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Then The Program Will Look For JOHNNIE RAY, JOHNNIE RAY does not have extended bios, but it grabs them and puts them in the bios field.
Then The Program Will Look For THE FOUR LADS, since THE FOUR LADS has extended bios it grabs them and not the shorter version of the bios and then adds the bios to the bios field
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Artist: JOHNNIE RAY
Although practically deaf, Johnnie Ray's tear-inflected delivery tabbed him as
an early-'50s sensation. Leaving Oregon for Detroit, Ray found a gig at the
Flame Club, an R&B and jazz institution. In 1951, Ray signed with Columbia's
R&B subsidiary Okeh Records, although "Cry," his histrionic million-seller
that year, was a pop entry all the way, with background vocals by the Four
Lads. Produced by Mitch Miller, "Cry" remained perched atop the pop charts for
nearly three months. Ray encored with "The Little White Cloud That Cried"
before moving to the parent Columbia logo and enjoying a steady stream of pop
hits, including "Walkin' My Baby Back Home" in 1952 and a cover of The
Prisonaires' "Just Walking in the Rain" in 1956. Ray's frenzied antics set off
riots among female admirers during his heyday, but the advent of rock soon
dulled his hitmaking powers. By 1959, the hits were through. -- Bill Dahl
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Artist: 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 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 towards 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, crisp, with an overlay of vibrato on the long notes.
Many of their heavily orchestrated songs were conducted by Frank DeVol. 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, a job he continues to hold
today. However, he didn't stay away from the stage mic 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 remains the sole original from the '50s lineup. The Four Lads continue to
perform at supper clubs, on cruises, and wherever oldies groups are booked.
They even have their own website:
www.thefourlads.com. Copies of their
first-release LP's are extremely rare and a virgin copy of their 1960s album
currently sells for more than 200 dollars. -- Bryan Thomas
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