Johnny Maestro, voice of the Crests’ ‘16 Candles’

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Johnny Maestro, 70, a singer who performed the 1958 doo-wop hit ’16 Candles’ with the Crests and enjoyed a decades-long career with the Brooklyn Bridge, died Wednesday of cancer in Florida, according to Les Cauchi, a friend and original Brooklyn Bridge member.

Maestro was born John Mastrangelo on May 7, 1939, in New York City and grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He began his career in 1956 as lead singer of the Crests, an integrated doo-wop group that had a No. 2 single with ’16 Candles’ (heard in this YouTube clip). The group had further success with ‘Six Nights a Week,’ ‘The Angels Listened In,’ ‘Step by Step’ and ‘Trouble in Paradise.’

In 1960, the band’s label, Coed, decided Johnny Maestro should go solo, although the Crests still backed him. Under that designation they had hits with ‘Model Girl’ and ‘What a Surprise’ before Maestro left the group.

He later joined the Del-Satins, who had backed up Dion, with the Rhythm Method to form the Brooklyn Bridge in 1968. The new 11-member ensemble had a No. 3 single with ‘The Worst That Could Happen,’ a Jimmy Webb song.

Maestro performed at arenas, amphitheaters and casinos throughout the U.S. and Europe until earlier this year.

-- Associated Press