Lala was born in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, to parents from Contessa Entellina. His father was Sicilian, and he left the family when Joe was a child, so he was raised by his mother on her own. Lala's mother, Janie Cacciatore, an avid dancer, took her son to as many shows as she could. Lala spoke fluent Spanish and Italian. He started out playing the drums in several Florida bands, before forming the band Blues Image. He also occasionally sang lead vocals, most notably on the song "Leaving My Troubles Behind". As a drummer and percussionist, he worked with The Byrds, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Manassas, The Stills-Young Band, The Bee Gees, Whitney Houston, Joe Walsh, Andy Gibb and many others. He played the trademark congas that drove the Bee Gees' 1976 US chart-topper You Should Be Dancing, subsequently included on the multi-million selling Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Lala provided the wide selection of percussive effects on Barbra Streisand's 1980 worldwide No. 1 album Guilty, and contributed to Whitney Houston's eponymous 1985 debut album. Throughout his career, Lala accumulated 32 gold records and 28 platinum records. He played on the movie soundtracks of Saturday Night Fever, Staying Alive, D.C. Cab, Streets of Fire, All the Right Moves, Breathless, Defiance, The Lonely Guy and Airplane!. A severe case of carpal tunnel syndrome ended Lala's career as a percussionist. It kept him from performing full-time, but he continued to record with Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, the acoustic band Firefall, Dan Fogelberg, Dolly Parton, Rod Stewart and many others. Joe Lala was the last in the drummer stool for the handful of concerts given in February 1973 by the disintegrating Byrds. He made the most of his Italian-American background and his mastery of Spanish, Cuban and Puerto Rican accents with TV roles in Miami Vice, General Hospital, Melrose Place, Seinfeld, Hunter, and Who's the Boss?, and starred in a summer replacement show named Knight & Daye. He portrayed another native of Ybor City, Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, in ', and co-starred with Andy Garcia in For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story. His films included Active Stealth, Sugar Hill, On Deadly Ground, Deep Sleep, Havana, Out for Justice, Marked for Death, Eyewitness to Murder, and Born in East L.A., plus many more. Lala also guest-starred on several animated shows; ', Pinky and the Brain, Quack Pack, The Angry Beavers, ', Danger Rangers, ChalkZone, Johnny Bravo, Ozzy & Drix, ', The Woody Woodpecker Show, and many more. Additionally, he voiced Kun Lan in the 2005 video gameKiller7. Lala was married to voice director Ginny McSwain from 1996 till their divorce in 2004. He had ultimately walked away from the entertainment business in the mid-2000s in order to care for his mother, who had dementia. Lala coached young actors at the Italian Club in his native Ybor City. Joe Lala died suddenly from complications of lung cancer on March 18, 2014, at approximately 7:00 AM, at the age of 66.
