IN MEMORIUM
Roger Del Russo

Wednesday, July 05, 2006
BY GEORGE BERKIN

Star-Ledger Staff : So how do you get to Carnegie Hall? For Roger A. Del Russo, you learn to sing doo-wop music as a high school student in Newark, and spend a lifetime perfecting that special brand of oldies music in venues throughout New Jersey and beyond. For one magic moment in 1997, Mr. Del Russo’s vocal group, The Cameos, reunited to sing before a full house at America’s premier concert hall. “It was the beginning of a whole new era for them,” said Mr. Del Russo’s daughter, Lisa Porada of Shrewsbury, who was in the audience. Mr. Del Russo, who founded The Cameos as a 17-year-old at Barringer High School at the be ginning of a lifelong enthusiasm for the harmonies of doo-wop music, died Monday. He was 65. A former resident of Randolph and Parsippany, Mr. Del Russo was diagnosed with lung cancer almost exactly a year ago, family members said. He died in the Atlantic Hospice in Morristown.

The Cameos have not existed continuously since they began nearly 40 years earlier, and they have gone through a series of name changes. But since reforming, they have played most weekends, at places small and great, from clubs to the Meadowlands. And the show they put on that day in Manhattan was a wonder to behold, to both the eye and the ear. “The singing was wonderful, but they had the whole package,” Porada said. Dressed formally, the five vocalists changed outfits — baby pink to canary yellow to powder blue, she said. “Every time I saw my father on stage, and especially at Carnegie Hall, it was an amazing experience,” Porada said. “We’d dance and sing (along with the music).” Born in Newark about six months before Pearl Harbor, Mr. Del Russo learned harmonies by singing on street corners, his daughter said. He also became high school sweethearts with another Barringer student, Enna Giammona, and they got married on Nov. 17, 1962. “She’s been his biggest fan,” his daughter said. To pay the bills, Mr. Del Russo was employed by Howard Savings and the Suburban Savings and Loan, as well as by Metromedia and AT&T. He retired in 2003 after 10 years as proprietor of the Beeper Factory in Middletown and Nutley. But Mr. Del Russo’s passion remained doo-wop singing, a style Mr. Del Russo learned as a teenager in the 1950s. An imposing presence at 6 feet and 210 pounds, Mr. Del Russo sang with a bass voice and was known as “Mr. Bass Man” with The Cameos. He was the only original founder to remain with the group through its four decades.

The Cameos were founded in 1959, when they recorded their signature tune, “Rock and Roll Arabian Knights.” At times, the group morphed into The Nic Nacs and The Daddy’os. Membership varied, with Mr. Del Russo as a common thread. Most recently, after a half-dozen years entirely inactive, the Cameos reunited in time to play Carnegie Hall. Throughout his yearlong bout with cancer, Mr. Del Russo faithfully answered the call to sing with the group, said Paul Stuart of Saddle Brook, The Cameos’ drummer. “That’s what kept him going for a whole year,” Stuart said. “He loved (singing). His doctors told him to go out and sing.” Mr. Del Russo performed until about a month ago. The Cameos are scheduled to play Gabriels in Wayne on Saturday. “His wish is for us to carry on,” Stuart said. The old saying says, ‘The show must go on.'” In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Del Russo is survived by a son, Vincent of Morris Plains; two granddaughters, Olivia and Victoria Porada; and a sister, Katherine Scott of Florida.
Mr. Bassman, You will be missed!