Vito Picone and original member Carman Romano met in the 1st grade at P.S. 39 in the South Beach Section of Staten Island NY. Both had a young widowed mother and just one sibling and lived two blocks away from each other, it was inevitable that the two would become friends immediately. As they entered the 4th grade, the N.Y.C. Board of Education started a music program and oddly enough Vito and Carman were chosen as two of the four trombone players. The other two were Vinny Licastri who became Vito’s best friend (who would later die of leukemia at age 16, the night The Elegants recorded “Little Star”) and Ronnie Jones.

Vito, Carman and Ronnie would form their first singing group in 1955 with Patricia Crocitto, daughter of the owner of a popular night club, “Crocitto’s.”

They fashioned their sound after the red hot vocal group “The Teenagers” because Patricia had the high Frankie Lymon sounding voice and Vito could emulate the bass vocals of Sherman Barnes. They called themselves “Pat Cordel and The Crescents”.

After winning a singing contest, where the 1st prize was a recording contract, they recorded two songs  “My Tears” and “Darling Come Back” written by Vito.

One of the first white rock and roll artists to have a recording released, they toured with such acts as The Willows, The Fi-Tones, The Solitaires, etc. in predominantly “Black” venues.

After their manager/Record Label owner was tragically killed in Little Italy N.Y.C., they disbanded.

Pat became one of the June Taylor dancers (Jackie Gleason Show) and a professional Skydiving record holder. Ronnie became a commercial artist. Vito and Carman choose to continue singing.

So back to their old hangout, the F.D.R Boardwalk in South Beach, where at any given summer night you could find a hundred or so teenagers including Bobby Darin or Johnny Maestro who’s families had summer bungalows nearby.

They met Artie Venosa (co-wrote “Little Star” with Vito) who sang with various local groups and realized he was also interested in pursuing a singing career. He contacted Jimmy Moschello who enjoyed singing and introduced him to Vito and Carman.

The last piece of the puzzle was Frankie Tardogno who attended New Dorp High School with Vito. Their first rehearsal was magic, but now they needed a name. On his way to one of their rehearsal Vito passed a local tavern owned by the father of another close friend Ben Sarullo (future Head Coach at Monsignor Farrel High School for decades) In the window was a cardboard placard which read “Schenley, The Whiskey of Elegance”. He converted the word Elegance to Elegants, suggested it to the other guys when he arrived, and the rest is history.

They knocked on the doors of their favorite record labels in Manhattan, giving live auditions, and were ecstatic when Hull records the home of their idols “The Heartbeats” gave them a record deal.

The group was sub-let to ABC-Paramount and their first record “Little Star” was released in the summer of 1958 on it’s subsidiary, A.P.T. records.

The song sold 80,000 copies in New York within the first week and became #1 almost immediately,  not only in the U.S. but internationally as well.

The Elegants became only the second “white” vocal group to register a #1 record. (Preceded 6 months earlier by Danny and The Juniors “At The Hop”).