THE ASTRA-LITES...Tribute records

The Exotics : Gene Novell, Jerry Abramson, Lenny Melnick & Art Gatti.

The story of this group began in 1959 with Nicky & The Bell Flairs a vocal group from Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village and composed by Lenny Melnick, Art Gatti, Curtis James and their lead singer, Nick Angelili. They singing in parties and school dances but soon many members left the group and finally this broken up.

Nicky & the Bell Flairs :  Curtis James, Lenny Melnick, Art Gatti & Nick Angelili.

Lenny (as Baritone and Bass) and Art (as First Tenor) decided to form another group and recruited to two friends, Jerry Abramson (Second Tenor) and Gene Novell (Lead) and The Exotics were born.
They sang in churches, parks, building basements, subway arcades, subway station platforms and subway trains  At this time, Lenny Melnick is replaced by Stu Abramson and the group changes name again, The Astra-Lites. The group have the same manager that Paul Simon had way back then. hey recorded "Space Hop" and "It Was A Bomb" in Feb 1961 at The Brill Building . "Space Hop" features legendary guitarist Charlie Byrd on guitar and Art Gatti on vocals

The Record was released by Tribute records owned by Eddie Heller on West 53d Street, NYC. They Astra-Lites recorded two others songs : "Let's Have A Doo Wop Christmas" and "Happy Holidays" but never released.

LISTEN....