They were the fabulous four from a British territory, but now the last surviving member has died: Bernie Toorish, co-founder of The Four Lads, died Sunday in hospice in North Olmsted. He was 94.
The Lads dominated pop radio in the pre-rock era, racking up 22 Top 40 hits. Five of them were million-sellers: "Moments to Remember," "No, Not Much," "Standing on the Corner," "Who Needs You?" and "Istanbul (Not Constantinople),” the latter covered by They Might Be Giants in 1990. The group actually got its start as the Otnorots, a reverse spelling of their hometown of Toronto.
“We came down to the States as the Four Dukes, and there was a group in Detroit that had that name,” he said during a 2001 interview. “So, the first two months in New York, we changed the name to The Four Lads.”
The group was discovered while playing Le Ruban Bleu supper club in the late 1940s, eventually backing singer Johnnie Ray on his era-defining 1951 hits, “Cry” and “The Little White Cloud That Cried.” Toorish arranged the group’s vocals and wrote several of their songs. The Lads later backed Ray on Ed Sullivan’s show and toured the Midwest on their own, playing Cleveland in 1952.
One of the young ladies in the audience was Toorish’s future wife, Angela.
“When they bounced out onto the stage, and I'm telling you from my heart, it was love at first sight,” Angela Toorish told Ideastream Public Media. “Then eight months later, they came back in town… that was February of 1953. I got up the nerve to go up to him for an autograph... Well, long story short, a few years down the road, we did get married, in 1956.”
The couple celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary on Dec. 1, less than a week before Bernie's death.
They settled in Angela’s native Northeast Ohio in 1964. Bernie retired from the group in 1972 and entered the business world so he could be closer to the family, which included four children. He eventually started a new group, which at times included original Lad Connie Codarini, as well as Northeast Ohio jazzman Peter Selvaggio. They performed throughout Ohio until 2018, sometimes appearing on Bill Randle's WRMR radio show.
“Sometimes I'd be talking to him and I could see by his eyes, his mind was on either creating a new song or something to do with music,” she said. “It certainly was his love.”
Angela said her husband was heavily influenced by acts as diverse as Count Basie, the Mills Brothers and the Golden Gate Quartet. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1984 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2003.
