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The Four Lads were experts at close harmony and a cappella 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" (1952), "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 at 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 the quartet members 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 background singers.
Toorish was later commissioned to do the vocal and instrumental arranging on a
Johnnie Ray single: "Cry" b/w "The Little White Cloud That Cried." Both sides proved to be huge hits and sales ultimately exceeded five million copies. The success brought
Toorish and his
Four Lads a recording contract with
Columbia and
the Lads began to lean away from spirituals and more toward pop.
In 1952,
Columbia released their first hit, "The Mockingbird" (on their OKeh imprint). They received their first gold record in 1953 for "Istanbul," but the hits kept coming. In total,
the Four Lads recorded 73 sides for
Columbia, including "Rain, Rain, Rain," "Turn Back," "My Little Angel," "Skokian," "Moments to Remember" (which reached number two on the pop charts in 1955), "No, Not Much!" (written by the songwriting team of Bob Allen and
Al Stillman, who wrote
Johnny Mathis' big hit "Chances Are"), and "Standing on the Corner." Their sound was polished and crisp, with an overlay of vibrato on the long notes. Many of their heavily orchestrated songs were conducted by
Frank DeVol or
Ray Ellis.
The group also recorded several long-playing albums, including 1962's Dixieland Doin's, which was a Kapp recording released on the London label in stereo. Incidentally, their version of an old Negro spiritual, "Dem Bones," from this album was used during an episode of the British TV series The Prisoner. They made their American TV debut on The Ransom Sherman Show on NBC. Other TV appearances included The Pat Boone-Chevy Showroom on ABC and Perry Presents on NBC in 1959.
The Four Lads were also one of the guest hosts of the summer music series Upbeat on CBS in 1955.
Their success story includes the sale of some 50 million singles and albums to date. During their heyday,
the Lads' fan clubs reportedly had as many as 150,000 members (in Pittsburgh alone there were 20,000), but their popularity, which peaked in 1957, began to decline as the pendulum swung to folk music and rock & roll. After a number of changes in personnel, the original group finally broke up in 1977.
In 1978,
Toorish gave up music and became an insurance underwriter. However, he didn't stay away from the stage mike for long. After
the Four Lads' induction into the Canadian Juno Awards Hall of Fame in Toronto in 1984, enough interest was sparked in the group that
Toorish (now shortened to "
Torish") decided to end his long hiatus. He reactivated the quartet, though he remained the sole original from the '50s lineup.
The Four Lads continued to perform at supper clubs, on cruises, and wherever oldies groups are booked, and even developed their own website, www.thefourlads.com. Copies of their first-release LPs are extremely rare, with a virgin copy of a '60s-era album selling for more than 200 dollars. ~ Bryan Thomas