Legends of Doo-Wop
 
 

Their name says it all - the Legends of Doo-Wop - 'nuff said.  Four guys with a combined total of more than 160 years of group harmony experience.  No other doo-wop or acappella group out there today can boast that depth of talent.  And that experience and talent translates into one of the hottest group harmony artists today.

Each one of the groups that generated a member of the Legends of Doo-Wop could warrant its own separate group of the month feature.  Whether it be the Passions, that contributed Jimmy Gallagher, the Fascinators that contributed Tony Passalaqua, the Imaginations that contributed Frank Mancuso, or the Five Sharks that contributed Steve Horn, you could spend hours upon hours talking about the history and recordings of these legendary original group harmony artists.  Rather than do that, we feel its worth briefly reviewing the group origins of each of the members of the Legends of Doo-Wop.

Jimmy Gallagher of the Passions is one of the few Irish-American doo-wopers - or as Jimmy might say "mick-wopers."  His group - the Passions - were a Brooklyn group that included Jimmy from Red Hook (lead), Tony Armato (1st tenor), Albee Galione (2nd tenor) and Vinnie Acierno (baritone).  Gallagher, a product of John Jay High School, first performed with a high school group called the Palladians - two of the members from that group going on to be in the Four-Evers.  The Palladians never recorded but performed a lot of sock hops and proms including one memorable show with Skip and Flip (Cherry Pie fame).  "We were thrilled to be with a recording artist," recalls Jimmy.  The group would eventually break up "because we all had girlfriends - the teenage thing," says Jimmy.  He later ran into a nearby Bensonhurst group - the Sinceres - and it would be Jimmy and members from that group that would later go on to form the Passions.
 

Off the success of those recordings, Jimmy, all of 17 at the time, went out onto the road to perform including reoccurring appearances on Dick Clark's Bandstand program, as well as Alan Freed's television show and live Christmas program.  When asked if he had any idea at the time how big he was, Jimmy responds "not a clue, not a clue.  We were just a bunch of kids.  We did our street corner stuff and we sang what we thought was important to us.  And I think that's why the music has been kept alive, 'cause when you hear it today, it sounds like young people singing it.  Even when young people hear it, they can relate a little bit to it."

Tony Passalaqua of the Fascinators had an amazing career both as a group harmony artist and as a group member. The Fascinators were Tony (lead), Angelo La Grecca (baritone), Nick Trivatto (tenor), Ed Wheeler (tenor) and George Cernacek (bass).  The Fascinators were an off-shoot of another group - the Clusters.  The Clusters and Fascinators would later merge and would be discovered by Jim Fererri.  Fererri brought the group to Capitol Records which really wasn't a doo-wop label.  But liking what they heard, Capitol wanted to record the group.  Tony (who was only 17 years old at the time) recalls their first trip to the studio - it was like something you'd see in a movie!  Tony recalls that recording sessions "generally are, everyone staggers in there, half the people haven't shaved, you go in there and you record into the dead of night and everybody's just laying out all over the place and there's some half eaten tuna fish sandwiches laying there."   But this was different -upon arriving at the studio, the group was surrounded by executives from the label and made to feel like kings! It was catered with big tables and photographers.  The label spared no expense - famous studio musicians like Big Al Sears and King Curtis were brought in to work with the group on its recordings.  Tony jokes that "ultimately, what we didn't realize is that we were going to be paying for it all - they never paid us a dime!  They kept saying we never satisfied the session costs."

From that session in September 1958, the group released the now-famous Chapel Bells b/w I Wonder Who.  It was a smash hit in New York City.  At the time, Tony actually felt that the success was an imposition which cut into his personal life.  "I just wanted to work on my hot rods."  "A lot of the names that I hung out with, they were just guys - there was no awe involved - it was just a bunch of guys and you'd meet other guys.  It was very low key."  The group would go on to release two additional records on Capitol - Who Do You Think You Are b/w Come to Paradise and Oh Rosemarie b/w Fried Chicken and Mac-aronie -  neither of which broke as well as their first release.

Tony would go onto a solo career recording as Tony Richards and the Twilights (Please Believe in Me on Colpix), as Tony Richards (Shout My Name on Colpix and Caravan of Lonely Men on Carlton) and as Tony Mitchell (A Million Drums on Canadian American backed by the Angels).  Tony later joined the Dedications and was with them when they changed their name to the Soul Survivors.  However, Tony had left the Soul Survivors before they had their big hits in the late 60's.  Tony's last claim to fame was as a member of the Archies, singing on their last release Who's Your Baby.

Frank Mancuso of the Imaginations came out NYC and started singing while living there.  When his parents moved out to Long Island, Frank started looking for guys to sing with.  He finally set up a meeting at Charlie's Candy Store in Bellmore, Long Island in 1960.  Seven guys showed up and that group was pared down to five - Frank (lead), Phillip Agtuca (second tenor), Pete Agtuca (baritone), Richie La Causi (bass) and Bobby Bloom (first tenor) all from Wantagh, Long Island.  A year later, in 1961, Frank's friend Tony Sarafino took the group to Music Maker studios where they recorded Goodnight Baby, the Search is Over, Hey You and Never Let You Go.  Mickey Baker (of Mickey and Silvia fame) and King Curtis were two of the backround musicians on these recordings.  Goodnight Baby made it to #20 in New York City.  The group was able to perform off this success but "one of our biggest problems in our early days was getting work because we had a 12 year old and a 13 year old in our group," says Frank.  Unless you were Frankie Lymon, it was hard in those days to work with younger members, recalls Frank.
 

Steve Horn of the Five Sharks came out of the Bronx.  "Of course, back then everybody had a streetcorner and everybody sang on the streetcorner," remarks Horn.  "Back then, the way to get the girls was to be a singer."  Horn starting in junior high school, singing in the hallways and "anywhere there was an echo."  In 1961, the other members of the Five Sharks heard Horn singing and invited him to join the group.  The group went on to record such classics as Stormy Weather and Gloria and later in the 1960's did a bunch of acappella recordings.  Later in the 70's and 80's, Horn did bass work for a bunch of other groups and then he moved to Florida.  He sang with David Lerchey's Del Vikings, Jack Scott and Lenny Cocco and the Chimes.  He would eventually join up with Frank Mancuso and the Imaginations.

Out of all those years of singing and all that experience was born the Legends of Doo-Wop.  Steve Horn was the man that put things in motion in 1998.  He was interested in doing something new and separately called good friends Gallagher and Passalaqua - both of whom were residing in Florida at the time.   He fibbed a bit telling each that the other one wanted to start a new group.  It worked, and together with Frank Mancuso - the Legends of Doo-Wop were born.  A local promoter asked the group to do a show and from that appearance the guys knew they had something special.  "It was the kind of harmony I grew up on," says Tony.   That lead to an appearance on PBS' Doo-Wop 50 and their phone has been ringing ever since.  To date, the group has been one of the most sought after group harmony acts - their current performance schedule is a testament to that fact.  On the horizon, the group is planning some performances in Europe where fans have yet to see the group live.  "We're loving every minute of it," says Steve.  The four get along together so well - they live within minutes of each other and spend their non-performing time together as well, which leads to a tight-nit group.

In 2000 the group put out a fantastic CD - Alive (a studio recording - not live) - which included all those great numbers that they performed originally.  The quality of this recording is incredible - there's no fancy studio tricks or over dubbing - there's just two microphones - one for the lead and one for the backup singers - on each selection.  "We did it like in the 50's - everybody around one microphone - if you have a strong voice, you take two steps back - we wanted to get a true streetcorner sound," says Jimmy.  The result is pure group harmony singing at its best - a remarkable work.  Jimmy remarks that "we try to make it sound like 50's - with our own style."  The choice of selections was excellent as well - we get to hear all the great recordings performed by the guys that made them famous utilizing year 2000 technology.  A terrific product for the group harmony fan as well as anyone who remembers these songs being played on the radio when they were younger.

The Legends plan two new releases for later this year.  First, Ace Records has taken the rights to Alive and it planning on releasing it in Europe along with 5 additional bonus cuts - all brand new selections.  That should be out some time in October.  Plus the guys are currently working on a new CD.  This time around, they plan to capture some of the songs they wanted to put on the first CD including selections like Made for Lovers and You Don't Love Me Anymore, the Passions last recordings.  "We're gonna keep a doo-wop, rhythm and blues sound," says Jimmy, but they will be doing songs that most groups don't it.  That CD is due before the holidays.  We can't wait.  For the Legend continues.....

Click here for the Legends of Doo-Wop Web Site

Click here to purchase their terrific CD - Alive