JIMMY & THE CRESTONES.
-New Girl On My Block/Angel Maureen. Maria Records-1964.
From left to right: Jimmy Appollo, Lead; Dennis Smith, 1st Tenor; Ralph Circelli, Baritone; Joe Foti, 2nd Tenor; Harvey Tchiekovsky, Bass.from the Bronx, N.Y.; The songs:_New Girl On My Block/Angel Maureen(Maureen was the girl friend of the songs composer). were Produced by Al Browne & Johnny Clark.Written by Johnny Clark and Recorded: October 1962 at Anco Sound, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Or go to Youtube...
Read a brief bio of the group I receive via Email form Crestone's member Joe Foti...
"Jimmy and The Crestones originated in 1961 from a neighborhood group from Creston Avenue in The Bronx N.Y called The Doveins.. The lead singer of The Doveins was Matt Daly , with the group consisting of Harvey Katofski (Bass), Joe Foti ( Baritone/2nd. Tenor), Dennis Walsh (Tenor).. The Doveins had difficulties with the lead singer who was eventually replaced by Jimmy Appollo from Decatur Ave., Bronx N.Y., with an additional voice being added by Ralph Circelli who lived across the hall in my apartment building.. With the very tight, almost familial harmony of The Crestones, and Jimmy's unique voice we ,over many months of performing in local businesses & schools, branched out to other boroughs of New York City and some parts of New Jersey.. Our manager then was D.J. Clark who had written a song for, and about, his then girlfriend Maureen.. We picked it up, tweaked it a bit, added our own seasoning and finally cut the song in Brooklyn with Al Browne's musical support on Maria Label and was its first release.. Soon after its release we became more familiar with the music business and all its pitfalls and limelight.. In 1963 we appeared on the Clay Cole Show in Palisades Park N.J..
The experience we absorbed over the previous 2 years was evident to us and over the course of a few more months performing we found ourselves in the offices of Giant & Baum (Bill Giant/Bernie Baum/Florence Kaye) in the Brill Building 1619 Broadway called affectionately "The Mecca of the music writing business in New York City.".. Giant & Baum!! They wrote for not only Elvis but a myriad of other top stars dating back to the 1940's!!.. Well after a few demos of our talents we found out about the pitfalls of the music business.. Although our sound was as solid as it could get in the 1960's the flavor & direction of the constantly evolving music business was changing and we were then turned over to another writing team who offered us an old standard written in 1945 that they wanted to re-record and release, which we just could not quite capture, but itself eventually became a hit by Lenny Welch "Since I don't have you".. We continued as a group throughout the mid 60's but as our eventual maturing ,and the Vietnam war, entered our realm of reality, slowly Jimmy and the Crestones became a memory and a mist.. Jimmy continued his music well into 2009 when he retired, I retired from business in 2006, Denny and Ralph, sadly, passed away in the70's and ol' Harvey?.. Well he's out there somewhere-- someplace!!.
1 comment:
it was dennis walsh not smith
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