The “Golden Hits Of The 60s” 

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CLASSICS

“TILL THEN”

(G. Woods, S. Marcus, E. Seiler)

Musicnote 111 6

No. 20    August 3, 1963

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Second tenor Johnny Gambale (b. Feb. 4, 1942), lead vocalist Emil Stucchio (b. Apr. 9,1944), bass Jamie

Troy (b. Nov. 22, 1942), and first tenor Tony Victor (b. Apr. 11, 1943) all lived on Garfield Place in Brooklyn.

They met on the streets, messed around on the streets, harmonized on the streets, and echoed in the

hallways and johns.  By 1958, they were singing at hops and on shows in and around their turf.  They were

the Perennials, but Sammy Sardi, the comedian and MC at the Club Illusion, couldn’t pronounce their

name, so he announced them as “The Classics” instead.

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Louie Rotunda a friend of  the group and member of the Passions,  suggested the guys audition for the

Passions’  manager, Jim Gribble.  After a listen, Jim was singing their praises to Roger Sherman of the

dinky Dart label.  Sherman signed the Classics up, and rushed them into the Bell Sound Studios on 56th

Street, where they recorded three singles. “Cinderella” sold fairly well regionally, but “Angel Angela”

and  “Life Is But A Dream” (sold to Mercury Records) stiffed.

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The Classics hooked up with Andy Leonetti, the manager of  the Paragons, who was about to set up his

own little label.  “Till Then,” a cover of the Mills Brothers’ 1944 hit, was the Classics’ first release for

Musicnote.  Success was short-lived, but sweet: the Garfield Park boys got to tour the country and stand

on  the same stage with the Dubs, THE SHELLS, and the Flamingos.

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The follow-up, “P.S. I Love You,” sold poorly.  “the record didn’t get much airplay,” Emil Stucchio explained

in an interview with Bim Bam Boom write Steve Flynn.  “It was late 1963 and early 1964, and our style of

music was going downhill.  The english sound was in.  The public didn’t want to hear ballads.”  Two more

singles were shipped, but failed to even smudge the lowest reaches of the charts.

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Emil Stucchio has since become a transit policeman, John Gambale is a commercial artist, Jamie Troy has

worked in the scrap-iron business, and Tony Victor had a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.