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John Peter Mastrangelo was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on May 7, 1939 and went on to be a star singer in the three decades that defined rock and roll. On Wednesday, March 24th he passed away at the of 70 from cancer.
Mastrangelo was known as Johnny Maestro and his clear voice attained immortality in the words of “16 Candles” when he was the leader of the Crests.
“The Crests were a band of street kids from the Lower East Side, and quite a mix,” maestro once reported. “There were three blacks, one Puerto Rican, and I was the Eye-talian.” As most up-and- coming groups did in the 1950′s they performed at parties, hops and sang in the subway for coins in a hat. One day an impressed subway rider handed them a business card and that led to a successful audition and a subsequent record contract.
When the first 45 came out it featured “Beside You” as the A-side. However, the jocks flipped the side and hammered away at the teenage love song that has come to symbolize the 1950′s, “16 candles.”
But Maestro never stopped there. In 1968 Johnny teamed up with the Del-Satins and the Rhythm Method and the result was an amazing 11-piece band. Selling a band that size, a band member quipped:
“This is going to be difficult. We have 11 people. That’s hard to sell. It’s easier to sell the Brooklyn Bridge.” And that’s what the band was named.
Their break-out performance was on the Ed Sullivan Show later in 1968 where their blend of voices, rhythm and horns won then a huge fan base. Their hits included “Welcome Me Love,” “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and “Your Husband, My Wife.” However, it was Jimmy Webb’s “Worst That Could Happen” that epitomized Brooklyn Bridge.
But most of us baby Boomers remember “16 Candles” in the movie “American Graffiti.”
Watch it Here!
Stumble it!
On January 20, T-Mobile USA and Eric Clapton teamed up to promote a cell phone and it is now appearing in commercials around the T-Mobile’s world.
Kate McGarrigle, one-half of the great Canadian folk duo, 
Their biggest Canadian hit came from a song by Wade Hemsworth called “The Log Driver’s Waltz.” This was later made into an animated feature by the National Film Board of Canada in 1979, a couple of years before videos became popular.
The folk era lost another one of its icons yesterday as Mary Traverse die of leukemia. Traverse, the female energy of the famous trio Peter, Paul and Mary was hired by famous agent Albert Grossman, who also shepherded Bob Dylan’s career. In effect, Grossman invented a successful group when he “put a doll between two beat-niks.” In fact Grossman created a folk explosion that lasted well into the psychedelic era, or when most of the folk artists had hung up their banjos.
Most people in the world who are tied into western music have heard Denny Doherty sing. He was, after all, the lead male voice of The Mamas and the Papas, one the key groups that defined the 1960′s. Composed also of John Phillips, “Mama” Cass Elliot and Michelle Phillips, they brought a vocal explosion to radio that rivaled the best of the Motown groups. Their popularity brought them many times to that holiest of shrines, The Ed Sullivan Show, where it said Sullivan liked them as much as Elvis Presley.