Vince Terrell took the microphone, walked almost into the crowd and began to croon in a voice reminiscent of Frank Sinatra.
“I’ve been alive forever
and I sung the very first song.”
He substituted the word “sung” for “wrote” in the lyrics of “I Write the Songs,” written by Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys in 1975 and made famous by Barry Manilow a year later.
Still, there couldn’t be a better opening number for the band The Infernos. It comes from their vast repertoire of both era and style. And it also speaks to the idea that for most singers and musicians, the music keeps going, whether fame and celebrity ever comes, or after it disappears.
“The Infernos, the Cameos, I can name a bunch of bands out there that still rock the house,” said Joe Piscopo, a guy who knows a thing or two about entertainment and has sung with The Infernos.
“New Jersey is great for these kind of bands,” Piscopo said. “They’re blue-collar bands. I’m a blue-collar performer. I don’t need a masseuse. All I need is a stage. And this is a tradition that started with the old man (Piscopo’s name for Sinatra) and goes right up to (Bruce) Springsteen. If you can rock the house, you can play forever. Generations change, stars come and go, but the energy of live music never goes out of style.”
MORE: Recent Mark Di Ionno columns
Members of The Infernos have been around forever – at least in the North Jersey music scene.
Vocalist Richie Rosato of Old Bridge fronted the Duprees for 25 years with some of the original members of the early ’60s doo-wop group from Jersey City. Keyboard player and band founder Bobby Wells, who lives in Roseland, also played with the Duprees beginning in the early ’70s.
Robin Di Laura Filippone of Florham Park, the lone female vocalist, worked with Nick Masi of the Four Seasons and studied the singing style of Connie Francis.
“I grew up about 10 blocks from where Frankie Valli grew up,” said Wells. “We grew up on that kind of music.”
And that kind of entertainment.
“We try to give a performance like you’d see on the Ed Sullivan show,” Wells said. “Like a ‘Wow!’ show with singing and dancing.”
And lots of standards, from Sinatra to Motown, from the Duprees to disco.
“What we want is to get the crowd up, clapping, swinging their arms, dancing,” Wells said. “We sell them happiness … make them forget their divorce, their mortgage, their credit cards, their fight with boss.”
“The Infernos” are a working band.
Last Saturday their fans followed them to the restaurant Boonton Station 1904, where the band of four horns, a guitarist, a keyboard player and drummer played from an 8-foot-high platform, while their five singers worked table-level.
Tuesday night, they were off to Manhattan’s Cipriani 42nd Street to play at the 2017 Femmy Awards, a lingerie industry gala.
On Feb. 11, Jestbahis they’ll play a Valentine’s Day benefit at Our Lady of Peace School in Providence to raise funds for the cloistered Dominican Nuns of Summit.
Next week, it’s a Novartis corporate party at The Grove in Cedar Grove, a few days after the bridal showcase at Nanina’s in the Park in Belleville.
They’ve been a fixture at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure since 2008. Next month, they’re playing for the Bobby Buecker Foundation, which raises money for families with sick children.
And in-between there are all the weddings, anniversary parties and political fundraisers. No job too big. No job too small.
Their webpage has band members posing with Gov. Chris Christie, James Gandolfini and fellow Sopranos actors Frank Vincent, Dominic Chianese and Stevie Van Zandt, also of E Street Band fame. They have testimonials from Katie Couric and Caroline Manzo, of The Real Housewives of New Jersey. They played at inauguration events for former governors Jon Corzine and Jim McGreevey. Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo is on their celebrity page.
They’re Jersey. All the way.
Take how Terrell got in with Wells in the earliest days of The Infernos.
“We were playing in this place called the Casa Blanca in Garfield, a real (expletive) hole,” Wells said. “You couldn’t breathe, the cigarette smoke was so thick. I go outside for a break, this guy is leaning on a car. He says, ‘You with band? ‘Cause I sing like Sinatra.’
“I say, ‘If you sing like Sinatra, you can be in the band.’ He’s been with me ever since – 35 years.”
Ken Simmons, who leads the band’s Motown, Barry White and dance songs, was a fill-in for the late Dennis Rotunda, who died in a car crash in 1998.
“We used to play the Shore circuit and I’d bump into him down there,” Wells said. “I asked him to help us out, he said he was retiring. I said, ‘Do a couple of shows, see how you like it. That was, whatever, 17 years ago.
“He’s a Jackie Wilson-esque performer,” Wells said.
Simmons, who has experience singing with several famous Motown acts, says he’ll take the small venue experience over the big stage any day.
“This is when you get to see the looks on their faces,” he said. “You’re singing stuff that makes up their memories. They connect with you, and the songs, and you connect with them.”
Rosato has the same take.
“I like the access. In arenas you’re playing to people you can’t see,” he said. “Here, you can see that their hearts are touched.”
Wells and Simmons wanted to make it clear that The Infernos – and bands like them – are not places where old musicians come to fade away.
“We’re on the rise,” Simmons said. “We’re getting bigger and more popular than ever.”
“We’re always working,” said Wells, who is also the band’s business manager. “And we’re a work in progress. You got to keep working.”
Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.
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