The Elegants aka The Crescents (1) (Staten Island, New York)



Personnel :

Viti Picone (Lead)

Arthur Venosa (Tenor)

Franck Tardogna (Second Tenor)

Carmen Romano (Baritone)

James Moschello (Bass)



Discography :

The Crescents (1)
1956 - Darling come back / My tears (Club 1011/Michele M 503/Victory 1001)

The Elegants
1958 - Little Star / Getting Dizzy (Apt 25005)
1958 - Please Believe Me / Goodnight (Apt 25017)
1958 - Rain Rain Go Away (Hull LP 1002)
1958 - Still Waiting (Hull (Unreleased))
1958 - True Love / Pay Day (Apt 25029)
1959 - Little Boy Blue / Get Well Soon (Hull 732)
1960 - Green Eyes (United Artists (Unreleased))
1960 - Bluffin (United Artists (Unreleased))
1960 - Let My Prayers Be With You / Speak Low (United Artists 230)
1961 - I've Seen Everything / Tiny cloud (ABC 10219)
1961 - Happiness / Spiral (United Artists 295)
1963 - Promises / The Young Years (Limelight 3013)
1963 - A Dream Can Come True / Dressin' Up (Photo 2662)
1965 - Barbabr Beware / A letter from Vietnam (Laurie 3283)
1965 - Brink Back Wendy / Wake up (Laurie 3298)
1974 - Lonesome Weekends / It's just a matter of time (Bim Bam Bom 121)
1980 - Woo Woo train / Maybe (Crystal ball 139)

Vito & The Elegants
1965 - Belinda / Lazy love (Instrumental) (Laurie 3324)

Vito Piccone & The Elegants
1963 - Path in the Wilderness / Get on the righf track (IPG 1016)



Biography :

Vito Picone and original member Carmen Romano met in the 1st grade at P.S. 39 in the South Beach Section of
Staten Island NY. Both had a young widowed mother and just one sibling and lived two blocks away from each other, it
was inevitable that the two would become friends immediately.

As they approached the 4th grade, the NYC Board of
Education started a music program and oddly enough Vito and Carmen were chosen as two of the four trombone
players. The other two were Vinny Licastri who became Vito's best friend (who would later die of leukemia at age 16,
the night The Elegants recorded "Little Star") and Ronnie Jones.

Vito, Carmen and Ronnie would form their first singing group in 1955 with a pretty trumpet player in the band named
Patricia Crocitto (daughter of the owner of a popular night club Crocitto's).
They fashioned their sound after the red hot vocal group "The Teenagers" because Patricia had the high Frankie
Lymon sounding voice and Vito could do the bass like Sherman Barns. They called themselves "Pat Cordel and The
Crescents".

Pat Cordel and The  Crescents

After winning a singing contest, where the 1st prize was a recording contract, they recorded two songs "Darling Come
Back" written by Vito and "My Tears" written by the whole group.
One of the first white rock and roll artists to have a recording contract, they toured with such acts as The Willows, The
Fi-Tones, The Solitaires, etc. in mostly "Black" venues.
After their manager/Record Label Owner was tragically killed in Little Italy, they disbanded.
Pat became one of the June Taylor dancers (Jackie Gleason Show), Ronnie became a commercial artist. Vito and
Carmen decided that they enjoyed the entertainment world and would like to continue.

So back to their old hangout, the F.D.R Boardwalk in South Beach where at any given summer night you could find a
hundred or so teenagers including Bobby Darin or Johnny Maestro who's families had summer bungalows nearby.
They met Artie Venosa (co-wrote "Little Star" with Vito) who sang with various local groups and found he was also
interested in pursuing a singing career. He contacted Jimmy Moschello who enjoyed singing and introduced him to Vito
and Carmen.

The last piece of the puzzle was Frank Tardogno who attended New Dorp High School with Vito.Their first rehearsal
was magic, but now they needed a name. On his way to one of their rehearsal Vito passed a local tavern owned by his
other close friend Ben Sarullo (Head Coach at Monsignor Farrel High School) In the window was a cardboard placard
which read "Schenley, The Whiskey of Elegance".

He converted the word Elegance, suggested it to the other guys when he arrived, and the rest is history.

They knocked on the doors of their favorite record labels in Manhattan, giving live auditions, and were ecstatic when
Hull records the home of their idols "The Heartbeats" gave them a record deal.

The group was sub-let to ABC-Paramount and their first record "Little Star" was released on a subsidiary APT records.

    
The song sold 80,000 copies in New York with the first week, became #1 almost immediately not only in the U.S. but
internationally as well.

(Wiyh Frank Tardogna in the lead voice on : A Dream Can Come True & Dressin' Up (http://whitedoowopcollector.blogspot.com/))

The Elegants became only the second "white" vocal group to register a #1 record. (Preceded 6 months earlier by
Danny and The Juniors "At The Hop").
http://www.theelegants.net/index.html



CD :


MP3 :