Arnold left the group in 1980 to become a voice teacher in Sacramento, California. He was working in a restaurant for a while." Toorish, who was burned out after twenty years of performing, was replaced by Sid Edwards in the early 1970s and became an insurance businessman. As Toorish once recalled, " made a terrible mistake. When their Columbia contract expired in 1960, the group spent the rest of the 1960s recording for the Kapp, Dot and United Artists labels without ever hitting the charts again.Ĭodarini was replaced in 1962 by Johnny D'Arc (who remained with the Lads until 1982) and later fell into destitution. In 1959, their final pop chart appearance was with "Happy Anniversary", a song from the movie of the same name that peaked at #77. In late 1958, the group's re-recording of "The Mocking Bird" became their last Top 40 pop hit. The Four Lads' Columbia recordings have seen releases and reissues on numerous studio albums and compilations over the years. A gospel album with Frankie Laine took them back to their roots and produced the hit single "Rain, Rain, Rain", written by Toorish under the pseudonym "Jay McConologue". The group's most famous hit was 1955's " Moments to Remember" another famous hit was " Standing on the Corner", from the Broadway musical The Most Happy Fella, in 1956. top-ten hit and propelled them to even more stardom. In 1953, the Four Lads had their first gold record, with " Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", a song that gave them their first U.S. The Four Lads were quickly switched over to the Columbia label, where they continued to garner more hits, and stayed there until 1960. 9 (known as the “New World Symphony”) and featuring an extremely limited accompaniment of percussion and bass, "The Mocking Bird" peaked at #23 on the Billboard pop charts. Based on a melody from the second movement of Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. Sometime later that year, the group scored their first-ever hit record with " The Mocking Bird" (Okeh 6885), another Toorish composition. Released by Columbia subsidiary Okeh Records (Okeh 6860), the song failed to make an impression. In early 1952, they recorded their first song, "Turn Back", penned by group member Bernie Toorish under the name "Dazz Jordan". Īfter the success of Ray's first hit songs, the Four Lads signed a recording contract with Columbia. One of those artists, Johnnie Ray, became a major hit in 1951 with " Cry" and " The Little White Cloud That Cried", with the Four Lads backing him. Recruited to go to New York, they were noticed there by Mitch Miller, the artists and repertoire man at Columbia Records, who asked them to sing backup for some of the artists he recorded. In 1950, they began to sing in local clubs and soon were noticed by scouts. They originally called themselves “The Four Dukes”, but found out that a Detroit group already used that name, so they changed it to The Four Lads. At home, they practiced until they achieved their clean-cut harmonies, whether for spirituals, sacred music, or pop. When Maugeri and Perkins left the group to concentrate on their schoolwork, Codarini and Toorish joined with Arnold and Busseri in a new quartet. The group was known variously as 'The Otnorots' ("Toronto" spelled backwards) and 'The Jordonaires' (not to be confused with The Jordanaires who sang background vocals on Elvis Presley's hits). Michael's students, Rudi Maugeri and John Perkins, who were later to found The Crew-Cuts. Codarini and Toorish had formed a group with two other St. "Jimmy" Arnold, lead and Frank "Frankie" Busseri, baritone and group manager. The founding and core members were Corrado "Connie" Codarini, bass John Bernard "Bernie" Toorish, tenor and vocal arranger James F. The original quartet grew up together in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where they learned to sing at St. The most recent incarnation of the group featured lead tenor Don Farrar, second tenor Aaron Bruce, baritone Alan Sokoloff, and bass singer Frank Busseri. The Four Lads appeared on many television shows, including The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom (1958) Perry Como's show Perry Presents (1959) Frankie Laine Time (1956) and the award-winning PBS special, Moments to Remember: My Music. Their million-selling signature tunes include " Moments to Remember" " Standing on the Corner" " No, Not Much" " Who Needs You?" and " Istanbul". The Four Lads were a Canadian male singing quartet that earned many gold singles and albums in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Okeh, Columbia, Kapp, Dot, United Artists
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