Rey is best known as a crooner, with a smooth singing style that has won him numerous fans and accolades over the length of his career. He was the first contemporary Dominican singer to sell out concerts at the San Carlos Theater and Quisqueya Stadium in the Dominican Republic.

Born to Cristrobalina Sepúlveda, Rey was adopted by her husband Secundino D'Aza, who was of Indian origin. Antolín Soler, Rey's biological father, had little or no contact with his son in his early years. Soler, who was known one of the best güira players of Dominican Republic, has since retired and established a relationship with Rey.

As a child, Rey had to work as a shoeshine boy, selling saint's images, candy, cornbread, (cooked by his mother), and tickets from the National Lottery. Early on, he would attend the Sunday concerts in the park by his hometown's municipal band, which lit his musical spark. In his teens, he lived in La Romana where his great love for music was growing day by day. He participated and won numerous talent shows and formed a rock group called Los Magnéticos, while already a member of another one called Brahmins in Santo Domingo.

Rey's eventual success was hard fought but after a star-making stint with Johnny Ventura's orchestra he became one of the Dominican Republic's most beloved singer/songwriters of the 1970s, and even recorded briefly for Fania Records. When his particular style of music fell out of favor in the 1980s, he started a very popular merengue orchestra under his own name, which scored numerous hits, among them "El Pájaro Herido", "Mi Linda Música", and "Que Es lo que Pasa Aqui?"

Currently, Fausto Rey lives in New York City and frequently performs concerts in the northeastern United States. Rey has made television appearances in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Costa Rica and Panama recently, and has been performing with Dominican singer and composer Anthony Ríos in New York, and in Santo Domingo with Puerto Rican singer Sophy.