Brooklyn Music Boys: The Chuckles and The Bowties

The Musical Boys From Brooklyn
The Brooklyn music boys were the eight young men who comprised The Three Chuckles and Cirino & The Bowties. Some of them had been friends since childhood playing sandlot baseball. Some met in local bowling alleys, a venue of their day for playing live music dates. It wasn’t until Alan Freed, a Cleveland, Ohio based Disc Jockey turned music promoter, came to New York City that a concert style venue became available for these up-and-coming music groups he described as singing, ‘Rock’n’Roll’. [1]

The Three Chuckles Before, During And After
The Three Chuckles During their heyday, before Teddy was lead singer and after the group disbanded

The Three Chuckles originally consisted of Tommy Romano, Russ Gilberto and Phil Benti. When the group started to travel to perform, accordion and keyboard player, Benti dropped out. He preferred to stay home with his wife and children. The very young Teddy Randazzo, a talented accordion player who was 15 at the time, replaced him. Within a year, his singing talent elevated him to lead singer of the group. He was more than 10 years younger than the other members of The Chuckles.[2]

Cirino and The Bowties from doo-wop.blogg.org
Cirino (second from right)  and The Bowties from doo-wop.blogg.org

Their first hit, Runaround, happened to be written by Cirino Colacrai.  Cirino was Teddy’s childhood friend. Sometimes known as Sereno or Serino, he had such a good voice that he was encouraged to form a group of his own. He created Cirino and The Bowties. The group included Cirino Colacrai (aka Del Serino)(Lead), John Granada, Jimmy Piro and Vince “Diddy” Cipoldo.

 

Biography of a Hit Song and a Movie Appearance
In their repertoire when touring, The Three Chuckles,  sang “Runaround”, the song that Del Serino’s had written. “Runaround” became a huge hit and was eventually purchased by RCA from Serino. RCA then signed Serino as a staff writer for their regent label; here he wrote “Foolishly”. Because Serino sang and performed his demo so well, he was asked to form his own group to sing some of his tunes. Both groups appeared in the Alan Freed movie ‘Rock, Rock, Rock’ in 1956. [3]

The Bowties were eventually heard by Jack Hook and Teddy Reig of Royal Roost Records, who signed them and changed Serino’s name to “Cirino” and had him record “Rosemarie”. They recorded four singles in 1955-56 for Royal Roost Records. The Bowties had some other successes besides the movie both groups appeared in.They were on the Ed Sullivan and Jack Paar Shows. “In the late 1950s, the Bowties seemed to slowly break up, as they lost their contract to Roost, and Cirino followed other, more songwriting-type, projects. Cirino’s songs were featured in the movies “Jamboree” and “Country Music Holiday” during the late-’50s, such as “Toreador,” “I Don’t Like You No More,” and “Goodbye My Darlin’.” During the 1960s, Cirino continued to write more pop songs, some of them moderate hits”. Cirino also bought a luncheonette in Redhook, Brooklyn which became a local attraction. Cirino’s musical buddies would often stop by to the delight of the neighborhood kids.[4]

In a similar manner, Teddy Randazzo moved on, leaving The Three Chuckles. He went out on his own. Over the years, he became extremely successful. He starred in several other teen idol movies, sang, wrote over 650 songs, and produced as well as arranged his music for other singers who had huge hits from his music. All of this elevated him to a level of professional accomplishment that few people ever experience. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007. [5]

Rock, Rock, Rock
Poster from Rock, Rock, Rock found on the Mill, Creek Musings Blog Post [6]
Afterword
Totally by happenstance, or was it, on the evening on April 25, 2016 when this blog post was completed, the main Turner Classic Movies entertainment of the evening was the 1956 movie, Rock, Rock, Rock! Write it and they will come . . . .

Sources and Resources
[1] Alan Freed coined the term Rock’n’Roll
[2] The Three Chuckles
[3] Cirino and The Bowties
[4] Cirino Colacrai
[5] Teddy Randazzo was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007
[6] Mill Creek Musings: Rock, Rock, Rock Blog Post
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Expressions of Creative Passion: Introduction

Expressions of Creative Passion is a study of five musical artists. I have chosen them not for their ‘fame and fortune’. In fact, I have chosen them because at times in their careers, they had to wrestle with challenges to those most sought after goals. Instead, I chose them because, to me, they embody riches far greater than ‘fame and fortune’. I chose them for their extraordinary embodiments of creative passion.

Three are male and two are female. One was born in the 1910’s, one in the 1930’s and three are alive today. In fact, one only started singing within the last decade. One is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Another is in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Under recognized creative genius
Sister Rosetta Tharpe by Gayle Wald

 

Expressions of Creative Passion: Part One

PERSEVERANCE
AS EXEMPLIFIED BY
SISTER ROSETTA THARPE

Sister Rosetta has come to be known as the ‘Godmother of Rock ‘n’ Roll. She invented styles of singing and guitar pickin’ that were adopted by later, greater artists who got the credit. She was never inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame despite fervent attempts. She is remembered only by the most erudite of Rock ‘n’ Roll students.

creative genius behind Little Anthony & the Imperials
Clarence Collins



Expressions of Creative Passion: Part Two

HEART & SOUL
AS EXEMPLIFIED BY CLARENCE COLLINS AND
ARETHA FRANKLIN

Clarence Collins was the founder and a member of ‘Little Anthony & The Imperials’. The guys met and became famous as teenagers from Boys High School in Brooklyn, NY.

creative genius, prolific songrwriter, wonderful singer and teen movie idol
Teddy Randazzo

 

Expressions of Creative Passion: Part Three

TIMELESSNESS
AS EXEMPLIFIED BY TEDDY RANDAZZO

Teddy Randazzo, like Sister Rosetta Tharpe showed musical prowess as a child. He played the accordion so well that even his ‘hard to please’ father agreed he had talent. His songs were big successes with Little Anthony & The Imperials and sung by cross generational stars.

Keith Galliher Jr. Music
Keith Galliher Jr. Music

 

Expressions of Creative Passion: Part Four

SERENDIPITY
AS EXEMPLIFIED BY KEITH GALLIHER JR. MUSIC

Thanks to Keith Galliher, Jr. Teddy’s music is experiencing a long overdue revival and recognition. It is a great joy and will become so for many people.

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Expressions of Creative Passion: Part Four-Serendipity

WHAT IS CREATIVE PASSION? How can one define or describe it? I am writing my fourth blog post attempting to answer these questions. This clearly indicates two things. The first is my fascination with the topic CREATIVE PASSION and the second is the proliferation of information aka creative passion in American Music History between the 1920’s and the 1970’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-45_qOb8St4

EXPRESSIONS OF CREATIVE PASSION: PART FOUR
SERENDIPITY OR FOLLOWING A SERENDIPITOUS PATH
AS EXEMPLIFIED BY KEITH GALLIHER JR. MUSIC
Keith Galliher Jr. Music
Keith Galliher Jr. Music

Keith Galliher Jr. has been a Las Vegas based litigation attorney for over forty years. About five years ago, he decided to record an Eric Clapton song, ‘Wonderful Tonight’ as a gift for his lovely wife Linda. He surprised her with it. She was moved to tears when she found out that he was singing it. That is the second element of serendipity in this post. The first serendipitous piece to this path began some years ago when Clarence Collins, founder and former member of Little Anthony & The Imperials became a client of The Galliher Law Firm. So when Keith starting singing, Clarence was the logical person to seek out to help him on his new path.

 
 

Clarence Collins
Clarence Collins

Clarence brought several crucial elements to their musical union. The first was Clarence’s own immense talent and musical history. The second was the relationships and connection he had in the music industry. Important questions had to be asked and answered.

What kind of music would suit Keith’s voice best? What songwriters did he feel passionate about singing? What ideas did Clarence have? The answer to these questions led to the next step on the serendipitous path, making a connection with the right music.

 
 
 

Two Paths, Internet Radio Show
Two Paths, Internet Radio Show

In the midst of this, Keith created a two-part radio show, Two Paths. One week featured some aspect of the legal profession. Alternate weeks featured his music. The show is one of many on the streaming audio network, America Matters Media. One of the owners is Eddie Floyd. He is also a host on Two Paths which can be heard on Fridays at 10am PST. As a correspondent on another show, A.M. News, I heard about Two Paths and started listening to it. I was fascinated by both features. I called in several times and soon became a familiar voice on it as well. I introduced myself to Clarence. As they got to know me, they realized I had a keen eye for research. I became their #AceDetective, commissioned with two Music Mystery Challenges. The second one had to do with the Randazzo family. In solving the mystery, I got to know Teddy Randazzo, Jr. rather well.

 

creative genius, prolific songrwriter, wonderful singer and teen movie idol
Teddy Randazzo

Although Teddy, Sr. had died several years before Keith started singing, Teddy Randazzo was someone Clarence knew well. He was intimately familiar with his music. Teddy had written some of the songs that were ‘Little Anthony & The Imperials’ biggest hits as well as hits for other artists. For example, Shimmy, Shimmy, Ko Ko Bop, Tears on My Pillow, Hurts So Bad, It’s Gonna’ Take a Miracle, I’m on The Outside Looking In, Song Without An End. Keith was a natural for these types of songs and so Imperials Plus Records was born.

By 2015, Keith had completed two full CDs of songs featuring various artists, ‘Love Songs For Linda’ and ‘Two Paths’. Some of them were written by Teddy. Some were not. Anyone who hears Teddy’s music falls in love with it. He wrote over 650 songs, was a singer in his own right and a teen movie idol as well.

 

Imperials Plus Records
Logo for Imperials Plus Records, the company owned by Keith and Clarence

Keith Galliher Jr. wanted to work with the music of this brilliantly talented man. He had started adapting some of Teddy’s music to his style. He has created an entire CD of only Teddy’s music calling it, ‘Teddy’s Songs’. That CD has just been released by Imperials Plus Records, the company belonging to Keith and Clarence. The final song, ‘Destiny’ was recorded with special technology to include Teddy’s voice. The name says it all. It has been and is the destiny of everyone accompanying Keith on this journey to experience the magic, the passion and the ‘evergreen’ or timeless quality that Teddy’s music has. It is truly due to Keith’s passion to follow a serendipitous path.

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Expressions of Creative Passion: Part Three-Timelessness

As mentioned in CREATIVE PASSION: PART ONE, there are many motivating factors that drive the creative passion within an artist. It is a challenge and an honor to have the opportunity to study, discover and identify them. It involves listening a great deal to the work of an artist, in this case, a singer, songwriter, producer and teen idol movie star. It also involves learning as much as possible about the artist from written research. If one is fortunate enough, there are primary research sources, as well. All of these elements exist in the case of our third example.

EXPRESSIONS OF CREATIVE PASSION: PART THREE
TIMELESSNESS EXEMPLIFIED BY TEDDY RANDAZZO

Teddy was an extraordinarily talented young man who started as a teen idol. He starred in four movies including two Alan Freed Rock ‘n Roll movies. Throughout his life, and at various times, he was either primarily a singer, songwriter and/or music producer.

He began his singing career as backup in a group that combined comedy and song. He quickly moved up to lead singer of ‘The Three Chuckles’. He was electric and romantic at a microphone or in front of a camera. Despite both of those skills, he withdrew into the background focusing on songwriting and producing. He worked with some of the most popular groups in the 1950’s and 1960’s and beyond. He wrote some of the great hits for groups like ‘Little Anthony & The Imperials’. Among them was ‘Hurt So Bad’ that had great success sung by not only Little Anthony but also Linda Ronstadt. His songwriting hits included, ‘It’s Gonna Take A Miracle, ‘Tears on My Pillow’, “Goin’ Out of My Head”, and “Pretty Blue Eyes” in the 1960s. His songs were also sung by great crooners like Frank Sinatra, Steve Lawrence and many other big names in the music industry. He was driven to express his creative passion. Sharing his art with the world was more important to him than, who shared it, who sang it or who became famous because of it. It was not a short lived proposition. It was a labor of love that had timelessness sewn into its very fabric.

“Teddy Randazzo was never quite as visible as other New York-spawned rock ‘n’ roll talent of the 1950’s — to name a few, Dion was more of a star and for a lot longer, and the various members of Jay & The Americans enjoyed hits right to the outset of the 1970’s. But Randazzo had his day in the sun as a singer, and he also wrote hundreds of songs, and saw many dozens of recordings of the best of his work.”[1]

The above quote from the YouTube comment about Teddy is shortsighted. In my opinion, he was extraordinarily talented as a singer. The fact that he did not experience the short lived singing fame that Dion or Jay and The Americans does not reflect a superior talent on their parts. In fact, I believe Teddy had more talent than all of his contemporaries. His focusing on writing rather than singing was to everyone’s benefit. Who remembers either Dion or Jay and The Americans now? Did they write hundreds of songs that other singers recorded, had and are still having success with singing today? Teddy Randazzo’s songs were sung by some of the greatest pop singers over decades and are sought after today. In fact, the tribute CD sung by Keith Galliher, Jr. has just being released.[2]

“Born in New York City in 1935, he was lucky enough to grow up in a musical family, and by 15 was a good enough accordion player to turn professional, as a member of the group the Three Chuckles, who were in the market for a new keyboardman and singer — the singing took a little time to develop, with help from his decade-older fellow group members Tommy Romano and Russ Gilberto, but when the group started recording, it was the sides that Randazzo sang on that initially hit, and by 1955, at 17, he was the frontman for the group. They had a number one hit with “And The Angels Sing”, which had a rocking beat and brought them to the attention of deejay Alan Freed, who put the group into his first jukebox movie, Rock, Rock, Rock (shot in New York, in the Bronx, actually), but also gave Randazzo a solo spot.

When Teddy finished the movie, Randazzo had decided to go solo. “He continued recording for Vik Records, a unit of RCA Victor, and enjoyed a minor success in 1958 with “Little Serenade”, and made an appearance in Freed’s next movie, Mister Rock And Roll, as well as in the 20th Century-Fox CinemaScope color production The Girl Can’t Help It, among other movies. By 1960, he’d moved to ABC-Paramount, where he had another minor hit with “The Way Of A Clown”, and in 1963 he had another small hit with “Big Wide World” on the Colpix label.”[1]

Creative Genius, Teddy Randazzo, Photo credit: Dominique Randazzo
Teddy Randazzo, Photo credit: Dominique Randazzo

“But it was mostly as a songwriter and producer that Randazzo busied himself and made his real success in the music business; he wrote some 650 songs over the ensuing decades, and saw them recorded by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Dionne Warwick. “Pretty Blue Eyes”, authored with Bob Weinstein, was a number one hit for Steve Lawrence. But it was with Little Anthony & The Imperials that he had his longest success — in addition to producing the group, he authored “Going Out Of My Head”, “I’m On The Outside Looking In”, and “Hurt So Bad” (later covered by Linda Ronstadt), among other hits.

“Randazzo became less visible as the 1960’s wore on, and in the 1970’s was largely forgotten by all except oldies fans. He remained active as a songwriter and behind-the-scenes, and did the occasional live performance to keep his hand in, but by then he was earning a good income from his annual royalties. He busied himself in local production in both Florida and Hawaii, especially the latter, and reportedly enjoyed a very happy second marriage — his son from his first marriage, Teddy Randazzo Jr., has also had a successful music career. Randazzo died in his sleep in 2003.”[1]

As I listen to the following song written by Teddy and sung by Frank Sinatra, I can’t help but feel that this is his good-bye song.The photos include those he worked with and those he was close to. I feel such sadness and such pain. But he will always be remembered, remembered for his songs. Anytime you hear one, it could have just been written. His songs are evergreen.

SOURCES AND RESOURCES
• [1] Published. May 1, 2012 on YouTube by John1948TwelveC
• [2] Soon to be released tribute CD, ‘Teddy’s Songs’ recorded by Keith Galliher Music Jr. with Clarence Collins on Imperials Plus Records
Interviews with Teddy Randazzo Jr
Interviews with Tony Page
Teddy Randazzo Bio, Wikipedia.
Bruce Eder, AllMusic Guide
Teddy Randazzo Bio, iTunes
Songwriters Hall of Fame, Teddy Randazzo Bio
Teddy Randazzo Bio, Spectropop.com
Encyclopedia of Rhythm & Blues and Doo-Wop Vocal Groups

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