The original quartet grew up together in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where they learned to sing at St. Michael's Choir School.

The founding and core members were Corrado "Connie" Codarini, bass; John Bernard "Bernie" Toorish, tenor and vocal arranger; James F. "Jimmy" Arnold, lead; and Frank "Frankie" Busseri, baritone and group manager.

Codarini and Toorish had formed a group with two other St. Michael's students, Rudi Maugeri and John Perkins, who were later to found The Crew-Cuts.

[10] The group was known variously as The Otnorots ("Toronto" spelled backwards) and The Jordonaires (not to be confused with The Jordanaires who sang background vocals on Elvis Presley's hits).

When Maugeri and Perkins left the group to concentrate on their schoolwork, Codarini and Toorish joined with Arnold and Busseri in a new quartet.

In early 1952, they recorded their first song, "Turn Back", penned by group member Bernie Toorish under the name "Dazz Jordan".

9 (known as the “New World Symphony”) and featuring an extremely limited accompaniment of percussion and bass, "The Mocking Bird" peaked at #23 on the Billboard pop charts.

In 1953, the Four Lads had their first gold record,[13] with "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)",[11] a song that gave them their first U.S. top-ten hit and propelled them to even more stardom.

[12] When their Columbia contract expired in 1960, the group spent the rest of the 1960s recording for the Kapp, Dot and United Artists labels without ever hitting the charts again.