From a basement in New Jersey, Tommy Falcone remade himself into a DIY Phil
Spector. From 1962 to 1970, he founded and ran Cleopatra Records, discovered
and mentored young Garden State talent, wrote songs and produced wild studio
effects, and quit his day job to promote it
all himself. Trained as an accordionist, Falcone had a whirlwind imagination and
an omnivorous approach to genre, expressed through acts like the Centuries, the
Tabbys,
Johnny Silvio, the Inmates, Bernadette Carroll, the Hallmarks, Vickie & the
Van Dykes, the Shandillons, Eugene Viscione, the Shoestring, and more. Cleopatra
became a time-capsule
of every 1960s pop style imaginable—garage rock, psychedelia, surf, girl
groups, soul, novelties, exotica, even a crooner—a kaleidoscope of sound in
search of the everelusive hit recor