Johnny Maestro & the Brooklyn Bridge Live in Concert 2/1/75

On Saturday evening, February 1, 1975, promoter Drew Cummings of Monsey, New York staged a 20th anniversary of Rock’n’roll concert at the Rockland Community College Field House in Suffern, New York under the Barmann’s Concerts and Productions Inc. banner. The event offered general admission seating and all tickets were priced at $6.75. By comparison, that’s just over $38 in 2024 money. The bill contained six of the most popular and beloved vocal groups from the era: Original lead singer Tony Williams and his Platters, the Drifters, the original Skyliners, The Coasters, Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Five Satins featuring Fred Parris. Television and concert host Clay Cole (1938-2010), a staple on New York’s WPIX and WNTA from 1959 to 1968, was hired to serve as emcee. In addition, the producers arranged to have the concert filmed for syndicated national television broadcast. Two one-hour cuts of the program, “20 Years of Rock & Roll”, were edited, produced, and broadcast on American television in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Apart from Tony Williams, most of whose inebriated performance ended up on the cutting room floor, all the acts – primarily in their late 30s and early 40s, gave a fine accounting of themselves for a highly enthusiastic sold-out audience of over 5,000 who were aware the event was being filmed.
As one of the greatest and most popular voices among rock’n’roll’s early vocal groups, John Mastrangelo (1939-2010) known professionally as Johnny Maestro, was the original lead singer of the Crests, who debuted with “My Juanita” and “Sweetest One” in 1957 and enjoyed a string of hits into 1961 including “Step By Step”, “The Angels Listened In”, “Trouble In Paradise”, “Isn’t It Amazing”, and “16 Candes”. In 1961, Maestro and the Crests went their separate ways, although neither enjoyed the same degree of success apart. In 1967, Maestro joined forces with the Del-Satins, who had provided the background voices on a host of successful hit records by Dion including “Runaround Sue”, “The Wanderer”, “Donna The Prima Donna”, “Little Diane”, and “Ruby Baby”. The new lineup consisted of Maestro, original member Fred Ferrara, Richie Green, and Mike Gregorio. Green left when original first tenor Les Cauchi returned to the lineup after completed his military service in Vietnam.
In 1968, the Del-Satins joined forces with a soulful, high-energy Long Island group known as the Rhythm Method. The new 11-member act adopted the name The Brooklyn Bridge, after a talent agency executive remarked that “it would be easier to sell the Brooklyn Bridge” than to book the aggregation. With Johnny Maestro’s powerful lead, the group’s strong harmonies and brass-heavy accompaniment, the Brooklyn Bridge hit #3 with “Worst That Could Happen” in 1968 and followed with “Blessed Is The Rain”, “Welcome Me Love”, “Your Husband, My Wife” and “You’’ Never Walk Alone”, racking up sales of over 12 million singles and albums by 1972.
By this time, the group downsized to a five-piece unit with Maestro singing lead and doubling on bass guitar, Jim Rosica adding his voice to the harmony and swapping between bass and rhythm guitar. Ferrara learned to play trumpet and played rhythm guitar on stage. Cauchi played keyboards, percussion and kazoo. In September of 1972, they added Lou Agiesta, the drummer in the original American touring company of Jesus Christ Superstar to the group. It was this five-man Brooklyn Bridge group that appeared at the Rockland Community College Field House in their matching open-collared yellow tuxedos. The Del-Satins and host Clay Cole were old friends, as they had been regulars on his New York-based dance party television show in the 1960s.
The group’s 25-minute set was split into shorter sequences and used in both cuts of the syndicated television program. Here, the available original footage has been presented in chronological order and the audio remixed and synchronized with the video. Opening with four of the Crests’ favorites, “Trouble in Paradise”, “Step By Step”, “16 Candles”, and “My Juanita”, Maestro plays bass guitar with Jim Rosica playing rhythm guitar. For “Worst That Could Happen”, Rosica picks up the bass from Johnny, Ferrara plays rhythm guitar, and Cauchi doubles on keyboard. The audience participation number, “Little Bitty Pretty One”, finds the group going to their previous instrumental lineup before reverting back again for the set closer, “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.
By the early 1980s, Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge had evolved again into an eight-member ensemble, headlining concerts, nightclubs, and multi-act shows and recording new material. The five members of this lineup remained the core of the Brooklyn Bridge until Maestro’s death from cancer in 2010. Fred Ferrara died after a long struggle with amyloidosis in 2011. Les Cauchi passed away in 2020. In 2024, Jim Rosica and Lou Agiesta continue to perform with the Brooklyn Bridge in concert.