Most of these photos are from concerts and events that I produced. Some are from events produced by the RHYTHM & BLUES FOUNDATION and UGHA. I’m sharing these with the public at the encouragement of some friends who are aware that I was fortunate enough to meet and work with these singers. I’ve had them stashed away for decades and digging them out and scanning them has reminded me how lucky I’ve been to meet them, get to know them and make some great friends.

My interest in music started in 1955 when I heard ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK, which my parents gave me for my sixth birthday. I bought my first record – BLUE BERRY HILL – with money I earned doing some kind of work I’m sure I hated.  By ten I was an avid record buyer. I became a “record collector” when I first heard Jerry Blavat on WCAM in 1961 and accumulating vinyl became a serious pursuit. Going to Times Square Records in NYC and meeting Val Shively in 1961 and 1962 sealed the deal – collecting became an obsession. Val introduced me to Lee Andrews, I met Frankie Lymon at a dance in Maple Shade, NJ and found myself asking them questions about their lives, careers & music. I went to college intending to be an Egyptologist.  Instead I found myself engrossed in music history. I learned photography in the US Army of all places. Afterwards I accidentally started taking photos of musicians in concert. That became my first profession.

In the early 1970s I discovered some magazines that were dedicated exclusively to vocal groups – BIM BAM BOOM, RECORD EXCHANGER and YESTERDAY’S MEMORIES and they were a revelation. I avidly read the work by writers such as Pete Grendysa, Marv Goldberg, Rick Whitesell, Mike Redmond, Ferdie Gonzalez, Sal Salzano, Marcia Vance, Steve Flam, Phil Groia, Wayne Stierle, George Manoogian, Dave Hinkley, Carl Tancredi and others. They were doing serious musical anthropology and I found their articles and inteviews made the music much more interesting. It put in my head that this kind of research was much more interesting to me then Egyptology. It gave me the idea to do a comprehensive documentary on the history of vocal group rock n’ roll.

I went to graduate school at NYU Film School in 1976 and simultaneously was hired as an assistant curator of film at the Museum of Modern Art. While there I found Fritz Pollard’s archive at the Apache Warehouse in Brooklyn, which included the lost film, ROCK N’ THE BLUES and it was donated to the Library of Congress. In 1978 I pitched the idea of doing the documentary on Doo Wop to WNET in New York. They didn’t think much of it - didn't think it would make any money. I guess Doo Wop 50 and 51 proved them wrong. I went into film production and was hired by Martin Scorsese in 1979 to work for him on RAGING BULL. Through the years that I worked for him Doo Wop was a constant on the stereo – along with the Clash! I pitched Scorsese the Doo Wop documentary and he loved it. We both thought it would be a monster. I envisioned doing a series of concerts re-uniting as many groups as I possibly could, which would be incorporated into the documentary. In 1980 he and I went to a UGHA show and we both wound up joining UGHA. Dig that Martin Scorsese was a member of UGHA! “Perfect” as he would say.  I made close friends of Marcia Vance and Bobby Jay and they also loved  the documentary idea and they encouraged me.

Ultimately in 1983 I decided that if no one else would fund it I would do the show myself. So, in 1983 I sold my rare film poster collection and produced the 1983 Burlington Concert with my own money. In 1984 Rhino made me an offer to distribute the concert on video, which I accepted. However at the meeting to sign the contract they reduced the offer, and that wasn’t enough to finish the editing of the show. In 1985 Paul Simon saw a demo of it and made me an offer but his company wanted complete control over it and I had to refuse, as it wouldn’t support my documentary. I continued to produce concerts in the Philly area featuring large lineups of Doo Wop groups and was most interested in the groups who hadn’t been seen or heard in years or decades like the Cardinals, Plants, Marylanders, Keystoners, Revels, Capris etc.

In 1987 the California record collector, Dave Antrell, and a great music researcher, Steve Brigati, saw a demo of the 1983 Burlington concert and they gave it to Brian Beirne of KRTH Radio in LA. KRTH was looking for someone to produce “oldies” concerts in LA. I interviewed with them and the Nederlander Organization and the next thing I knew I was producing a major oldies concert at the Greek Theater in LA. My concept was simple -  to replicate the shows of the Alan Freed, Hunter Hancock and Huggy Boy. The first show in November 1988 sold out in one day. Mr. Jimmy Nederlander who founded the company in 1922 told me, “Kid, anything we can do with you that will make money, we’ll do”. So, by some amazing circumstances I found myself with virtual carte blanche to produce shows of any kind. Nederlander didn’ care if I put the Velvetones, Chubby Checker or RUN DMC on stage as long the show made money. Brian Beirne and I decided that on every show we’d have a big draw like Chuck Berry but the supporting acts would include singers who we loved but who had not been seen in decades. For Brian this meant folks like Jack Scott and for me it meant the Jacks – Cadets! And believe me they were both great! For the next 13 years I was able to do shows throughout the US, which included over 100 acts that had been in retirement. Brian and I with Steve Brigati's help became musical detectives looking high and low for singers all over the country. Our searches would make a helluva book! We found most living normal lives, raising kids and never thinking that they'd get another shot at singing on a major stage. We made one singer a commitment that when he got out on parole we'd book him on several shows - and we did. I found one famous singer homeless living in the bus station in Baltimore and got him a place to live, I got false teeth for a great tenor, one guy wouldn't sing because he had been threatened by the NY record mob guys in 1966 and here 25 years later he thought there was still a hit on him. It was a lot more then a business - it was wonderful and strange.

We did concerts in great theaters like the Greek Theater, the Pantages, Fonda, Wilshire and Universal Amphitheater in LA; the Pacific Amphitheater and the Velodrome in Southern California; clubs and theaters from San Jose to Arizona to the Navy Pier in Chicago and the Apollo in NY; a rodeo arena in New Mexico; football stadiums and boxing arenas; on the streets of L.A. and Tijuana; the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City and even one at the White House in 1993 for President and Mrs. Clinton - Bill wanted Chuck Berry. Hillary had to have Johnny Moore of the Drifters! He sang FOOLS FALL IN LOVE in the original key!

A NOTE: Recently a fellow who has written much on R&B of the West Coast and has often played fast and loose with the facts has called me a liar with respect to my claim to have interviewed Little Julian Herrera. Well I never claimed to have interviewed Julian Herrera. I did however speak to him in 1991. I attended a Charles Wright 103rd Street Rhythm Band concert at an L.A. club. Frankie Ervin who had appeared on one of my  concerts with the Alley Cats at the Greek Theater, Steve Brigati and several notable L.A. veteran R&B Singers were also in attendance. We kicked around some names of singers who were "missing in action". Julian Herrera's name came up and Ervin said he knew him not only from his singing days in the 50s but from a time when they shared a roof as guests of the State of California prison system. Ervin got me Julian's home phone number, but before calling him I called Johnny Otis and did some research. What Otis told me contradicted some of the information that has since been published. I then called Julian Herrera aka Ron Gregory at his home. He answered and his wife was on a second phone. We spoke for about ten minutes. He confirmed some of the information given to me by Johnny Otis. However he was extremely uncomfortable speaking about his life and career in any detail. He and his wife were extremely religous and she made it clear that he wanted to leave his past behind, have nothing to do with music or the music business. They also asked not to call again with respect to "Little Julian Herrera". There are some things that Ron Gregory wants to completey disassociate himself with and one is his past as "Little Julian Herrera". In my opinion this conversation does not constitute an interview in any way, shape or form. I respected Mr. and Mrs. Gregory's wishes and never called again.

As his is ususal method of operation this certain writer from California runs with innuendo, expands on the truth, fabricates stuff and even borrows others work [Marcia Vance's manuscript]. Next time get your facts straight before you call someone a liar.

I was a guy who had been a record collector growing up and whose record collection became his rolodex. I learned a lot about the musicians who made the records I loved. It was always a joy and never a job. It was never about money.

In 2001 the concert business had undergone a major change – major corporations had monopolized it and the radio stations – like the CBS oldies stations were reducing or eliminating “oldies” and “Doo Wop” from their play lists. All things must pass and so did my time as a “major” concert producer. It was a gas and I must thank a bunch of people who made it possible – Brian Beirne and Pat Hines from KRTH, Ken Scher and Susan Rosenbluth from the Nederlander Organization, Alex Hodges from Nederlander and Universal Amphitheater and Universal International, Dave Antrell, Steve Brigati, H.B. Barnum, Earl Palmer, Billy Cioffi, Jerry Butler, Charles MacMillan, Joe Monte, Alan Clark, Mike Marx, Tony D'Amico, Randy Lopez, Gary Cape, my good friends from the Southern California Doo Wop Society John Stalberg and Marvin Kaminsky  and all the great folks at the Greek Theater, which became like a second home, and especially Kathy Young – a great woman and a great friend and also many more folks whose names escape me now. I guess I should also thank Huggy Boy for allowing me to loan him money to go to Santa Anita and Chuck Berry for driving me nuts and answering all of my questions.  Most of all I have to thank the artists whose music has been such an important part of my life.  In 1980 Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols told me to go to hell but I have nothing to fear because Sam the Sham is praying for me. God bless them all.

I hope that everyone viewing these photographs can see the singers and musicians as not only performers but also people as I did. These photos are a kind of diary of my life. I don’t intend them to be a boast of any kind. They are just snapshots from the life of someone whose avocation accidentally became a vocation. And as I was lucky enough to hear the Velvetones sing, “It was fine, fine, superfine!”

M del Costello