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The Four Townsmen featured in national publication "Echoes Of The Past" (The Magazine That is Dedicated to The 50's & 60's) written by Carl E. Janusek Issue No.# 48

David Templeton's Seldom Seen: Four Townsmen blend harmony and nostalgia for Christmas concert

The Four Townsmen's version of "What Do I Have To Do," is replete with tight doo-wop harmonies and soaring saxophone that transport the listener to a bygone era when pop groups wore identical suits, short hair and big smiles.

Four-part harmony was a metaphor for the late 1950s, when life seemed simpler and more harmonious and musical problems were limited to love, heartbreak and graduation. Music was meant to entertain, not change the world.

So the musical question, "What Do I Have To Do?" had a sonorous solution: Beg for a second chance.

And after a 33-year hiatus, The Four Townsmen aren't begging for, but certainly are enjoying, a second chance in carving out their doo-wop niche in Canonsburg's musical kingdom, which features the legacies of Perry Como, Bobby Vinton and the Four Coins.

But when the Townsmen tell audiences they are from Canonsburg, the first question has nothing to do with Como, Vinton or change for a dollar. "They want to know, 'Is that where Sarris Candy is?'" bass singer Lou Gadani said.

In truth, The Four Townsmen never experienced the national fame of Como, Vinton or the Coins, but not because of talent.

"These guys were right on the cusp [of stardom] with their tight harmonies, but they just missed the train," said Pete Povich, WJPA radio music director and morning man and the Townsmen's sound man. "At their age, for them to harmonize the way they do now, it is something. That's what amazes me."

The Four Townsmen feature tenor Pete Kouklakis and Gadani, original members from Canonsburg. New members include barritone Nevin VanRiper and lead singer Howard "Hug" McKinney, both of Washington.

The Four Townsmen will return to their Canonsburg roots Friday with "Christmas With The Four Townsmen" in Toy's My Way Cafe. Dinner starts at 6:30 p.m. with the show at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $25 per person. The Townsmen's show also will include a surprise guest.

The Townsmen will compete Friday with "A Perry Como Christmas," originally scheduled for Toy's cafe but relocated to the Canonsburg Elks Club in the wake of performers' complaints about remnant cigarette smoke in Toy's cafe.

"The town should be hopping with two shows," Kouklakis said. "If this works, who's to say we won't try to do more?"

The Four Townsmen also were scheduled to perform their Christmas show yesterday in Uptown Theatre in Washington.

The Four Townsmen launched their singing careers in 1959, when Kouklakis and Gadani left another group to join lead vocalist Chuck Marshall and baritone Bob Kraushaar, also of Canonsburg. They sang doo wop in talent shows, school dances and record hops.

The Web site, www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/oboe/217/fourtownsmen, provides a thumbnail biography of the group that built a repertoire of 50 arrangements to take on the road in hopes of expanding their popularity.

During their travels, they were introduced to recording agent Odell Bailey, who encouraged them to record an original song. Soon after, they released a 45 rpm record, "It Wasn't So Long Before," now known as "Graduation Is Here" with "Sometimes (When I'm All Alone)" on the flip side.

Those songs were played regularly on KDKA radio, and the group developed a regional fan base. "When we heard our song on KDKA, it was unbelievable," Gadani said.

In those years, they opened shows for Bobby Vee, Paul Anka, The Lettermen and Brian Hyland. They once sang at the South Strabane drive-in theater, where Washington Ford now is situated, by using a theater microphone that piped their music through speakers inside cars. "That was a rarity," Kouklakis said.

But, as Gadani noted, careers got in the way. He went to college then joined the Peace Corps. Kouklakis went to trade school and Kraushaar joined the Army. So the group called it quits about 1963.

Another reason for their demise was the British Invasion involving the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Who. The popularity of American doo wop did drop. As Don McLean sang in "American Pie: "The quartet practiced in the park, and we sang dirges in the dark, the day the music died."

In 1985, lead singer Chuck Marshall died. But 11 years later, the remaining members -- Kouklakis, Gadani and Kraushaar -- reunited.

"One reason we did get back together was the song started to be played again," Kouklakis said. Their song, "Graduation," was included on the Pittsburgh's Greatest Hits Volume Three compact disc and "Sometimes" was included on Volume Seven.

Meanwhile, Povich began playing the song on his WJPA oldies shows to instantaneous approval. "Phones rang off the hook," he said.

In recent years, WJPA 95.3 FM has asked listeners to vote for their favorite songs, and The Four Townsmen's "What Do I Have To Do," from their 2000 recording, "Just Cruisin," reached second place in last year's countdown.

This year's Top 95 will be played on WJPA noon to midnight New Year's Day. Expect the Four Townsmen to rate highly once again.

What prompted their reunion, however, was the Vocal Group Hall of Fame's 1996 decision to display Townsmen memorabilia permanently in the museum in Sharon, Mercer County.

Although the Townsmen are not inductees, Bob Crosby, hall of fame president and chief executive officer, said they were a well-recognized group. Inductees, however, must have at least three-part harmony, have 20 years in the business and a gold-record hit song. The last requirement is the stumbling block for the Four Townsmen.

In recent years, the group has been performing on the so-called Fruit Circuit --the Apple Festival in Hickory, the Pumpkin Festival in Houston and other festivals throughout Western Pennsylvania.

But Kouklakis said they sing for one reason: It's fun. Gadani offers another reason. "I sing for food. I'm the hungry one. That's my claim to fame."

In addition to a few contagious originals, they have a repertoire of 60 songs written by others, but with the Townsmen's trademark doo-wop adaptations and Tom Battaglia of Bethel Park's arrangements and saxophone and keyboard accompaniment. They are considering recording a new compact disc this winter.

"We've practiced three months for this Christmas show," Kouklakis said. "I honestly hate to say it, but we're sounding good."

Canonsburg may be famous for producing such greats as singers Perry Como and Bobby Vinton. Yet there are other, lesser-known characters, who have walked the streets of the borough that this weekend will celebrate its 200th anniversary.

For example, on Oct. 18, 1894, resident Will Banfield, on a bicycle, challenged a trotting horse to a one-mile race around Canonsburg Driving Park on a site now occupied by Hoss' Restaurant. He bested the animal in one of the many not-so-notable events in the history of Washington County's largest borough.

It is a town that has been surprisingly free of scandal and serious misdeeds. Nonetheless, Canonsburg council in July 1904 enacted its first curfew and elected Warren Bettz the "official dog policeman." The town had so few crimes that historians still mark Oct 7, 1914, the day when Joseph Neely's chicken house on South Jefferson Avenue was broken into and several white Wyandotte pullets were stolen.

James T. Herron Jr., a member of the borough's bicentennial commission, is writing a book on the history of the town founded shortly before the Revolutionary War by John Canon, who built a flour mill and sawmill in the area. Canon laid out the town in the 1780s, and it quickly became a marketplace with shops and taverns.

An academy was opened in 1791, then incorporated as Jefferson College in 1802. Within 40 years, the college was the town's economic base and was the largest college in Pennsylvania. It later merged with Washington College to form Washington and Jefferson College in Washington.

To celebrate, the bicentennial commission will hold a dinner-and-dance gala Friday and a children's version of the party and an oldie's dance Saturday. A music festival will be held next Sunday, but that's only the end of the beginning. A much larger outdoor festival is planned for July 3 to 7, with parades, games, rides and food to continue the celebration.

Early 1770s: John Canon, founder of Canonsburg, purchases land from Virginia and several years later builds a grist mill. He was appointed local justice and one of the commanders of Revolutionary War militia, and he later served on state legislature.

1775: John McMillan, who graduated three years earlier from Princeton University with Aaron Burr and James Monroe, arrives in Canonsburg. He becomes one of the town's first ministers, opens a classical education school in a log cabin and becomes an important political insider who helps shape the town.

July 28, 1794: Mail sacks opened illegally in the Black Horse Tavern as part of Whiskey Rebellion.

May 21, 1802: Council votes to prohibit riding a horse in town faster than a trot. A fine is set at $2.

Feb.18, 1852: Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is founded in Leatherman House on North Central Avenue.

March 20, 1884: Miscreants topple the West End Tollhouse and push it down Chartiers Creek bank.

Jan. 19, 1889: Former Confederate spy Belle Boyd lectures at the coliseum on Jefferson Avenue.

Nov. 14, 1898: Canonsburg's "big fire" destroys much of the business district after men playing cards knock over a kerosene heater.

1902: Canonsburg Volunteer Fire Department is founded. A second police officer is hired, and the Canonsburg Police Department is established.

1902: Alice Zeno parachutes from a hot air balloon during the centennial celebrations and shocks the crowd by wearing tights.

Aug. 26, 1911: Twenty-six people are crushed to death in an Opera House tragedy when someone yells "Fire!" during a movie.

Nov. 2, 1919: Seven buildings are dynamited in East End; Black Hand -- a group said to be the precursor to the Mafia -- is blamed.

May 27, 1921: Marie Curie, who discovered radium, visits Standard Chemical Co., where commercial quantities of radium sold for $180,000 a gram were produced. She was presented a gram of radium produced by the company.

June 28, 1923: Daily Notes reports "boys raiding cherry trees;" the paper recommends horse-whipping as punishment.

Dec. 14, 1929: A burglar fleeing the Ladies' Store at West Pike and Jefferson streets is shot by a policeman.

1962: Canon-McMillan High School friends form the The Four Townsmen. The "doo-wop" group that split up after high school was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in the 1990s, then began performing again.

July 16, 1967: Charles H. Richards Jr., 20, becomes the first resident killed in the Vietnam War.

March 29, 1979: After years of debate, council dedicates a road to singer Bobby Vinton, and calls it Bobby Vinton Boulevard.

1985: U.S. Department of Energy workers complete a $35 million radiation cleanup project after 200,000 tons of radioactive debris, mostly uranium mill tailings, was discovered beneath the former Canonsburg Industrial Park.

Nov. 23, 1994: Cooper Power Systems in Canonsburg, once Washington County's largest employer with 4,000 workers, closes because of slow market growth in the power transformer industry. The plant nearly closed three years before when 900 union workers went on a three-month strike. It was purchased in 1996 and became Pennsylvania Transformer Technology Inc., which now employs about 300.

May 15, 1999: Canonsburg Heritage Society dedicates the Perry Como statue at Heritage Plaza in front of the borough building on West Pike Street.

For information about any of the bicentennial events, and for food and craft vendors applications, call 724-745-5310 or 724-746-4665.

Here is a list of people and groups who were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame and Museum.

The Ames Brothers. Joe, Ed, Gene and Vic came from Boston but made their first recording in Pittsburgh. Influenced by the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots, the group had a string of hits from 1949 through 1960, including "The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane," "Ragmop," "You, You, You" and "China Doll." The group had its own television show in 1954.

The Andrews Sisters. Influenced by the Boswell Sisters, Patty, Maxene and LaVerne Andrews of Minneapolis started singing in vaudeville for $1 a day and eventually sold 75 million records. They scored 113 chart singles, primarily in the '40s, including "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." They are forever associated with the World War II era for their visits to military bases, appearing in wartime musicals and singing on Armed Forces Radio. Patty is the only sister still alive.

The Beach Boys. Combining Four Freshmen harmonies and Chuck Berry's guitar-oriented rock, the quintet made anthems out of surfing, cars and girls, and later moved into more topically relevant material. Brian Wilson was the band's artistic center, writing and producing "Help Me, Rhonda," "Good Vibrations" and "I Get Around." Al Jardine, Mike Love and Wilson survive. Dennis and Carl Wilson have died.

Crosby, Stills and Nash. Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield, David Crosby of the Byrds and Graham Nash of the Hollies brought harmony to politically charged '60s rock, while highlighting each members' musical contributions. Songs like "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," "Marrakesh Express" and "Wasted on the Way" remain air-play favorites.

The Manhattan Transfer. Tim Hauser wanted to avoid what other singing groups were doing and found like minds in Alan Paul, Janis Siegel and Laurel Mass, who was replaced in 1981 by Cheryl Bentyne. The group brought pop, rock, jazz, swing, doo wop and rhythm 'n' blues influences into one unit, scoring hits with "Operator," "Twilight Zone" and "Boy From New York City."

The Original Drifters. Clyde McPhatter left the Dominoes to form a raw, gospel-influenced rhythm 'n' blues group with Bill Pinkney, and Gearhart and Andrew Thrasher. The group produced hits like "Lucille," "Honey Love," "Money Honey" and "White Christmas" before McPhatter was drafted into the Army in 1954, starting a torrent of personnel changes that made the group's history difficult to document. Only Pinkney survives from the original group.

The Platters. The first rhythm 'n' blues group to top the pop charts relied on the lead of Tony Williams with backing support from Herb Reed, Alex Hodge, David Lynch and Zola Taylor. From 1953 through 1960, when Williams was with the group, the Platters had hits like "Twilight Time," "Only You," "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" and "The Great Pretender." The group originated in Los Angeles. Only Reed and Ms. Taylor survive, but there are 17 groups performing that call themselves the Platters.

The Supremes. Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson were Detroit high schoolers when they started, and became the top-selling female vocal group of all time with Motown classics like "Where Did Our Love Go?" "Baby Love," "Come See About Me" and "Stop! In The Name of Love." Their success helped make Motown one of the most successful independent labels of all time.

The Boswell Sisters. Hailing from New Orleans, Connee, Martha and Helvetia combined classical, jazz and popular music with a southern twang that made them a popular group of the '30s. They were regulars on radio and in film, and Connee inspired Ella Fitzgerald.

The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi were one of the first gospel groups to appear on the rhythm 'n' blues charts. Archie Brownley, Joseph Ford, Lawrence Abrams, Lloyd Woodard and Percell Perkins -- four of them were blind -- toured the country for more than 40 years, and inspired Ray Charles and other soul singers.

The Golden Gate Quartet started out singing "jubilee," a secular form of gospel, and developed into jazzier harmonies. Willie Johnson, Henry Owens, William Langford and Orlandus Wilson toured the world.

The Mills Brothers of Piqua, Ohio, charted 71 singles over four decades, including "Paper Doll," "You Always Hurt The One You Love," "Daddy's Little Girl" and "Glow Worm." Brothers Herbert, Harry and Donald and their father, John, were original members. Donald carries on with his son, John.

The Ravens of New York City were inspired by the Mills Brothers but are considered the first "real" rhythm 'n' blues group. They were the first to use dance steps in shows and featured the falsetto of Maithe Marshall and the double-deep voice attack of baritone Warren Suttles and bass Jimmy Ricks. The Ravens crossed over to white audiences with "Ol' Man River," "White Christmas" and "Always."

Sonny Til and the Orioles were known for their ballads and the voice of Til. Hailing from Baltimore, the former Vibranairs also featured Alexander Sharp, George Nelson, Johnny Reed and Tommy Gaither. The group had hits with "Crying in the Chapel," "It's Too Soon To Know" and "Tell Me So" until 1953, when Til fired the other members and hired a group called the Regals to replace them. Albert "Diz" Russell was one of the Regals and took over leadership of the Orioles when Til died in 1991.

Those receiving Volunteer Awards for their contributions to promoting the Vocal Group Hall of Fame and Museum were: Jack Hunt, singly, and his group, Johnny Angel and the Halos, the Four Dots, the Memories, The Four Townsmen, the Orioles, Don and Juan and the Pittsburgh All Stars.