The “Golden Hits Of The 50s” 

Main MenuConcept Refinement The Author..Wayne JancikGolden Age Of The 50sGolden Age Of The 60s1970s and There After

MYSTICS   

“HUSHABY“

(Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman)

Laurie 3028

No. 20    June 29, 1959

.

..

They grew up within blocks of each other and attended the same school in the Bensonhurst section of

Brooklyn.  For a brief time, bass Al Contrera (b. Jan. 8, 1940),  baritone  Albee  Cracolici (b. Apr. 29,

1936), lead singer Phil Cracolici (b. Sept. 17, 1937), first tenor Bob Ferrante (b. 1936), and second

tenor George Galfo (b. 1940) were street­ corner singers, the Mystics–a name they literally drew out

of a hat.

,

“We first went out and auditioned for a lot of record companies and didn’t get anywhere,” Contrera told

Goldmine writer Wayne Jones.  “So we figured we needed a demo record.  We went up to the Broadway

Recording  Studio at 1650  Broadway and while we were doing this demo,  Jim Gribble  happened to be

there.”  Gribble was then managing the  CLASSICS,  the  FIESTAS,  the Passions, and a  young singer

songwriter named Paul Simon.  (Paul sang back-up on “To Think Again Of You,” the “B”side of the Mystics’

third single.)   “Jim heard us, liked us, signed us, and introduced us to Laurie Records.”

. 

Laurie’s founder, Gene Schwartz, commissioned the songwriting team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman to

come up with  something teenage for the group.  “A couple of  weeks later they came up with ‘A Teenager

In Love,”‘ said Contrera.  “Laurie Records thought the song was so great they decided instead to give it

to Dion & The Belmonts…they were established.”  Doc and Mort were asked if they could hammer out

something  else for the Mystics, something teenage, something that sounded like the ELEGANTS’ “Little

Star.”  “So they went home and the very next day, we got a call that they had another song for us to do,

which was ‘Hushabye.”‘

/ 

“Hushabye,” the Mystics’ first record, was a huge hit.  “Don’t Take The Stars,” the follow-up, charted,

but not well (#98, 1959).   Even worse, the next four 45s  failed to capture any attention.   A cover version

of the Harptones’ “Sunday Kind Of Love” would be the Mystics’ last release for Laurie.  “After that,

“Contrera noted, “we decided we had to get jobs. “

.

All of the original Mystics except George Galfo found down-to­-earth employment as engineers.     AI

Contrera, Albee Cracolici,  and Phil Cracolici–when last spotted–still perform under the name that they

drew out of a hat decades ago.   A comeback album and doo-wop delight called Crazy For You appeared

on the Ambient Sound label in 1983.