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They were Rudi Maugeri ( January 21, 1931- May 7, 2004) (baritone), John Perkins (born August 28, 1931) (lead), Ray Perkins (born November 28, 1932) (bass), and Pat Barrett (born September 15, 1933) (tenor), originally all members of the St. Michael's Boys' Choir in Toronto, which also spawned another famous quartet, The Four Lads. Maugeri, John Perkins, and two others (Bernard Toorish and Connie Codarini) who later were among the Four Lads first formed a group called The Jordonaires (not to be confused with a similarly named group, The Jordanaires , that was known for singing Elvis Presley's hits) and also The Otnorots ("Toronto" spelled backwards being "Otnorot"), but they split from the group to finish high school. When the Four Lads returned to Toronto for a homecoming concert, John Perkins and Maugeri ran into each other and decided that they could themselves have a musical future. They joined with Barrett and Ray Perkins in MarchFor alternative meanings, see March (disambiguation). March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 31 days. Named for Mars, the Roman god of war. In ancient Rome, March was called Martius. It was named after the war god ( Mars) and 1952Summary of notable events in 1952 . Events January events January 8 West Germany has 8 million refugees inside its borders. January 24 Sudden heavy snowfall in Algeria. January 24 Vincent Massey sworn in as first Canada-born Governor-General of Canada.. The group was originally called The Four Tones (not to be confused with The Four TunesThe Four Tunes were a vocal quartet, consisting of William "Pat" Best, Jimmy Gordon, Jimmie Nabbie and Danny Owens. Originally Best, Gordon, and Nabbie, together with Deek Watson (formerly of The Ink Spots) formed a quartet known as Deek Watson & the Brow, a group on the bordereline between pop music and rhythm and bluesRhythm and blues (or R & B is a musical marketing term introduced in the United States in the late 1940s by Billboard magazine. It replaced the term race music, which was deemed offensive. To some extent, the kind of music it is attached to has changed to).
A Toronto disk jockey, Barry Nesbitt, put them on his weekly teen show, whose audience gave the group a new name, The Canadaires. All four of the members were at the time working at jobs with the OntarioOntario ( In Detail) ( In Detail) Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Loyal she began, loyal she remains Capital Toronto Largest City Toronto Area Total % fresh water 4th largest(2nd lgst prov. 1 076 395 kmē 14. 7% Population Total (2001) Density Rank government, but quit their jobs to sing full-time. They worked clubs in the Niagara Falls, OntarioNiagara Falls, Ontario ( 2001 population 78,815) is a city located on the Niagara River, across from Niagara Falls, New York. It was incorporated on June 12, 1903. The city is dominated by the Niagara Falls, which bring hundreds of thousands of tourists t area, but saved up their money and drove to New York City, so they could appear on Arthur GodfreyArthur Morton Godfrey ( August 31, 1903- March 16, 1983) was an American entertainer. He was born in New York, New York. Military When he served in the United States Navy from 1920 to 1924, he was assigned to radio training and learned to become a radio o's television/ radio program, Talent Scouts, where they came in second to a comedian. This led to no improvement in their fortune, however, and they continued playing minor night clubs.
In March 1953, they returned to Toronto and appeared as a backup act for Gisele MacKenzie. She was impressed with them and commented favorably to her record label, but could not remember the group's name!
They were playing in a Sudbury, Ontario night club in a sub-zero Canadian winter when they received notice that they had been invited to appear as a guest on a Cleveland television program. They drove 600 miles at -40° temperatures to appear on the Gene Carroll show, and also, while in Clevelend, met local disk jockey Bill Randle. On his show, on Cleveland AM radio station WERE, he coined the name that would from that point on belong to the group. In addition, Randle arranged for them to audition with Mercury Records, who liked them enough to sign the quartet to a contract.
Although their first hit, "Crazy 'Bout You, Baby," was written by Maugeri and Barrett themselves, they quickly became specialists in cover recordings of originally-R&B songs. Their first cover, "Sh-Boom" (of which the R&B original was recorded by The Chords ) hit #1 on the charts in 1954. A number of other hits followed.
Interestingly, many of the non-cover songs of theirs that became hits in Canada were unknown in the United States of America, while it was only their covers that had great success in the USA.
The group moved from Mercury to RCA Records in 1958 and eventually broke up in 1964, but they all moved to the USA and reunited in Nashville, Tennessee in 1977. In the 1990s they were inducted into the Juno Hall of Fame.