, the New Jersey vocal group behind early-1960s hits such as “You Belong to Me” and “Have You Heard.” He is also a Nutley volunteer firefighter and township employee, an Army veteran, an author and a 2025 Nutley Hall of Fame inductee. One thing no source has published is a verified net worth, and this article does not invent one.
A quick clarification: he is not the New York Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito. The two are sometimes confused online, but they are different people with different careers.
Who Is Tommy Petillo?
Thomas “Tommy” Petillo graduated from Nutley High School in 1969 and served in the U.S. Army. Nutley’s own biography describes him as a volunteer firefighter and a longtime employee of the township, while earlier profiles put his service with the Department of Public Works at 25 years, from 1995 to 2020, with fire school in 1997. The township confirms the roles but not those exact dates.
Music is the through-line. The Duprees formed in the early 1960s in Jersey City, and “You Belong to Me” reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962. Petillo has sung lead for the group for more than fifty years. Earlier accounts date his arrival to 1978, after he fronted a band called Parkway in the 1970s, but those details come from secondary profiles rather than an official group history.
Beyond the Stage
Petillo has spent as much energy preserving his genre as performing it. He founded the East Coast Music Hall of Fame, which honors artists from the 1950s through the 1970s, and he formerly hosted the New Jersey television show Jersey Spotlight, which featured local musical talent. His memoir, We Need More Love Songs, covers his music career.
Tommy Petillo Net Worth: What Can and Cannot Be Said
There are no public filings, company records or interviews that put a dollar figure on his wealth. What the record does show is a mix of income that is common among long-running oldies acts: live performances by a group that has toured for decades, catalogue and streaming income from classic recordings, and the steady pay of a municipal job. How much any of those contributed, or how he is credited on the group’s recordings, is not public.
Some older profiles credit him with owning a wallcovering company. Nutley’s biography does not mention a business, and no company records were found to support it, so it is left out here. The same goes for the income ranges and pension amounts that circulate on some sites; they are guesses presented as analysis.
Nutley Hall of Fame
In November 2025, Petillo was one of eight people inducted into the Nutley Hall of Fame. It was the 11th biennial class, honored at a ceremony on November 23 at the Nutley Public Library. The induction recognizes a rare mix of careers: a nationally touring singer who also spent decades in the volunteer fire service and township work.
The Bottom Line
Tommy Petillo’s net worth is unknown, and a reliable figure would require records no one has made public. What is documented is a long career fronting a classic vocal group alongside a lifetime of local service, a combination worth more to Nutley than any estimate could capture.
Joseph Walker
Joseph writes about resilience with the steadiness of someone who's watched people close to him rebuild from very little. His tone stays even and unsentimental, even when the subject matter isn't. He's more interested in the quiet, unglamorous work of starting over than the dramatic comeback stories people usually tell.
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