The Ames Brothers

The Ames Brothers were an American singing quartet, consisting of four siblings from Malden, Massachusetts, who were particularly famous in the 1950s for their traditional pop hits.The Urick brothers were born in Malden, Massachusetts. Joe (May 3, 1921 – December 22, 2007), Gene (February 13, 1924 – April 26, 1997), Vic (May 20, 1925 – January 23, 1978), and Ed (July 9, 1927 – May 21, 2023) formed the singing group the Amory Brothers, which would become the Ames Brothers.Born into a non-professional but musically talented family, the boys were raised to enjoy classical music and operatic music. Their parents, David and Sarah Urick, were Russian Jewish immigrants from Ukraine who read Shakespeare and semi-classics to their nine children from the time they were old enough to listen.Three of the brothers formed a quartet with a cousin named Lennie, and had been touring United States Army and Navy bases entertaining the troops when they were offered a job at The Fox and Hounds nightclub, one of the fanciest clubs in Boston. This one-week engagement turned into several months when positive word-of-mouth about their appearance got around. At the time, they were using Vic's middle name and calling themselves the Amory Brothers. They were becoming quite popular in the area and it was at this time that Joe decided to rejoin the group. Taking their act to New York City, they got a job with bandleader Art Mooney. One day while at Leeds Publishing Company in search of a song called "Should I" that their mother had asked them to sing, Milt Gabler of Decca Records overheard the brothers singing it and asked them to cut a few sides for Decca Records, just before the year-long AFM recording ban which James Petrillo imposed in January 1948. The brothers shortened Amory to Ames and became the first artists to record for the newly founded Decca subsidiary label, Coral Records.The group performed on Robert Q. Lewis's radio program until it was cut from one hour to 15 minutes. In late February 1949, they began performing on Sing It Again, a musical quiz program on CBS radio.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.