by Bryan ThomasThe 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 perfo...