Tuesday, February 10, 2009

THE MAJESTICS_The Lone Stranger



Group from Everett, MA. formed in 1956 (above picture) by Steve Catallo (Bass),Tommy Pascarella (Lead), Johnny Falzone,Tommy Guanci and Ed Rogers.

The group were formed by the fusion of two other groups,The Cresents from the far end of Ferry Street, near the Malden Line, and The Tempos from the area of Orange Court. When the dust settled The Majestics were born.


In 1959 they recorded on the Sioux Label_Lone Stranger/Sweet One.(re-released this same year on the 20th Fox label).This record had a good chance of “breaking out,” as it was beginning to, as they say ”Make some noise” in California, and Twentieth Fox showed some interest in distributing it.The group’s manager, and/or the original label “stalled” a bit in an effort to work a better deal, but this tactic apparently backfired. when they did finally get the rights to distribute the record, initial interest had past.

LISTEN 2 Sides...




In the early 60's they changed the name to The Emeralds In this time with new members as John Falzone (from the Spindrifts), Ritchie Steen, Jackie Neider, or Joe DiVirgilio and recorded songs as_ Symbol Of Love/Rose Ann/Two Purple Shadows. but the songs went unnoticed by recording companies.


In 1973 Vintage Records released as THE MAJESTICS the Emerald's demos_Symbol Of Love/Two Purple Shadows.

LISTEN...



1 comment:

Whitedoowopcollector said...

I receive this information from Tom Pascarella lead singer of The Majestics.

The “Stars of The Week” picture shows the Majestics that recorded the Lone Ranger. The members of this group are from left to right front row: Eddie Rogers and Steve Catallo. Back row left to right: Richard Steene, Joe DiVergilio, Tom Pascarella.

2. The bottom picture, just under the promo copy of the 20th Century Fox record, are actually the “original Majestics”. This group, although they are actually the original Majestics, did not record The Lone Stranger and Sweet One. In fact, they never recorded for a professional record label at all. The members of the original group are bottom row left to right, Tom Guanci and Tom Pascarella, top row left to right are. Steve Catallo, John Falzone, and Eddie Rogers. John Falzone and Tommy Guanci were replaced by Richard Steene and Joe DiVergilio thus forming the Majestics that recorded The Lone Stranger and Sweet One for 20th Century Fox records in the summer of 1959.

3. John Falzone did not write the Lone Stranger. The melody, and vocal background articulations, were emulated from the guitar part of a song recorded by the Penguins called Hey Senorita. It was a goof off kind of thing that we just kicked around with for fun and practice. At that time, there were a bunch of different words made up for it by various members of the group. However, when it came to the professional recording of the song for 20th Century Fox in 1959, Tom Pascarella wrote the lyrics, in their entirety, for the Lone Stranger that he sang on the 20th Fox recording. In addition to this, background vocal arrangements, tempo, and the musical classification of the song (from its original bluesy feeling to more of a country rock beat) were added. Thus the song was given a whole new treatment by the recording group and backup musicians.