Carlo Mastrangelo

Carlo Mastrangelo (October 5, 1937 – April 4, 2016) was an American doo-wop and progressive rock singer, and drummer.

He was an original member of the Belmonts (with and without Dion DiMucci), a popular singing group of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He also played drums before and after the Belmonts with several groups. He led the progressive rock/jazz ensemble, "Pulse", during the 1970s.

Carlo Mastrangelo was born, and raised, in Belmont, Bronx, in 1937. He lived in an apartment on the corner of 179th St. and Mapes Ave.

Mastrangelo formed The Belmonts in 1955 with Angelo D'Aleo and Fred Milano, who were all members of a Bronx gang called the Imperial Hoods. They began recording professionally in 1957, and not long after added Dion DiMucci as lead singer, and the groups name was changed to Dion and the Belmonts. Mastrangelo sang bass. They had hits including "A Teenager in Love" and "Where or When". In 1959, he filled in on drums for Buddy Holly's drummer Carl Bunch when Bunch got frostbite and had to quit the Winter Dance Party tour in 1959, playing with Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper.

After the group's breakup with DiMucci, he sang lead vocals on all Belmonts recordings until leaving for a solo career in 1962. Following the hit "Come On Little Angel", a split developed within the group concerning the finances of their privately owned label, Sabina (a.k.a. Sabrina) Records. Mastrangelo said, "Because we owned the company, we had to pay the bills, studio time, ads, and stuff like that. We needed hits that sold around 500,000 copies to make enough. That was the worst move we ever made. If we hadn't done that, we would have been together all these years. It was very sad, like leaving my two brothers". (Mastrangelo was replaced in the Belmonts by two musicians: Frank Lyndon joined on lead vocals, and shortly afterwards, guitarist Warren Gradus joined, doubling on Mastrangelo's original bass vocal parts.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.