The Classics were an American vocal group formed in 1958 in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
.
The Classics first sang together in high school; two of them had previously sung in a group called The Del-Rays. In 1959, under the auspices of manager Jim Gribble, they recorded their first single, "Cinderella"; the record
Bubbled Under the US
Hot 100 in early 1960. The follow-up, "Angel Angela", also narrowly missed the national charts, and the 1961 single "Life Is But a Dream" hit the lower regions of the
R&B Singles
The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...
chart when
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...
picked it up for national distribution, but it wasn't until they released the single "
Blue Moon" with
Herb Lance
Herbert J. Lance (June 12, 1925 – November 7, 2006) was an American jazz, blues and gospel singer, songwriter, record producer, recording studio owner and radio DJ. As well as recording several hits himself in the late 1940s, he co-wrote ...
on lead vocals that they charted a hit. The song peaked at #50.
Billboard Singles
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large out-of-home advertising, outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboard ...
Allmusic.com
The group signed with Musicnote Records in 1963 and released "
Till Then
image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...
", which became their biggest hit, peaking at #20 on the pop charts and #7
AC.
[
The group was best remembered for its ]ballads
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
, and frequently sang versions of pop standards
Traditional pop (also known as classic pop and pre-rock and roll pop) is Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known as pop standard ...
from the 1920s and 1930s. They frequently changed labels over the course of their career, and parted ways about 1966. Member Emil Stucchio revived the name to tour in the 1970s and again in the 1990s and 2000s. In the 1990s, the group was Stuccio, former Mystic Al Contrera, Scott LaChance, and Michael Paquette. Later it was Stuccio, Contrera, LaChance, and Teresa McClean. LaChance later left the group.
Members
*Emil Stucchio
*Tony Victor
*Johnny Gambale
*Jamie Troy
References
External links
Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Classics, The
Musical groups from Brooklyn
Doo-wop groups