John Basilone

I am proud to say that I was born and raised in a Newark, New Jersey Housing Project named “Steven Crane Village”. I started getting involved with music when I was 12 years old, listening to my big brother, Angelo Basilone, the Lead Singer of the great acapella group known as “The Savoys”. My friends and I decided to start our own band, at the age of 15, and we called ourselves “The Five Reasons.” Believe it or not, one of our very first gigs was a wedding at a club called “Joey’s” which was located on Bloomfield Avenue in Newark. Not only were we influenced by “The Savoys” but you may have heard of another well known person, who also was born and raised in “Steven Crane Village” (named Frankie Vallie) and that’s why we called ourselves “The Five Reasons”.