The Illusion

The Illusion came from Long Island, New York and were together from 1965 to 1972. The group had one major hit in the U.S. from their debut album in 1969 with "Did You See Her Eyes", which peaked at number 32 on the Billboard charts, the album stayed on the charts for 27 weeks and peaked at No. 69. Afterwards they had three minor hits: "Together" which peaked at No. 80 and "How Does it Feel?" at 110, both from their second album. On their third and final album "Let's Make Each Other Happy" went to No. 98.
Some of the band members started playing at an early age. The lead guitarist, Rich Cerniglia, started playing guitar around the age of ten and was playing for bands such as the Shirelles, Gladys Knight, The Temptations and others by the time that he was fifteen. The bass player, Chuck Alder, learned guitar at the age of twelve but switched to bass around the age of fifteen and was in several bands before The Illusion, including The Dell Sonics. Mike Ricciardella started drumming at a very early age and won the New York State drum competition when he was sixteen. The keyboardist Mike Maniscalco came from the Dell Sonics, where he met Chuck Alder, his talent wasn't limited to the keyboards as he could play several instruments. The vocalist, John Vinci, was singing doo wop before The Illusion and brought a lot of creativy and ideas to their shows.
The name of the band started as The 5 Illusions, they then dropped the plural and became 5 Illusion, the next change was The Illusions and they again dropped the plural and finally became, The Illusion. They were known for their energetic live perfomances which included light shows and sound effects. They got to open shows for Hendrix, The Who, The Vanilla Fudge, The Allman Brothers and many others, their first tour was with Mitch Ryder in 1967.
After Illusion disbanded Mike Ricciardella went on to Barnaby Bye, did an instructional album for drummers started the band Network, he wrote most of the material, and produced several Wiggy Bits albums. He also drummed on Alice Cooper's album, "From The Inside". John Vinci aka John Dillion was also in Network then in the early 80's he started selling musical equipment and worked for Dean, B.C Rich, Guild and other guitar companies. In 1996 he founded Dillion guitars, were he got the nickname John Dillion. His guitars are mid-priced and praised by everybody that owns one. Rich Cerniglia went on to play with Hall and Oates, Wiggy Bits, Network, Ellen Shipley, and Aviator. He appeared on the Phyllis Diller show, American Bandstand, Shindig, and Saturday Night Live. In 1989 he moved to upstate New York and started teaching guitar and performing on weekends. He is now a Christian musician. Mike Maniscalco went on to Wiggy Bits and Network where he is listed as Mike Coxton. Chuck Alder currently plays bass in the New York cover band, The Power Play.