The Four Lads

The Four Lads were experts at close harmony and a capella and were very much influenced by Negro spirituals and gospel music. They scored a number of pop Top 100 hits during the early '50s, including "The Mockingbird," "Skokian" (1954), "Moments to Remember" (1955), and "No, Not Much!" and "Standing on the Corner" (both in 1956). Their initial break came while backing Johnny Ray on his early-'50s hits "Cry" and "The Little White Cloud That Cried" for Columbia Records. The Four Lads launched their professional career in 1950, singing in local clubs around Toronto, Canada. All of the original members had been choirboys. Lead vocalist Bernie Toorish, (born John Bernard Toorish on March 2, 1931) had grown up in a musical family and began performing from the age of three. In elementary school, he studied violin and as an eighth grader at St. Michael Choir School, greatly impressed by the Golden Gate Quartet, he had already been performing gospel and church music with a group called the Jordanaires (not the backing vocalists for Elvis Presley). (Later, two of the singers later helped form the Crew Cuts.) In addition to Toorish, the group included James Arnold (first tenor), Connie Codarini (bass), and Frank Busseri (baritone). The Jordanaires later changed their name to the Four Dukes and they began performing to critical and public acclaim in the northeastern U.S. and Canada. An audition was soon arranged for the group at Le Ruban Bleu, a swanky New York City supper club, but they were made aware that there was already a group using the name Four Dukes working out of Detroit, so Julius Monk, impresario at the club, suggested they call themselves the Four Lads. Their engagement at Le Ruban Bleu lasted 30 weeks. In 1951, they were signed by Mitch Miller to Columbia Records as...