THE ELEGANTS - by Al Kelly

The Elegants were from Staten Island, NY, and started out as Pat Cordel 
& the Crescents in '55. They did their weekly singing at the neighborhood 
dances and church functions, one day a friend introduced the group to Carl 
Edelson, who owned the Club label in NYC. The group led by Pat Cordel 
(Croccitto) had a minor hit  and their manager wanted them to go on tour 
but Pat was only 15 and because she couldn't tour with them, the group 
split up. One of the Crescents was Vito Picone and baritone Carmen Romano 
started a new group called the Elegants. They practiced every day and did 
their local appearances. Vito and 1st tenor Arthur Venosa wrote "Little Star"
and sang it at all of their appearances. . Another group from Staten
Island heard the song and also started singing it at their shows. The
Elegants heard a rumour that the other group was looking to record it so
Vito and the boys went downtown NYC to find a record label to record
them. The group got an interview with Bea Caslon, who owned the Hull
label, she loved the song but felt since her label was not a Pop label
and most of her records were R&B, she called up a friend at ABC Records
and offered them the song and group. The record was never released on
Hull but she helped record it and it came out on the ABC sub. APT label
in '58. The group had about a dozen releases after this hit record but
nothing ever happened and in '65, had their release on the Laurie label.
The problem was many of their records had that "Little Star" sound.