my wife says he got first or near first exposure playing a small club singer on "Days of Our Lives".
He built his earlier career she heard on a much "gentler" approach to old standards 40's - 60's, but in my and my wife's opinion, does not hold a candle to Harry Connick Jr. who started out the same way, and CAN do a mean Sinatra tune.
Buble sings well, but you'd be embarrased to be listening to him down at the construction site when the boys there say "whad da he** is dat stuff, uh?"
j/k
He does sing well, I just prefer a more robust sound like Lightfoot. Q:
Do we try to hear (as men anyway) an alter ego of ourselves in our favourite music ? I dunno. I think I have many times heard, astonishingly, my own feelings and what-not in Lightfoot's music. I don't hear it in Buble.
To each his own though, and I hear he is very popular, especially in one way with the ladies, and for gentlemen who appreciate a quality standard sung well. - Steve