Moving once more to Chicago, Fontane appeared on television shows such as "Teen Town", "The Tony Fontane Show", and "Top Tunes With Trendler". He appeared on the shows of Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen, Paul Whiteman, and Eddie Bracken, and became a sought-after nightclub and Las Vegas act. A recording contract with Mercury Records led to his hit single, "Cold, Cold, Heart" (Mercury 5693) in November 1951. While Tony Bennett took the song to #1 on the pop chart that year, Fontane's version of the song reached #28 on the Hit Parade, surpassing the version by Hank Williams, who wrote the song.