The Fascinators

The original members of the Fascinators came together, as did many of the vocal groups of the '50s, while singing harmonies on the street-corners of their hometown, in this case, the Ridgewood-Bedford Stuyvessant section of Brooklyn. The group -- Tony Passalaqua, lead, Angelo La Grecca, baritone, Nick Trivatto, tenor, Ed Wheeler, tenor, and George Cernacek, bass (though he was just a tenor and occasionally had to smoke cigars before appearances or record sessions in order to deepen his voice!) -- ultimately received offers from several record labels, but it was their manager, Jim Fererri, who directed them to Capitol Records. Unfortunately for the group, Capitol wanted to sign Passalaqua as a single artist, but he insisted that he would not go forward without the group. Manny Kellem, director of A&R, proceeded to set a session up with musicians Big Al Sears and King Curtis on sax, Panama Francis (from the Count Basie band) on drums, and the arranger was Sid Bass. Capitol issued three singles before dropping the group, who became so completely disillusioned by the entire process that they disbanded and, with the exception of Passalaqua, were never to record again. Passalaqua later changed his name to Tony Richards and joined a group called the Twilights. Somewhere along the way, he met Kay Twomey, a songwriter who wanted to manage his career as a solo artist; she brought him to Irwin Schuster at a major music publishing company that would later be purchased by singer Bobby Darin. He recorded as Tony Richards and the Twilights for Colpix, who issued another single by Richards as a solo artist ("Shout My Name" was the second Jeff Barry-penned song ever recorded). Richards continued working with Barry before leaving Colpix to record for Canadian American, becoming...