“It’s like you snap your fingers and all of the sudden the magic’s there.”

Though it’s been more than 50 years since the moment Johnny Maestro joined The Crests, J.T. Carter still very clearly remembers it. At that moment, the group added the voice which would lead the way on its biggest, most memorable song, “16 Candles.”

Carter will be taking part in a tribute to Maestro, who died in 2010 at the age of 70, taking place Sunday at Florida Atlantic University’s Carole and Barry Kaye Performing Arts Auditorium. The Memories of Gold show brings together members of three of the groups Maestro was a part of – Carter of The Crests, The Brooklyn Bridge and the Del Satins.

In addition, the group Manhattan Harmony will perform, while Mike Miller, the host of the doo-wop tribute radio program The Harmony Street Show, will serve as emcee.

Carter said he’s looking forward most to seeing the fans of the groups and talking with them.

“I want them to walk up to us and say something, to reminisce with us,” he said in a telephone interview.

After leaving the Crests for a solo career, Maestro ended up joining the Del Satins, another doo-wop group which had already seen success, not only with their own hits, but also as the backing singers for Dion on some of his biggest hits, including “Runaround Sue.” The Del Satins eventually merged with another group, The Rhythm Method, to form The Brooklyn Bridge, who had a Top 40 hit in 1969 with “Worst That Could Happen.”

Les Cauchi, who still performs with the Bridge and was also part of the Del Satins, said the decision to record “Worst That Could Happen” came late in the recording process for their debut LP.

“We had all of our songs picked out, and I think we had either ‘Welcome Me Love’ or ‘Blessed Is The Rain’ picked out as our lead single, and we’re looking for a B-side,” Cauchi said. “We were listening to this album, ‘The Magic Garden’ by the Fifth Dimension, and the great job they did on (‘Worst That Could Happen’). We thought it might be right up Johnny’s alley.”

And it turned out to be a good decision. “Thank God for those B-sides,” Cauchi said.

Cauchi said that Maestro was a perfectionist, and that quality rubbed off on those around him, making their music better.

“He was what he was,” Cauchi said. “He was that solo voice you put out there.”

Miller said that Maestro – along with another member of both the Brooklyn Bridge and Del Satins, Freddy Ferrara, who died in 2011 – wanted the group to continue. It has, with Floridian Roy Michaels as lead vocalist, keeping things going for their fans.

That helped lead Miller to help pull together this show.

“We wanted to link together all of the groups that had roots built around Johnny and put them all on stage together,” Miller said.

And for Cauchi, it helps him and other living members of these groups get past the deaths of Maestro and Ferrara.

“It’s been devastating,” Cauchi said. “It’s been difficult the last 2 ½ years, not just on a professional level, but a family level as well. I knew Johnny for 50 years, and Freddy and I knew each other since we were 12 years old. We’ll never get over it.

“But this is what we do in our life. The show must go on – it’s a very important motto in life.”