THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
578) Reparata and the Delrons — “We’re Gonna Hold the Night”
I love Reparata and the Delrons (see #258, 389) — and not just because they got together in ‘62 (the year I was born!) at St. Brendan’s Catholic School in Brooklyn (where I was living when I came home from the maternity ward!).
As to their name, Mary O’Leary, their first lead vocalist, explained that their managers wanted one that was flamboyant and flashy, sort of like Martha & the Vandellas. Her confirmation name was Reparata, which she had taken “from the choir mistress at the Good Shepherd elementary school — Sister Mary Reparata, my favourite nun” [liner notes to The Best of Reparata & the Delrons]. And so they were christened.
Bruce Eder says that:
For a group that never made the Top 40, and came along almost too late to exploit the [girl group] sound they produced, Reparata and the Delrons have proved amazingly durable. . . . [They] were one of hundreds of girl groups that flourished in the early ’60s, and actually had a higher profile than many of their rivals, achieved in their own time by their participation in a pair of Dick Clark national tours and, for years after, from the fact that they actually released a complete LP to accompany their one widely recognized [’64] hit, “Whenever a Teenager Cries” [which reached #60 in February of ’65].
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/reparata-the-delrons-mn0000393299/biography
If you listen closely, you’ll see that today’s song is a decidedly naughty one for the girls from St. Brendan’s Catholic School!
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