The Emotions - Echo 1962

The Emotions (Brooklyn, New York) aka The Moments aka Four Dream

Personnel:
Joe Favale (Lead)
Tony Maltese (Tenor)
Larry Cusimano (Second Tenor)
Joe Nigro (Baritone)
Dom Collura (Bass)

Biography :
In 1956-7 Tony Maltese formed "The Runarounds". Hailing from the Brooklyn area,the group consisted of Frank Chevilianno (First Tenor), Joe Nigro (Baritone), Tony Maltese (Second Tenor) and Jr. Villa (Lead). Jr is the brother of Joey Villa who sang lead with "The Three Friends" and "The Royal Teens". The boys were all 16 and 17 years of age when they received their name from Teddy Randazzo who had just written and released a song titled "Runaround" with his group the "Three Chuckles".

Tony had penned an original tune "You Were There" for "the Runarounds", but the group broke up to go college before they were able to pursue their dreams.Tony deceided in the field of music and formed a new group with the help of his friend. Tony Rao, who worked as a butcher.

Tony Rao Brought a friend, Rick Cori, into the group who was also a butcher. Rick in turn persuaded his friend Joe Favale to depart from his group "The Moments" and Became the lead singer of the newly formed group which became know as "The Four Dreams". The Dream's sang everything from the Hilo's and 4 Freshman to street corner Doo-wop.

They recorded a demo of Tony's original "You Were There" but when Rick left the group to get married, the guy decided to disband. Joe Favale was a proficient song writer who penned many tunes for "The Moments". His love for Doo-Wop along with Tony's (Maltesse) led the fellows to form still another group. Taking the name "The Runarounds" once again, and past members Joe Nigro, the trio added Larry Cusimano and Don Collura who was a friend of Joe's.

Joe's other friend and writing partner Henry Boye was brought into the picture as the group's manager. Henry was responsible for the group's first recording contract with Pio records. In August 1961 their first record of the aforementioned songs was released — and promptly flopped.
Later in the year, they changed their name to the Emotions since they felt they sang with a lot of feeling. They cut a few new songs on demos in 1962 and played them for every label they could find that would listen. Finally Kapp Records, known mostly for pop instrumentalist Roger Williams, signed them

In September 1962, they released “Echo,” their chime harmony ode to car crashes similar in theme to Mark Dinning’s “Teen Angel” (1959) and Ray Peterson’s “Tell Laura I Love Her” (1960). It immediately hit airwaves across the nation. New York’s famous disc jockey Murray the K made it a co-pick hit of the week with the Four Seasons’ “Big Girls Don’t Cry” when the Emotions, their friends, and their relatives “stuffed the ballot box” by flooding the station with phone calls.