In tune with the times
Several years ago, the Four Townsmen were the pre-fireworks stadium performers at Canonsburg’s annual Fourth of July celebration. No doubt, when they burst into “The Impossible Dream,” it had very special meaning for group originals Lou Gadani and Pete Kouklakis. Together, they’ve achieved the nearly impossible feat of sustaining a music career for more than a half century.
The Four Townsmen remain well-known for their early 1960s single, “Sometimes”/ “It Wasn’t So Long Before (Graduation’s Here),” but, in fact, it was just a pleasant blip in a 58-year whirlwind of performances that ranged from recording studios to private clubs, festivals and stadiums.
According to longtime group guitarist and musician John Marcischak, “As funny and corny as it may sound, the beginnings of what eventually would become the Four Townsmen started with impromptu singing at age 12 or 13 on some of the street corners in East Canonsburg. That’s what we did. We’d sing some of the harmonies of the Mills Brothers, but we’d never get to the end of it because we didn’t know all of the words,” he says. “We were fortunate to have some great people to help us get started. We had one dad in particular, Victor Bell, who played with some of the bands in the area. He would bring us together around the holidays and we would prepare some songs as a Boy Scout band and perform at the Bears Club in New Eagle and at some Christmas parties. And then the group would all fall apart, but the next year, we’d do it again. Mr. Bell had something nobody had at the time – a public address system. Without that, we couldn’t have done anything.”
It was during this era of 1957-1958 when some of those Canonsburg bands, particularly the Four Townsmen, started to form. Some of the guys involved were Victor Bell (Victor Bell’s son), Lou Gadani, Pete Kouklakis and a Chartiers Township boy, Mike D’Amico.”
By 1959, the Four Townsmen officially became a group.
Soon afterward, the Four Townsmen went into the studio for the first and only time and recorded their two-sided single for Art Flow Records. At that time, the Townsmen were lead singer Chuck Marshall, Bob Kraushaar, Pete and Lou. The band included Victor Bell on bass, Tim Polosky on drums, Dennis Colucci on sax and John Etzel on guitar. It was the only time that particular configuration played together.
The two-sided single was played on Pittsburgh’s KDKA radio, among other stations, and resulted in the Four Townsmen doing the local sock hop tour, playing in Atlantic City with Paul Anka and the Crystals and even doing a performance on the rooftop of the Route 19 Drive-In Theater.
One of the interesting aspects of “Graduation” was that the instrumental introduction was borrowed from Rosie and the Originals’ “Angel Baby,” and the song itself was very close musically to the flip side of “Graduation,” “Sometimes,” which was originally recorded by Danny and the Juniors.
Recording a song evidently was nothing special at the time. Canonsburg’s Four Coins and Donnybrooks were also popular in the same era. “Canonsburg always had that rich music tradition,” Marcischak recalls. “We all started playing an instrument in grade school and over the years, we mixed it up as far as various groups go.”
After Chuck left the Four Townsmen, he joined Little Man and the Victors and they recorded a song at Gateway Studios in Pittsburgh. Victor’s sister married one of the Four Coins, so it’s the Coins singing background for Chuck on that recording.
But like the Four Townsmen, Little Man and the Victors were victims of the British invasion. They released their single in January 1964, the same month the Beatles became big in America.
“Once the British invasion hit,” Marcischak says, “a lot of the things that we were so much in love with, musically, ended. The Beatles were able to do with four what it took the Four Townsmen eight or nine people to do. The Beatles were a self-contained group, and that put other groups at a great disadvantage. Many of them went on hiatus, including the Four Townsmen.”
The Four Townsmen didn’t resurface until the late 1990s because there were no venues interested in that type of music. Then, the rock revival happened.
“The objective in 1961 or 1962, when the Four Townsmen’s single was released, was to sell records. When the revival happened, the new objective was to sell memories,” Marcischak says.
With pre-Beatles music popular again, Bob Kraushaar and Lou Gadani decided to bring the Townsmen back together with Pete also returning, and a new lead singer, Hug McKinney (Chuck Marshall had died a few years before). The Townsmen quickly found a second life at various Western Pennsylvania venues.
Eventually, Bob retired and was replaced by Nevin Van Ripper for a short time. Pete Povich, who was doing some sound work for the group, then replaced Nevin. That’s when the Four Townsmen also decided to become a full-fledged band, adding musicians John, Rob Throckmorton and Tom Lomoansly. When Tom retired, he was replaced by Ray Margiotta.
Hug decided to move on in 2010 and Eric Bruce became the new lead singer, with Bill McWreath joining the band as keyboardist. Later, Milt Barney became the group’s ninth member as its saxophone player.
About two years ago, Eric and Pete departed and Bobby Nicholas and Maria Sargent – the first female in the Townsmen – were added. The newest evolution of the group still performs – 58 years after that very first street corner symphony.
Note: The Lou Gadani-Pete Kouklakis – Eric Bruce – Pete Povich version of the Four Townsmen have tentatively planned a “Farewell Show” for this fall.