From:  "Gino A." 
Date:  Thu Jan 13, 2005  10:01 am 
Subject:  Scan Do - The Capris (White Group)

The Capris

By Art Turco and Bob Galgano - Record Exchanger Vol. 1, No. 5,
November-December 1970

Original members:
Nick Santamaria (lead),
Vinny Narcardo (2nd tenor),
Mike Mincelli (1st tenor),
Frank Reina (Baritone) and
John Apostol (Bass).

We would like to express our thanks to Ray Reneri of Harlows and the
Rock & Roll Revival shows for his assistance is arranging this
interview.

The following interview with John Apostol and Mike Mincelli of the
Capris was conducted by Art Turco and Bob Galgano. First names are
used to identify the person speaking.

Bob: What got you interested in singing?
Mike: The sound of harmony, harmony always intrigued me.
Bob: You came from what part of the country originally?
Mike: From New York, from Queens.
Bob: How did the group come about?
Mike: I had just started to leam harmony. I went over to a friend's
house one day. There was a song out then called Bermuda Shorts by
the Del Roys. I wanted this guy to sing the bass part and he
couldn't do it. Finally, he got it down and I decided we would keep
him. The other guys were picked up one by one. It took about a year
to get the whole original group together.
Bob: How did the name Capris come about?
Mike: We took it from the Isle of Capri.
Bob: The group formed in what year?
Mike: '58.
Bob: How did your first recording contract come about?
Mike: Through some independent producers who were setting up
interviews in the neighborhood. They came by one night, down in the
basement where we were rehearsing. They liked the tunes they heard
and we went and cut (There's A Moon Out Tonight).
Bob: What label was that on?
Mike: That was no label, they were just producers and they sold it
to Planet records.
Bob: Where was the recording made?
Mike: It was Bell Tone. We did a split session with two other acts,
the Volumes, and a chick that used to sing with the Hearts (Lonely
Nights), she was on her own at the time and the Volumes backed her
up. We each did two sides and it was all done in an hour. We did
ours in three takes and they took the first one, it came out the
best.
Art: This was first on the Planet label and then it wound up on Lost
Nite, how did this happen?
John: Planet released it and it didn't do anything and it was
canned. Then Jerry Greene and Lost Nite bought the master from the
people at Planet about a year and a half later. They released it and
it started making a lot of noise. They couldn't handle it. After
that they needed somebody bigger and Old Town records came into the
picture and made it a national hit.
Art: Was it a million seller?
John: We never got an exact count on it. Our biggest royalty payment
was for about 260,000 copies, but I was speaking to Jerry Greene and
he had a statement of 780,000 copies. It was number one on all the
charts for a few weeks which indicates that it should have been a
million seller.
Art: What was the year that it was big?
John: '61.
Art: This record came out at a time when the market was a lot
different from what you were putting out. This sound reflected the
middle '50's, is that why you wanted to do something like this?
Mike: When we recorded it in '58 the sound was very much in. The
group broke up for 2 years, the lead singer went into the Army, and
everyone went their own way. Then all of a sudden one night I'm out
driving a truck somewhere and I come home and I get a call from the
bass, and he says the record is on the Murray the K show (a N.Y.
radio program). So I went downstairs and put the radio on and there
it is! This was '61.
Art: Was the big time lag between Planet and Lost Nite or Lost Nite
and Old Town?
Mike: Between Planet and Lost Nite. Lost Nite came out around '61.
Planet was the latter part of '58 and Old Town was 61. It was a
fluke. When Jack Lacey heard it back in '58 he said it was a piece
of garbage and he would never play it. When it did start getting
played all over the country the New York jocks picked it up.
Art: Did Lacey play it?
Mike: Oh yes, he played it. We became very good friends with him too
in fact.
Art: Do you have any tapes of things you recorded in the early days
which were never released?
John: We have some dubs, Mike does, he's the librarian.
Art: Do you ever think of putting some of that stuff out?
John: No, do you want to buy it?
Mike: I have stuff in the can, things that we recorded that were
good at the time.
Art: I'd like to ask you about the ending of There's A Moon Out
Tonight, it's an interesting ending. Was it tough to work out or did
it just come naturally?
John: You arranged that didn't you Mike?
Mike: Yes.
Art: As I recall you didn't do anything like that on your other
records.
John: You mean the voice overlay, well they're all weird endings.
Art: I think that's what made the record.
Mike: I think it was the falsetto that dominated the whole record.
John: Well, the ending was definitely different.
Art: It was outstanding. I remember that when I used to hear it on
the radio I would wait for that ending.
John: They still do in the audience. When Frankie does "there's
a ..." (slow at end) and he just hesitates and everybody in the
audience goes "moon out tonight" (fast).
Art: It's interesting because a lot of people did that type of thing
(voice overlay ending), but yours is interesting because as you
repeat the same line it slows down. That's what's different about
it.
Mike: I don't think that was intentional. It was one of the
mistakes, there are a lot of mistakes on that record. It was the way
the guys felt it. You're talking about the actual timing on the
record?
Art: Yes, because it gets a little slower as each guy says it.
Mike: Yes, by the time it gets down deep it slows up.
John: We were chiming down, and voicewise it's a natural thing, up
you go faster, down you go slower. It was an unconscious natural
thing.
Mike: Most of our records have pretty freaky endings, we like to
think so anyway. We tried to get away from usual endings.
Art: What other ending would you say is particularly different?
Mike: Some People Think was really weird, the flip side of When I
Fell In Love. Some People Think was the original A side.
John: Hy Weiss put that out and it lost on Murray the K's show and
he immediately flipped it over. We wanted Some People Think to be
the A side and we pressured him so much that he put it out in a few
spots to get a feel for how it would go, and it didn't get any
reaction so he immediately turned it over.
Art: And you still have some things like this which have never been
put on record?
Mike: Oh yes, we have 6 or 8 tunes in the can.
Art: I'd like to see a Capris LP with all of these unissued sides.
John: So would we.
Art: Was this part of the Old Town property?
John: Yes, but there are discrepancies on that too.
Mike: If it wasn't for my love for singing, and the entertainment
part, the record business has been very bad to me.
Art: Even with the hit record?
John: The business end of it has been very discouraging. You get
people who aren't honest and are out to make a quick buck. Even
today the business end of it ruins the whole thing.
Art: To get back to your big hit, how does the Trommers release fit
in?
John: Trommers is like the Oldies 45 release. There are about 4
different labels you can get it on now. Lost Nite has it out again
too.
Art: Are you still getting royalties on it?
John: Not too much.
Art: During the '50's some artists claim they never got the proper
royalties. I was wondering if you experienced that, particularly
since the record was on so many labels.
John: That's putting it mildly, those guys were probably right.
Mike: I think it's still going on, unless you are running the
company yourself.
John: I don't think any of the oldies groups really got rich off of
it.
Art: You haven't been getting any checks from Oldies 45 then?
John: No, we get checks from BMI every once in a blue moon.
Art: Can you tell us anything interesting that might have happened
to you in your personal appearances?
Mike: We did a hop in Philly once, and the reception we got there
was tremendous. There were 15 or 16 year old girls there and we were
18 or 19 at the time. There were guards in front of the stage, but
they swarmed right over them. As we were singing we had to back up
little by little because they kept inching closer and closer to us,
trying to grab our pants, our shoes, anything they could get a hold
of. All I remember is running out the door. They came right after
us, it was tremendous.
Mike: Tears In My Eyes, and then came Girl Of My Dreams. Then we
split with Old Town and went with Mr. Peacock records where we did
Limbo.
Bob: Did you cut any more records after that?
Mike: Not that were put out.
Bob: What year was Limbo?
Mike '63.
Bob: Did the group split up after doing Limbo?
Mike: Yes, one guy went in the Army, another got married and we
split up for about 2 1/2 years. Then John and I got back with
Frankie and formed a new group. This was around late '65.
Art: What are your plans now?
John: Currently we have been doing all the major night clubs in the
tristate area (N.Y., N.J. & Conn.). Last December we did the Rock &
Roll Revival Vol 2. Now we are planning a tour across the country to
California and back. We have also been approached to do Las Vegas.
It's at a point now where the group has to consider whether or not
they are going to stay with commutable part time work. We are all
into different things now. I'm into management of groups, bookings
and promotions. Mike is still in the business also. Frank is an
office manager, one guy is an architect. We have been offered out of
town stuff and we always had to turn it down, now we are considering
it.