Como was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Pittsburgh. He was the seventh of 13 children and the first American-born child of Pietro Como (1877–1945) and Lucia Travaglini (1883–1961), who both emigrated to the US in 1910 from the Abruzzese town of Palena, Italy. Como did not begin speaking English until entering school since the Comos spoke Italian at home. The family had a second-hand organ his father had bought for as soon as Como was able to toddle, he would head to the instrument, pump the bellows, and play music he had heard.