Tuesday, August 25, 2009

This Day in Music History: The Elegants and Little Star


The Elegants were formed in 1956 when a group called The Crescents broke up. Two members, Vito Picone and Carmen Romano of Staten Island, New York, recruited Artie Venosa, Frankie Fardogno and Artie's friend Jimmy Moschella. Now they had a group but no name. They saw the word "elegance" on an advertising billboard. It inspired them to name themselves The Elegants.

For their first song Vito and Artie took Mozart's "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and adapted it into a rock tune they called "Little Star." They signed with local label Hull Records but then it was leased to ABC-Paramount Records. ABC-Paramount was starting a new label. It was released on the APT Record Label and on this day in music history, August 25, 1958, it was the #1 record in the country on the Billboard Charts.

At the time The Elegants were toruing all over the country to promote the song. This ment that they didn't get any studio time to release a follow up record. As a result they never returned to the top 100 again.

They did release other records but not in time to capitalize on the momentum they had with "Little Star." While the group remained together they had obsticles to over come in the membership. Two of them were drafted into the Army. One got married and Vito was laid up for 6 months after an accident. By 1962 The Elegants broke up for good.

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