L to R: Bob Ferrante, George Galfo, Phil Cracolici, Allie Contrera, Albee Cracolici
Members:
Phil Cracolici: - lead - replaced by Jerry
Landis (Paul Simon) 1959
Jay Trayner - lead 1959 replaced by Eddie
Falcone 1961 replaced by Ralph Lizano
Albee Cracolici - Baritone
Bob Ferrante - first tenor
George Galfo - second tenor
Allie Contrera - bass
Artist Biography by Bruce Eder
Formed in Brooklyn, NY, in the late '50s, this
white doo wop group, consisting of Al Contrera, Al Cracolici,
Phil Cracolici, George Galfo, and Bob Ferrante, scored their one
and only major national hit in 1959 with the Doc Pomus/Mort
Shuman-authored "Hushabye." The beauty of that one hit
song, however, coupled with the quality of their subsequent work
-- even though none of it ever reached a wide audience -- left an
impression among doo wop enthusiasts that lingered for decades,
leading to a comeback in the early '80s.
The Mystics' story is practically an exemplar of the best doo wop
groups, in terms of longevity and recognition in the wake of
momentary (but significant) chart success. The group had its
origins in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, a white ethnic
outer borough enclave of New York City, which also spawned such
vocal groups as the Passions, the Four-Evers, and the Classics.
The group originated as the Overons, a quintet that included Al
Cracolici (born April 29, 1936, baritone), Joe Stroble (lead),
George Galfo (born 1940, second tenor), and Bob Ferrante (born
1936, first tenor). Their original bass left the group in 1956,
and Al Contrera (born January 8, 1940) was brought in to replace
him. The new lineup worked, and when Joe Stroble left sometime
later, Phil Cracolici (born September 17, 1937) joined as lead
singer.
In 1958, they began looking for a new name and picked "The
Mystics" after a search of the dictionary. Fate took a hand
soon after when an engineer who heard their attempts at a demo
record at a local studio hooked them up with manager Jim Gribble,
who also represented the Passions. He signed them up immediately
upon hearing their clean, radiant sound, and introduced them to
Bob and Gene Schwartz, who had a label called Laurie Records,
which had already been having success with white vocal groups
from the New York area. Within two months they had a contract,
but that was where the Mystics' fortunes changed.
Bob and Gene Schwartz weren't entirely happy with the group's
first attempt at a record, "Adam and Eve," a very
pretty but perhaps slightly flat (in the hook department)
romantic ballad. The label decided to delay their debut until
they had a song that the Schwartzes considered strong enough.
Finally, Gribble took matters into his own hands by presenting
the group and its sound to the songwriting team of Doc Pomus and
Mort Shuman, and they were inspired to write "A Teenager in
Love."
The problem was that the record company thought that song was
better suited to the talents of another act they had under
contract, the Bronx-based Dion & the Belmonts. This wasn't
the last time that a song or idea for a recording would be taken
out of their hands and given to their Bronx labelmates. The
Mystics still didn't have a song to debut with, and in
exasperation, it was suggested by Gene Schwartz that Pomus and
Shuman try and come up with something similar to a then-current
chart hit by the Elegants, entitled "Little Star,"
based on a child's nursery rhyme. The result was
"Hushabye," a romantic ballad that utilized a lullaby
in much the same way as "Little Star."
"Hushabye" was released in May of 1959 and spent nine
weeks of that spring and summer on the charts, rising to number
20. It is one of those "perfect" records, exemplifying
a musical genre -- the soaring, radiant harmonies were
astonishing in their purity, which was matched by the innocence
of the song itself; the gentle support of Bucky Pizzarelli's and
Al Caiolla's clean, crisp guitars, and Panama Francis'
understated drumming meshed with the singing in ways that simply
couldn't be improved. The song was later covered by such
harmony-oriented groups as Jay & the Americans and the Beach
Boys, and has become a rock & roll standard, but the original
has never been equaled.
The group attempted a follow-up in the fall of 1959 with
"Don't Take the Stars," a livelier, even more ambitious
number showing off gorgeous multi-layered harmonies and
resplendent in an achingly catchy melody, but somehow the song
missed, scraping the lower reaches of the Billboard charts at
number 98 for two weeks before disappearing. By that time, the
group's manager and record label were bringing in other talents
to augment the Mystics' sound. Another single released early in
1960, the traditional "All Through the Night" (with a
young Paul Simon as second tenor), failed to find a place on the
charts at all, and their next single, "The White Cliffs of
Dover," featuring falsetto singing by Jay Traynor, later the
original Jay of Jay & the Americans, was another non-chart
record.
There were other disappointments for the group, mostly involving
decisions by the record company. They cut a version of "Over
the Rainbow" that so impressed Gene Schwartz that he wanted
the Mystics to do an entire album of '30s and '40s standards. The
group recorded "Paper Moon" and "Red Red
Robin" (which is lost), and then suddenly the idea seemed to
be so good that the proposed album was given to Dion to record as
Wish Upon a Star.
None of this bothered the Mystics too much, for their ambitions
were satisfied by merely being able to sing before appreciative
audiences, and they were getting to do that, regardless of the
fate of their recordings. Additionally, although their records
weren't charting nationally, the group remained popular in New
York. They did manage to take a little more control of their
recordings, in the sense that from 1960 onward, they did most of
the arrangements on their records themselves. Their lineup
changed somewhat over the early '60s as Phil Cracolici left to
pursue a solo career, and he was replaced on various recordings
by Ralph Lizano (who also wrote "Darling I Know Now"),
Eddie Shotz, and a young Paul Simon, who was then trying to get a
serious foothold in the music world. In between the demo
recordings he was making to keep a hand in the business, during
the years between his brief teenage success with Art Garfunkel as
Tom & Jerry and their later achievements as Simon &
Garfunkel, he was brought in to sing tenor and occasional lead
with the Mystics.
The group's Laurie contract ended in the early '60s, but they
continued to perform locally in Brooklyn and remained viable
until the later part of the 1960s. They broke up for a time until
the growing nostalgia boom of the early '70s resulted in new
demands for the group and their performances -- Phil Cracolici,
Al Cracolici, and Al Contrera continued the name with new
members, and in 1981, they cut an album for Ambient Sound that
was both commercially successful and critically well received. An
appearance on the PBS series Soundstage, in an installment
devoted to doo wop music during 1982, allowed them to reach a new
audience, and -- much like the Cadillacs -- the Mystics have long
since transcended anything resembling the designation of one-hit
wonders as a major force in rock & roll groups.
