Shoes (Reparata Song) - Reparata

Reparata

Reparata was the stage name of Mary O'Leary. Born in Brooklyn in 1945, as Mary Aiese she formed Reparata and the Delrons as a high-school student in 1962, using her confimation name of Reparata as her stage name. Reparata stopped performing live with the group in 1969 to pursue a teaching career but continued to release occasional solo singles. Meanwhile, Reparata and the Delrons continued as a live act until 1973 with a new lead singer Lorraine Mazzola. A dispute with Mazzola over the rights to use the name Reparata affected the distribution of "Shoes" (see next section). Reparata released one more single after "Shoes", then reformed Reparata and the Delrons in 1978, and they continued to perform until 2000. She is now retired from teaching and from performing, and lives in Queens, New York.