Formed on Long Island in 1968, the pop ensemble Brooklyn Bridge came together under the leadership of Johnny Maestro, previously the lead singer for the Crests. Its origins lay in the merger of two competing local acts: the vocal group the Del-Satins, whose members included Maestro along with Fred Ferrara, Mike Gregorio, and Les Cauchi, and the instrumental unit the Rhythm Method, whose roster featured musical director Tom Sullivan, guitarist Jim Macioce, organist Carolyn Woods, bassist Jim Rosica, trumpeter Shelly Davis, saxophonist Joe Ruvio, and drummer Artie Cantanzarita. The newly combined ensemble delivered its self-titled debut album the following year and registered its initial Top Five single with Jimmy Webb’s “Worst That Could Happen.” Later releases, among them the singles “Blessed Is the Rain” and “Your Husband -- My Wife,” did not match that early commercial peak, while follow-up LPs such as The Second Brooklyn Bridge and 1970’s Day Is Done likewise met with limited response. After the Buddah label terminated its agreement with the release of 1972’s Bridge in Blue, the musicians sustained an active touring schedule over subsequent decades; by the 1990s and 2000s the surviving original members were Maestro, Ferrara, Cauchi, and Rosica. Operating as Johnny Maestro & the Brooklyn Bridge, the collective issued the 2004 CD Today, a collection of newly recorded versions of material first performed by the Brooklyn Bridge and the Crests years earlier. A second volume appeared in 2009. Johnny Maestro passed away from cancer at his Cape Coral, FL, residence in March 2010 at the age of 70.
