"Little Star" is the name of a song recorded by The Elegants

The Elegants

The Elegants is an American doo-wop vocal group, that was started in 1958 by Vito Picone, Arthur Venosa, Frank Tardogno, Carmen Romano and James Mochella in South Beach, Staten Island, New York. Before their nursery rhyme inspired song, "Little Star", became a number one hit, the band usually...

. Members Vito Picone and Arthur Venosa co-wrote the lyrics. The music was adapted from "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is a popular English nursery rhyme. The lyrics are from an early nineteenth-century English poem, "The Star" by Jane Taylor. The poem, which is in couplet form, was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann...

." When released as a single in 1958

1958 in music

-Events:*February - 45,000 peoplein one week watch performances of "rokabirī" music by Japanese singers at the first Nichigeki Western Carnival....

, it topped both the R&B Best Sellers list and the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

; however, it was the only song that ever charted for The Elegants. Reportedly, the Elegants refused to pay payola to a prominent New York disc Jockey, which led to their getting little air play of their follow up recordings.

"Little Star" remains one of the most popular examples of doo wop music. Other artists to record this song include Dion

Dion DiMucci

Dion Francis DiMucci , better known as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, pop oldies music, rock and R&B styles....

, Randy and the Rainbows, The Slades

The Slades

The Slades was a vocal group out of Austin, Texas.All the members and attended local McCallum High School. Personnel included John Goeke, Don Burch, Tommy Kaspar, Bobby Doyle, and Jimmy Davis...

, Vera Lynn

Vera Lynn

Dame Vera Lynn, DBE is an English singer-songwriter and actress whose musical recordings and performances were enormously popular during World War II. During the war she toured Egypt, India and Burma, giving outdoor concerts for the troops...

, Linda Scott

Linda Scott

Linda Scott is a former pop singer who was active in the early to mid 1960s. Her biggest hit was the 1961 million-selling single, "I've Told Every Little Star"...

 and Bobby Vee

Bobby Vee

Robert Thomas Velline , known as Bobby Vee, is an American pop music singer. According to Billboard magazine, Vee has had 38 Hot 100 chart hits, 10 of which hit the Top 20.-Career:...

.

A small portion of the song was performed by Paul Simon

Paul Simon

Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...

 as part of the 1989 Dion

Dion DiMucci

Dion Francis DiMucci , better known as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, pop oldies music, rock and R&B styles....

 song "Written on the Subway Wall."

See also

• List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1958 (U.S.)
• List of number-one R&B singles of 1958 (U.S.)