JOHNNY CREOLE

Born Johnny Riccio…changed his name to Johnny Creole after starting his first band in North Haven, Connecticut. While attending North Haven Junior High School, Johnny recruited his two best friends, Ray Ianniello and Steve Sparago (both attending North Haven Junior High, also) to form a rock band. Johnny played guitar, Ray played organ & Chord-A-Vox and Steve was a drummer. The three started out playing instrumentals before progressing to vocals. After many name changes, they decided upon ‘THE ZODIACS’ and their logo was ‘Have Music, Will Travel’…a take-off on the popular TV Western series ‘Paladin’. After all, it was 1963 and their ages were a respectful 12, 13 and 14. Of course they still watched westerns – but not for long. They played local events and parties to start – nothing big, but enough to give them experience. They were known on their first record (as well as in North Haven) as THE I.R.S. Boys… IANNIELLO, RICCIO & SPARAGO.  After their solo LP ‘THE ZODIACS’, they added another guitar, another organ, a saxophone and a lead singer. Within a few months they changed their name to ‘The Counts’ and played mostly R&B as a 7 piece band. Their only LP ‘The Counts’ was released on ‘TRIANGLE’ Records, as well as their Zodiac LP. Neither of them saw the light of day. When Ray left the band to join his cousin in the group ‘Johnny Paris & the Variations, the Counts disbanded soon after-mainly due to the fact that Ray held everything together and Johnny & Steve were devastated without him…they were that close. Steve and Johnny now changed directions in their music and experimented into electronic music – later to be known as psychedelic music. They released another Triangle LP called ‘PSYCHO’. Johnny played the guitars and Steve performed the drums and all percussions. They engineered, arranged, mixed, over-dubbed and produced the LP. It remains one of the earliest forms of psychedelic music. A couple of years before its time….the LP didn’t fare well, as not many kids were getting ‘stoned’ as yet. It was only 1964. With simple ballads and pop tunes on the charts, this was way out in left field. With this, Johnny joined the New Haven-Cheshire based ‘pop group’ The Eastern Alliance, meeting up with his childhood friend Tim Gay. Steve joined the popular New Haven group ‘The Van Dykes’. Soon after, Johnny, Tim & Steve formed ‘SNOW’, an R&B seven piece group that became one of the biggest and most popular groups in the New York/Connecticut area- after two years of hard work and member differences, Snow melted. Johnny & Steve worked together again, as well as delving into solo careers. Johnny became a studio bass player at Bell Sound for Buddah Records while persuing his solo singing career. Buddah loved his bass work and liked his vocals and asked him to join The Brooklyn Bridge, who were in need of another member to replace one who had been drafted. While recording a few demos for Buddah, Steve’s career took another direction – he sought out his first love and passion – drag racing… and the rest is history. He had become a champion on the circuit, while Johnny received the bad news that he, too, had been drafted and would have to be replaced. After a tour of Vietnam, Johnny returned bitter, and with a new name (BUFFALO SUN) that he would record with until a bad accident ended his career in 1989. Steve performed and recorded with him on and off until the late 70’s, when his racing career demanded more time. Buffalo Sun recorded and released several LP’s and singles over the years – some with Steve and some with Tim Gay …..The Buffalo Sun Blues Band, The Blue Moon Boys, Taprock, Buffalo Sun & Snowbird Shadow and solo as Buffalo Sun. He also recorded under the name ‘ELGIN PRESTON’ in the mid 70’s. From Johnny Riccio to Johnny Creole to Buffalo Sun to Elgin Preston and back to Buffalo Sun.