He was the lead vocalist for the doo-wop group The Crests, whose song "16 Candles" went to number two on the Billboard Hot 100.

After his death from cancer in 2010, a section of Mason and Midland Avenue in Staten Island was renamed to "Johnny Maestro Way" in his honor in 2011.

His paternal grandparents were Giovanni "John" Mastrangelo (born November 17, 1887, in Italy – died June 1964 in Staten Island) and Porcia Maria "Mary" Mastrangelo (née Morano) (born January 8, 1888, in Italy – died August 1978 in Staten Island).

I would also listen to Alan Freed, and the groups that really impressed me were Willie Winfield and the Harptones, the Flamingos and the Moonglows.

"[3] Mastrangelo graduated from Charles Evans Hughes High School (later renamed to Bayard Rustin Educational Complex[4]) in 1956.

Johnny told The New York Times in 1994 about choosing the name "Brooklyn Bridge": "So we decided we’d pick a new one, we were sitting around the office, and someone said: ‘This is going to be difficult.

[7] Their first release, a version of the Jimmy Webb song "Worst That Could Happen" (previously recorded by The 5th Dimension), reached No.

A dramatic version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" and the controversial "Your Husband, My Wife" also reached the middle ranges of the chart.

The group sold over 10 million records by 1972, including LP sales, mostly produced by Wes Farrell.

In the following decades, the Brooklyn Bridge performed at many fundraising events on Staten Island such as the Borough President's "Back to the Beach'' concert.

When Johnny died in 2010, the band carried on without him in his honor, and his spot as lead vocalist was replaced by Joe Esposito, best known for his song "You're the Best", featured in the 1984 film The Karate Kid.

[5] Johnny lived in Islip, New York until 2003, when he moved to Cape Coral, Florida, where he died of kidney cancer on March 24, 2010.

His last performance was at Connecticut's Mohegan Sun Arena in January 2010, nine weeks before his death, as part of Bowzer's Rock ’N’ Roll Party.

[11] Brooklyn Bridge bassist Jim Rosica said: "He was frail and a little jaundiced, and he had torn the ligaments in his shoulder, so he had his arm in a sling underneath his jacket, we hadn’t disclosed to anyone that he had cancer, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out something was seriously wrong.

Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York, whose district includes the neighborhood where Maestro was born and where he began his music career, introduced an Extension of Remarks in the House of Representatives.