Reparata and the Delrons
Encyclopedia
Reparata and the Delrons were an American girl group
popular during the 1960s, best known for their recordings of "Whenever A Teenager Cries" and "Captain of Your Ship
".
The Delrons were spotted by record producers Bill and Steve Jerome, who recorded them in 1964 first for Laurie Records
, then on Ernie Maresca
's song "Whenever a Teenager Cries" on the World Artists label. The song became a regional hit and reached #60 on the Billboard Hot 100
; its follow-up, "Tommy," co-written by Chip Taylor
, reached #92 on the charts, with the group now called Reparata and the Delrons. The quartet's name became more widely known as they toured nationally with Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars. When the group moved to RCA Records
in 1965, Drobnicki and Reilly had left and the group consisted of Aiese, original member Licari, and Lorraine Mazzola (born 25 February 1947). This line-up became the best-known and most successful during the group's recording years. Their 1967 release "It's Waiting There For You" became a minor hit in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with airplay on KYSN, 1460-AM. After several unsuccessful releases in a style similar to the Shangri-Las, including Jeff Barry
’s "I’m Nobody’s Baby Now," and an album, the group moved again to Mala Records
.
", co-written by Kenny Young
. The song missed the U.S. national charts, but made #13 in the UK Singles Chart
, and the group toured the United Kingdom
. The trio's backing group on this tour was Clouds
. "Saturday Night Didn't Happen" and "Weather Forecast" were also issued as singles, but did not chart in the UK. Young said of this period: '"They were responsible for me moving to England. I accompanied them to Top Of The Pops
...[and]...attended the reception for their hit single "Captain Of Your Ship", along with John Lennon
and Ringo
at the Revolution Club in London. I met half the Beatles at our own reception...".
Some sources credited Lorraine Mazzola with the lead vocal on "Captain of Your Ship", but a filmed live performance from German television, widely available on video sharing websites, shows Mary Aiese singing lead. This filmed performance appears to be the only archive television footage of the group that is still widely available.
and Danny Jordan) backed with "Just You" (written by the Jeromes and K. Stella), issued as Big Tree 114 in 1971, and produced by the Jeromes. She also continued to record with the group occasionally, including on the 1972 single "Octopus's Garden
".
Lorraine Mazzola took over lead vocals and assumed the name of Reparata for performing purposes. Cooky Sirico joined the group and sang back-up alongside Nanette Licari at live shows. The musicians who played with the group from then on included Dave Camacho (keyboard, now with the Borinquen Blues Band), Augie Ciulla (drums), Frank Franco (guitar), Frankie Loyd (sax) and Joe Sirico (Cooky's husband) on bass.
The new line-up released an album of classic girl-group songs, Rock'n'Roll Revolution 1970, with some uncredited vocals from Mary O'Leary,. In 1973, fellow Brooklynite Barry Manilow asked the group to become his backing vocalists. Only Mazzola was interested in working with Manilow, and she formed a new group Lady Flash
, which prompted the break-up of Reparata and the Delrons.
". Via Manilow, Mazzola launched a lawsuit for sole use of the name after placing an advertisement in Billboard
magazine claiming she was "the real Reparata". O'Leary won the case when Mazzola did not show up at the hearing.
Despite the court case affecting distribution of the record, "Shoes" did manage to be a Top 10 hit in South Africa in 1976, and a minor hit in both the UK (#43) and U.S. (#92). Although it is a solo track recorded several years after the group had disbanded, "Shoes" is normally included on compilation album
s of the group's material.
During the 1970s, the groups' back catalogue was still popular as girl group nostalgia, and in the mid-1970s several of their old singles, particularly 1968's "Panic", became favourites on the UK Northern soul
scene.
and New England
areas for over 20 years. Lauren Stich replaced Nanette Licari in 1988, and when Stich left in 1995 she was replaced by Judy Jae.
They released a privately pressed LP in 1981 called On the Road Again on the Perfection Sound label, and performed on Don K. Reed's the radio show Doo Wop Shop.
O'Leary retired from both teaching and performing in 2000, and the group disbanded for good.
Mary Aiese O'Leary taught fifth and sixth grade for 32 years and retired in 2000. Now a grandmother, she lives in Neponsit, Queens
, and occasionally makes appearances and gives interviews about her career. In May 2003 she was a guest speaker at "Italian Americans and Early Rock and Roll", a symposium presented at Queens College, City University of New York
by the John D. Calandra Italian American
Institute and the university's Newman Center. In November 2005, O'Leary joined Licari as non-performing guests at an event at The Cutting Room in New York City
to mark the release of the Rhino Records box set, One Kiss Can Lead To Another: Girl Group Sounds - Lost & Found (Rhino R2 74615). That same month, O'Leary gave an extended radio interview about her career to Alex McNeil, host of the Lost and Found show on the MIT college radio station WMBR
.
Nanette Licari continues to perform in the Long Island
area as a member of oldies group the Tercels. In summer 2011 she performed at the event "She's Got the Power", a celebration of the girl group sound at New York City's Lincoln Centre.
Lorraine Mazzola was a member of Lady Flash until the group broke up in 1979.
After losing the 1975 court case to Mary O'Leary over the right to the stage name Reparata, she formally changed her given name to Reparata, and all her subsequent work has been under that name. She co-wrote the book Mafia Kingpin: the True Story of Sonny Gibson (1981). Mazzola also wrote and acted in a film with Gibson called Dark Before Dawn (1988). She contributed to the book Women's Poker Night, and for five years she was a contributing editor for Poker Pro magazine.. She was Events and Operations director for WriteGirl
, a programme in creative writing for at-risk young women in Los Angeles..
Cooky Sirico and Joe Sirico continue to perform in the tri state area. They were in the oldies groups The BeBops and Johnny and the Raybands. Cooky currently performs with Witness, and Joe with the Brooklyn Keys.
Judy Jae went on to record two CDs of original country-crossover material in Nashville, and continued to perform on Long Island
.
Carol Scordilis, née Drobnicki, died from cancer in 1980 at the age of 33.
Lauren Stich became a writer on horse racing, and bred horses herself. She wrote a weekly column for the Daily Racing Form
from 1998. She was a racing handicapper and analyst for the Racing Digest until 2008.
Sheila Reilly moved to Seattle, Washington and became a school principal.
Cathy Romeo still lives in Brooklyn. She is a widow with two grandchildren.
Augie Ciulla recorded with his nephews' band The Infinite Staircase, and was featured on their debut album The Road Less Taken, which was released in early 2009.
Girl group
A girl group is a popular music act featuring several young female singers who generally harmonise together.Girl groups emerged in the late 1950s as groups of young singers teamed up with behind-the-scenes songwriters and music producers to create hit singles, often featuring glossy production...
popular during the 1960s, best known for their recordings of "Whenever A Teenager Cries" and "Captain of Your Ship
Captain of Your Ship
"Captain of Your Ship" is the title of a pop song first recorded by the US girl group Reparata and the Delrons and released as a single in 1968 on the Bell record label...
".
Girl group heyday
The Delrons started out as a five-piece group in 1962 at St. Brendan's Catholic School in Brooklyn, New York, led by lead singer Mary Aiese (born 31 December 1945). Reparata was Aiese's confirmation name, which she had taken from one of her favorite teachers at Good Shepherd Catholic grammar school, and which Aiese says sounded more marketable than either of her given names, Mary and Katherine. The other original members included Nanette Licari (born 24 May 1947), Regina Gallagher, and Anne Fitzgerald, but they were soon replaced by Sheila Reilly, Carol Drobnicki, and Cathy Romeo. When Romeo was allegedly forced out of the group due to her being overweight, she was replaced by Marge McGuire.The Delrons were spotted by record producers Bill and Steve Jerome, who recorded them in 1964 first for Laurie Records
Laurie Records
Laurie Records was a record label started in 1958 by Gene Schwartz and Allan I. Sussel. Sussel was a multi-millionaire whose earlier record company, Jamie Records , had been unsuccessful. As a result, Sussel joined forces with Schwartz to found Laurie Records, this time named after his other...
, then on Ernie Maresca
Ernie Maresca
Ernest "Ernie" Maresca is an American singer-songwriter and record company executive, best known for writing or co-writing some of Dion's biggest hits....
's song "Whenever a Teenager Cries" on the World Artists label. The song became a regional hit and reached #60 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
; its follow-up, "Tommy," co-written by Chip Taylor
Chip Taylor
James Wesley Voight , better known by his stage name as Chip Taylor, is an American songwriter, who is noted for writing the songs "Angel of the Morning" and "Wild Thing." He is the brother of actor Jon Voight and geologist Barry Voight...
, reached #92 on the charts, with the group now called Reparata and the Delrons. The quartet's name became more widely known as they toured nationally with Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars. When the group moved to RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
in 1965, Drobnicki and Reilly had left and the group consisted of Aiese, original member Licari, and Lorraine Mazzola (born 25 February 1947). This line-up became the best-known and most successful during the group's recording years. Their 1967 release "It's Waiting There For You" became a minor hit in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with airplay on KYSN, 1460-AM. After several unsuccessful releases in a style similar to the Shangri-Las, including Jeff Barry
Jeff Barry
Jeff Barry is an American pop music songwriter, singer, and record producer.-Early career:...
’s "I’m Nobody’s Baby Now," and an album, the group moved again to Mala Records
Mala Records
Mala Records was a small record label founded as a Bell Records subsidiary in 1959. Beginning in 1967, albums by Mala recording artists were issued on the Bell label instead of Mala...
.
Success in Europe
In 1968 they released "Captain of Your ShipCaptain of Your Ship
"Captain of Your Ship" is the title of a pop song first recorded by the US girl group Reparata and the Delrons and released as a single in 1968 on the Bell record label...
", co-written by Kenny Young
Kenny Young
Kenny Young is an American songwriter who has been an active writer, artist, and producer from 1963 to the present. His most famous song was "Under the Boardwalk," co-written with Arthur Resnick and recorded by The Drifters in 1964 and by The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, and many other artists;...
. The song missed the U.S. national charts, but made #13 in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, and the group toured the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The trio's backing group on this tour was Clouds
Clouds (60s rock band)
Clouds were a 1960s Scottish rock band that disbanded in October 1971. The band consisted of Ian Ellis , Harry Hughes and Billy Ritchie .- Early days: The Premiers :...
. "Saturday Night Didn't Happen" and "Weather Forecast" were also issued as singles, but did not chart in the UK. Young said of this period: '"They were responsible for me moving to England. I accompanied them to Top Of The Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
...[and]...attended the reception for their hit single "Captain Of Your Ship", along with John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
and Ringo
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
at the Revolution Club in London. I met half the Beatles at our own reception...".
Some sources credited Lorraine Mazzola with the lead vocal on "Captain of Your Ship", but a filmed live performance from German television, widely available on video sharing websites, shows Mary Aiese singing lead. This filmed performance appears to be the only archive television footage of the group that is still widely available.
A new Reparata
Mary Aiese married in November 1969, and took her husband's name of O'Leary. She has explained that her husband was not keen on her pop music career, so she decided to stop performing live with the group. She became a public-school teacher in Brooklyn, but she did release some solo singles including "There's So Little Time" (written by Rupert HolmesRupert Holmes
Rupert Holmes is an American-British composer, singer-songwriter, musician and author of plays, novels and stories. He is best known for his number one pop hit "Escape " and the song "Him", which reached the number 6 position on the Hot 100 U.S. pop chart in 1980...
and Danny Jordan) backed with "Just You" (written by the Jeromes and K. Stella), issued as Big Tree 114 in 1971, and produced by the Jeromes. She also continued to record with the group occasionally, including on the 1972 single "Octopus's Garden
Octopus's Garden
"Octopus's Garden" is a song by The Beatles written by Ringo Starr from their 1969 album Abbey Road....
".
Lorraine Mazzola took over lead vocals and assumed the name of Reparata for performing purposes. Cooky Sirico joined the group and sang back-up alongside Nanette Licari at live shows. The musicians who played with the group from then on included Dave Camacho (keyboard, now with the Borinquen Blues Band), Augie Ciulla (drums), Frank Franco (guitar), Frankie Loyd (sax) and Joe Sirico (Cooky's husband) on bass.
The new line-up released an album of classic girl-group songs, Rock'n'Roll Revolution 1970, with some uncredited vocals from Mary O'Leary,. In 1973, fellow Brooklynite Barry Manilow asked the group to become his backing vocalists. Only Mazzola was interested in working with Manilow, and she formed a new group Lady Flash
Lady Flash
Lady Flash was an American trio of singers whose members were Reparata Mazzola, Monica Pege and Debra Byrd. They were the featured backup group for Barry Manilow from 1974-1979 and released one hit of their own, 1976's "Street Singin'". The tune, which was written and arranged by Manilow, reached...
, which prompted the break-up of Reparata and the Delrons.
"Shoes" and the lawsuit over the name "Reparata"
As a member of Lady Flash, Lorraine Mazzola continued to perform as Reparata. In 1975, Mary O'Leary released another Reparata solo single "ShoesShoes (Reparata song)
"Shoes" is a 1975 single by Reparata. The record is sometimes incorrectly called "Shoes ".-Music and lyrics:The track was originally recorded by Felix Harp, a band from Trafford and Level Green, Pennsylvania, and released as a single "She Didn't Forget Her Shoes " in 1973 for Lou Guarino's NAMI...
". Via Manilow, Mazzola launched a lawsuit for sole use of the name after placing an advertisement in Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
magazine claiming she was "the real Reparata". O'Leary won the case when Mazzola did not show up at the hearing.
Despite the court case affecting distribution of the record, "Shoes" did manage to be a Top 10 hit in South Africa in 1976, and a minor hit in both the UK (#43) and U.S. (#92). Although it is a solo track recorded several years after the group had disbanded, "Shoes" is normally included on compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
s of the group's material.
During the 1970s, the groups' back catalogue was still popular as girl group nostalgia, and in the mid-1970s several of their old singles, particularly 1968's "Panic", became favourites on the UK Northern soul
Northern soul
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. Northern soul mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound...
scene.
Comeback
Having established her right to perform as Reparata, in 1978 O'Leary invited the most recent Delrons Nanette Licari and Cooky Sirico, and most of the group's former musicians, to reform the group with her. They performed on the oldies circuit, and at club gigs and private functions in the New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
areas for over 20 years. Lauren Stich replaced Nanette Licari in 1988, and when Stich left in 1995 she was replaced by Judy Jae.
They released a privately pressed LP in 1981 called On the Road Again on the Perfection Sound label, and performed on Don K. Reed's the radio show Doo Wop Shop.
O'Leary retired from both teaching and performing in 2000, and the group disbanded for good.
Where are they now?
Several of the group's former members and musicians, as well as fans, friends and family, are active on the Reparata and the Delrons Facebook page.Mary Aiese O'Leary taught fifth and sixth grade for 32 years and retired in 2000. Now a grandmother, she lives in Neponsit, Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, and occasionally makes appearances and gives interviews about her career. In May 2003 she was a guest speaker at "Italian Americans and Early Rock and Roll", a symposium presented at Queens College, City University of New York
Queens College, City University of New York
Queens College, located in Flushing, Queens, New York City, is one of the senior colleges of the City University of New York. It is also the fifth oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning. The college's seventy seven acre campus is located in the heart of the...
by the John D. Calandra Italian American
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
Institute and the university's Newman Center. In November 2005, O'Leary joined Licari as non-performing guests at an event at The Cutting Room in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to mark the release of the Rhino Records box set, One Kiss Can Lead To Another: Girl Group Sounds - Lost & Found (Rhino R2 74615). That same month, O'Leary gave an extended radio interview about her career to Alex McNeil, host of the Lost and Found show on the MIT college radio station WMBR
WMBR
WMBR is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology student-run college radio station, licensed to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and broadcasting on 88.1 FM. It is all-volunteer and funded by listener donations and MIT funds...
.
Nanette Licari continues to perform in the Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
area as a member of oldies group the Tercels. In summer 2011 she performed at the event "She's Got the Power", a celebration of the girl group sound at New York City's Lincoln Centre.
Lorraine Mazzola was a member of Lady Flash until the group broke up in 1979.
After losing the 1975 court case to Mary O'Leary over the right to the stage name Reparata, she formally changed her given name to Reparata, and all her subsequent work has been under that name. She co-wrote the book Mafia Kingpin: the True Story of Sonny Gibson (1981). Mazzola also wrote and acted in a film with Gibson called Dark Before Dawn (1988). She contributed to the book Women's Poker Night, and for five years she was a contributing editor for Poker Pro magazine.. She was Events and Operations director for WriteGirl
WriteGirl
WriteGirl is a Los Angeles-based project of Community Partners, an American nonprofit organization.Since 2001, WriteGirl has paired professional women writers in the Los Angeles area with at-risk teenage girls who do not otherwise have access to creative writing or mentoring programs. The mentoring...
, a programme in creative writing for at-risk young women in Los Angeles..
Cooky Sirico and Joe Sirico continue to perform in the tri state area. They were in the oldies groups The BeBops and Johnny and the Raybands. Cooky currently performs with Witness, and Joe with the Brooklyn Keys.
Judy Jae went on to record two CDs of original country-crossover material in Nashville, and continued to perform on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
.
Carol Scordilis, née Drobnicki, died from cancer in 1980 at the age of 33.
Lauren Stich became a writer on horse racing, and bred horses herself. She wrote a weekly column for the Daily Racing Form
Daily Racing Form
The Daily Racing Form is a tabloid newspaper founded in 1894 in Chicago, Illinois by Frank Brunell. The paper publishes the past performances of race horses as a statistical service for bettors on horse racing in the United States....
from 1998. She was a racing handicapper and analyst for the Racing Digest until 2008.
Sheila Reilly moved to Seattle, Washington and became a school principal.
Cathy Romeo still lives in Brooklyn. She is a widow with two grandchildren.
Augie Ciulla recorded with his nephews' band The Infinite Staircase, and was featured on their debut album The Road Less Taken, which was released in early 2009.