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The Delicates were formed in Belleville, New Jersey in 1959,
when three classmates of Belleville Elementary School #8, Denise Ferri,
Arleen Lanzotti and Peggy Santiglia joined their respective talents together
to form the trio. The name Delicates was chosen because
the parents of Denise Ferri happened to own a DELICATESsen !
The Delicates were a Brill Building girl group that
recorded for four different record companies during the course of their
career: Tender, Unart, United Artists and Roulette.
The Delicates were in time introduced to the legendary DJ Murray the K and became his dancing girls. They were regulars on his radio show on 1010 WINS, New York, and wrote and recorded the Submarine Race Watcher's Theme which opened and closed his show. The Delicates also appeared on many of the television shows devoted to pop music of the day: Alan Freed's Big Beat, the Clay Cole Show, Rate the Record, American Bandstand, Connecticut Bandstand and Joe Franklin's Memory Lane. On stage they were seen as part of Murray the K's holiday shows at the Brooklyn Fox and the Brooklyn Paramount theaters, the State Theater Connecticut, the Commack Long Island Arena and at Palisades Park in New Jersey. The girls also toured with Clay Cole's Twist-a-Rama, replacing the Ronettes. The Delicates were unique in that they penned most of the songs they recorded, although the trio also recorded songs written by Jeff Barry and Doc Pomus. One special song written and recorded by the girls was Black and White Thunderbird for the Unart label. It was released in June 1959, and because of much airplay it became a significant hit in the New York metropolitan area. The song is much loved by girl group aficionados even today. After some 48 years, Black and White Thunderbird was chosen by Disney/Pixar for inclusion on a CD entitled Lightning McQueen's Fast Tracks, which was inspired by the movie Cars. That CD made the Top 10 on Billboard's Kids' Audio Charts. The song was also chosen by the same Disney producer, Fred Mollin, to become part of a second CD, Buddy Songs. In the mid-60's, Denise Ferri and Peggy Santiglia teamed up with former Starlet/Angel Bernadette Carroll of Party Girl fame to do commercials and lucrative back-up work for many big name singers, including Frankie Valli, Patty Duke, Kitty Kallen, Connie Francis, Frankie Lymon, Teddy Randazzo and Al Martino. However, the new trio are best remembered for their work with Lou Christie's MGM recordings Lightning Strikes, Rhapsody in the Rain, Trapeze and many more. |
