This year Johnny Maestro joins the 50+ Club, among the handful of performers still active after 50-years.
In 1958, Johnny Maestro began recording with the Crests: Sixteen Candles, Step By Step,
The Angels Listened In, Six Nights A Week and Trouble In Paradise. The group disbanded in 1962.and Johnny began working with The Del-Satins. Johnny and the Del-Satins ran into the Rhythm Method, a seven-piece band.
The two were so impressed with each other that they decided to merge together thus forming The Brooklyn Bridge.
The Brooklyn Bridge has sold over ten million records and established Johnny Maestro as one of the premier vocal talents of his era.
If Manhattan were to claim its very own a cappella, doo-wop, pop, singing-dancing-comedy group, it would have to be the Del Satins.
There were no other group quite like them. The memory lingers on.
I first met this ragtag group of goofy, starstruck rock n roll wannabees at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House - a refugee camp for borderline juvenile delinquents. Singing, it was assumed, was a method to distract young boys from riflying pennies from the gum ball machine. It was in 1960, when I was in the midst of my growing success on Channel 13, and living in an apartment near the East River on East 78th Street in Yorkville. Next door was the Lenox Hill House, and across the street, our summertime swimming hole, the John Jay Park pool.
I was enticed over to pronounce my opinion on these Itialian-German-Slovak neighborhood mutts -- and we became lifelong friends. No other group is more closely associated with me than these guys. We appeared
together on Broadway, in countless night club revues, stage shows and for three years as weekly regulars on my Sunday (and later Wednesday night) television shows.
The group was formed in 1958 through a merger of two existing street corner groups, the Yorkville Melodys and the Jokers. The original members were Stan Zizka (lead), Fred Ferrara (baritone), his brother Tom Ferrara (bass), Leslie Cauchi (first tenor) and Keith Koestner (second tenor). They chose the name Del-Satins as a tribute to The Dells and The Five Satins, and built a solid following with their live performances, coming first in a prestigious New York city-wide "Battle of the Groups." (Koestner was later replaced by Richie Greene, who died suddenly at the height of their 60s success.)
Stan Zizka left in the mid-1960s, later forming Tangerine, a popular Long Island
bar band, and Les Cauchi and Tom Ferrara were drafted. The remaining members of
the Del Satins continued to play live with the addition of Johnny Maestro (former lead singer of The Crests). When Cauchi returned, they changed the group's name to The Brooklyn Bridge, and revamped their image to a bell-bottomed, long-haired, mustachioed, self-contained boy band. With the release of their horn-driven hit, The Worst that Could Happen, the boys quickly took up and mastered the trumpet and other assorted instruments. They found themselves in Las Vegas casinos opening for Carol Channing, on Ed Sullivan, among other all-new gigs.
In 1991 the Del-Satins, led by Stan Zizka, re-formed for nostalgia shows and issued an album, Still Wandering.
Although they are well remembered for their work on so many of their own records, such as Teardrops Follow Me, Best Wishes Good Luck and Goodbye, I'll Pray for You and countless others, they are most known for their work on Dion's recordings. When Dion and the Belmonts broke up, the Del Satins were chosen to be his background singers on such records as Runaround Sue, The Wanderer, Ruby Baby, Donna The Prima Donna, Drip Drop, Lover's who Wander -- 13 hit's in all with Dion.
Del Satins, backyard reunion: The Boys from Yorkville now suburban daddies, all teeth and hair -- sucking in that stomach.
Fred Ferrara (of the Brooklyn Bridge), Tommy Ferrara (of the Capris), Stan Zizka (Lead Singer of Del Satins and Tangerine) and Les Cauchi (The Bridge).
Early Del Satins: Les, Freddie, Stan, Tommy and the late-Richie Greene on stage performing their classic "Officer Krupke" number from "West Side Story."
John Mastrangelo, 7 May 1939, Brooklyn, New York, USA. Maestro led two singing groups to the Top 10: the Crests in the 50s and Brooklyn Bridge in the 60s and 70s. With the Crests, whom he joined in 1956, Maestro's voice was heard on the number 2 doo-wop classic "16 Candles" in 1958, as well as lesser hits "The Angels Listened In", "Step By Step" and "Trouble In Paradise".
Johnny Maestro & the Brooklyn Bridge
Maestro signed as a solo artist to the Coed label, the same for which the Crests recorded, in 1960, while still with the Crests (the group backed him vocally). That year he placed three singles on the charts: the Top 20 "Model Girl", the Top 40 "What A Surprise" and the lesser entry "My Happiness". He left the group and the label in 1962 and continued to record singles for Apt Records, Cameo, Sceptre and United Artists Records, with new line-ups of Crests, but none were successful.
John was absent from the national scene until 1968, when he combined two groups from Long Island, New York: the Del-Satins and the Rhythm Method, into the Brooklyn Bridge.
The 11-member self-contained unit immediately logged its biggest hit, Jimmy Webb's "The Worst That Could Happen" followed by "Blessed Is The Rain", "Welcome My Love" and "Your Husband, My Wife". Maestro continues to appear and record with a revamped Brooklyn Bridge line-up, celebrating his 50 years as a much-admired artist.
Johnny Maestro, revered as "one of the great vocalists of the rock era," can be traced back to rock n roll's inception in the1950's. As a front man for The Crests, Johnny Maestro had his first big hit with the record Sixteen Candles. Johnny then worked with the Del Satins in the mid 60s before teaming up with members of the Rhythm Method to form The Brooklyn Bridge.
On DVD:
The Pop Legends Live series takes you backstage for rare behind-the-scenes interviews with Johnny and the group. Program includes Trouble in Paradise, The Angels Listened In, Gee, My Juanita, Blessed Is The Rain, Ruby Baby, Runaround Sue, The Wanderer, Ruby Baby (reprise), Step By Step, 16 Candles, Welcome Me Love, Unchained Melody, Your Husband My Wife, Lonely Teardrops, The Worst That Could Happen, You'll Never Walk Alone.
