2020 Champs – The 139th Street Quartet
Legacy Quartet Champions
In 2020, with the Covid pandemic in full swing, the BHS cancelled their International Convention and Contest. Instead, and thanks to technology, they created an online “contest” that featured past quartets who placed second – they never won. This is a story of the winner of that “competition”.
Please see the link at the bottom of this page for further details.
Photo courtesy of BHS Archives.
The Gold Medal
Winning an International Quartet Championship for the Barbershop Harmony Society is not easy.
Just ask any of the members of the 19 quartets that placed second.
And never won.
Yet each year, many of those great quartets spend countless hours in rehearsals, coaching sessions and quartet preliminary contests, only to finish second.
Year after year.
And perhaps the best-known quartet that never won the coveted gold medal was the 139th Street Quartet.
But on Monday, August 31st, 2020 that all changed. The 139th Street Quartet was crowned champions of the “Legacy Quartet Championship”, a unique “virtual” contest that featured 20 of the Society’s best never-to-win quartets.
The idea of a Legacy Quartet Contest came about after the 2020 International Convention was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And while so many were disappointed about the idea of not crowning a new quartet champion, the “replacement” concept turned out to be an outstanding alternative that was quickly embraced by so many barbershoppers.
Steve Armstrong, Chair of the Selection Committee made the announcement. “It’s my honor to say that the 2020 Legacy Quartet Champion is the 139th Street Quartet!”
Immediately, the quartet members were bombarded by well-wishers. Pete Neushul, the great – and only – baritone of the quartet said, “I got to hear from people that I hadn’t heard from in forever.” Jim Kline, the bass of the quartet was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge when the news broke. He explained that he received a text message and had to pull over. “Could this be true?’ Kline said he was delighted to receive the news. “I’m still on Cloud 9. I’m so happy”.
Barbershop Icons
There are very few people in barbershopping that have never heard of the 139th Street Quartet. Many believe they were one of the groups that changed the face of barbershopping. Mike Slamka, lead of the gold medal quartet Crossroads said, “A lot of quartets today kinda pattern their show after what the 139th Street Quartet did – they were just such a great show quartet.”
Neushel explained that the quartet was not afraid of taking chances. “We had this group. Let’s step off in this direction and we’d explore over there”. They would then go on to explore other ideas. “The thing is, you want the audience to go away with more than they came in with.” That was apparent to BHS Staffer – and contest committee member Amy Rose. “I would say that it’s difficult to find a quartet now that doesn’t talk about the 139th Street Quartet as so influential. And not just for comedy. Their DNA is in so many quartets.”
One measure of their popularity was that many of the quartets the competed against – and ultimately beat them – were some of their biggest admirers. Jim Bagby, the gold medal baritone for the Rural Route Four remembers “We were fortunate to be backstage with them a lot. They were just such fun guys in the first place. We always tried to make sure – if they were ahead of us – that we’d stay backstage so we could see them. You knew the audience was going to have such a great reaction. Great, great quartet.”
“You’ve never seen a quartet like them before”, said Jim Henry, gold medal bass of the Gas House Gang and Crossroads. “They were young, their songs were clever and creative, and their sound was extremely unique”. Henry said that the quartet had “a charisma that oozed”. He could tell that they were more interested in entertaining the audience than winning a contest. “They were being themselves and let the chips fall where they may”.
Henry admits being in awe of the quartet as he was just beginning his barbershopping experience. “I was a young guy when they were competing. I just admired them”. Henry said that he bought their first album, and that he “wore it out”. While attending one contest, one of his friends was assigned a hotel room right next to the 139th Street Quartet’s practice room. During one visit to his friend’s room, they could hear the quartet warming up next door. Henry said that he went out into the hallway, placed a glass up to the door, and pressed his ear to the glass so he could hear the quartet rehearse! Although he was scared that one of them would open the door, “It was one of my greatest memories”.
Henry spoke about the very first time the Gas House Gang made the Top-10 at the International in 1990. Having never competed at an international, placing in the top 10 “surpassed our wildest dreams”. He remembers waiting backstage for the call-off of quartets who made the top-5. While he knew they were not going to be in the top five, Henry remembers looking around at the other quartets also waiting for the announcement. “Look. There’s the 139th Street Quartet”, Henry said to his brother. They both felt very special to be in such company. “They were such heroes to us.”
While the quartet had four different lead singers through the years, Larry Wright was the most recognizable. Kline recalls that period. “With Doug Anderson s and Larry Wright as arrangers, and Peter as songwriters and all of them conjoined to creating music. It was a wonderful time”.
“We just did the art,” said Kline. He said that Anderson’s arrangements were typically pitched very high “so I didn’t have any low notes”. But that didn’t matter to him or the other members of the quartet. “We were just having fun, creating music that people had not heard before”.
Neushel agreed. “This is art. You can like it. You cannot like it. But this is what we do and here it is”. Kline said the one thing they were trying to do was “be original, have fun and be entertaining”. “We would have loved to have won, but we never were the best quartet in any of those contests – until a week ago”. Kline said that while they were disappointed by not winning, they knew they were paving the way for future barbershoppers.
Johnny Sherburn – who would replace Larry Wright as lead in 1989 – said “a lot of the stuff they did was the creativity of Doug, Larry Jim and Pete. They put together the majority of the stuff that the 139th Street Quartet was remembered about. I just stepped into Larry’s shoes”. Sherburn went on to say that none of the quartet members cared about what the judges thought. “All we wanted to do was connect with people. That’s all”. Kline agreed. “We were just having fun singing.” The quartet made a habit out of creating their own arrangements including “Can You Tame Wild Women” and “The Wild Wild Women”. “These were all just humorous, amusing songs that we were having fun singing.”
How It Began
The 139th Street Quartet was formed in late 1975 after baritone Pete Neushul and bass Jim Kline broke up with their respective quartets, The Great Stage Robbery and the Crown City Good Time Music Company. Neushel explained that the two of them were in the process of putting together another quartet. “That quartet “just crashed and fell apart before we’d ever sung for anybody”. At about the same time, the 1967 Far Western District Champion Far Westerners were in the process of breaking up. The lead in that quartet was Jim Meehan and the tenor was Doug Anderson. Besides winning the district championship, that quartet had also medaled in 1971-72-73, placing as high as 4th place in 1972. “We were asked by Meehan and Anderson to see if we could get together,” recalled Jim Kline. Neushul remembers the first rehearsal. “We sat down around a table, we sang one song and went ‘ok, that’s it’”. “It was no effort at all,” adds Kline.
Incidentally, the reason that Kline’s quartet, The Crown City Good Time Music Company had to break up was that the lead of that quartet – Johnny Sherburn – was going off to school and wouldn’t be available for rehearsals any longer. Sherburn replaced Larry Wright as lead in the quartet in 1989 and helped them win a silver medal in 1990.
Over the next 19 years, the quartet would change leads three more times, but Neushel, Anderson and Kline were the core of the quartet.
Neushul recalls his barbershop beginnings. “When I was little, I used to go to my friend’s house”. He recalled that the friend’s father sang in a Kiwanis Club quartet. Neushel was able to borrow a record of the quartet and began listening to songs like “Coney Island Baby” and “I used to work in Chicago”. “I was just fascinated by that”. The young Neushel started spending more and more time at his friend’s house – just so he could hear the quartet. Later that year, the friend’s father took his son and Neushel to the Long Beach, CA chapter show. “He knew I liked it, so he took me with them”. The headliner quartet that evening was The Gala Lads, who would go on to win the gold medal in 1962. After the show, Neushel discovered the nearby Lakewood chapter and decided to attend the next Friday night chapter meeting. He explained that at the time, he was already singing bass with a high school quartet. “So I sat down in the bass section”. Neushel said that they blew a b-flat “and I couldn’t hit the note”. He then decided to try the next part over – the baritone – “and that’s how I got started”.
Jim Kline grew up in a barbershop harmony family. “My dad was a barbershopper since I was 5 years old”. He recalled his father’s quartet would rehearse in the room adjoining his bedroom. “While I was trying to go to sleep, I could hear the tenor trying to sing the intro to “Glad Rag Ball” and I was screaming it through the wall!”
Kline said that he recalls listening to his father’s records of the top-10 quartets from 1961 and 1962. “We listened to them almost every Saturday and I loved it”. Then in 7th grade, the high school choir director decided to put together a barbershop quartet, so she chose Kline as the tenor and his brother as baritone. They were paired with two other choir members who sang bass and lead. “That bass could sing almost to the bottom of the piano”, recalls Kline. The quartet was invited to sing at his father’s chapter meeting one Monday night. “And I never missed another Monday night until I went away to college”. Kline’s father brought the young Kline boys to their first international convention in 1964 in San Antonio. “My father and I had a chance to sing tags on two occasions. One was with the Confederates and one was with the Buffalo Bills!”.
Kline sang with his dad at district contests until his freshman year in college. Then in his sophomore year, he met up with Johnny Sherburn, Jack McCosh and Bob Elder and formed the Crown City Good Time Music Company sometime in late 1967. “We were a hit right away and did shows up and down California” said Kline. They also made it to the international contest in 1970-1974, placing as high as 11th in 1972.
Jim Meehan – the original lead of the quartet – was also the son of a barbershopper. Before singing with the 139th Street Quartet, he sang with the Golden Staters, a quartet that placed 7th at the International Contest in 1964. He also sang with the Far Westerners – another of the Legacy Quartet Contest finalists.
Doug Anderson started singing barbershop harmony in high school. He joined the Whittier, CA Chapter when he was 16 years old. One of his very first quartets was The Far Westerners, 1967 District Champs – and 4th place finalists at the 1972 International Contest. He replaced tenor Jim Asolas, who had passed away. Not only was Anderson a great tenor and arranger, but he was a champion athlete. He starred as a goalie on the UCLA Men’s Water Polo team that won a national championship. He would later go on to coach water polo at the high school where he taught History.
Jim Kline, Pete Neushel and Johnny Sherburn went to visit Anderson just three days before he passed away in July. “It was very hard,” said Kline, who said that Anderson had lost a great deal of weight and was hardly recognizable. Even though he was dying, Anderson was able to watch the semi-finals of the Legacy Quartet Contest. Anderson’s son Tommy had arranged for his father to watch the semi-finals and Kline spoke to him afterwards. “He really enjoyed watching the contest and he was very pleased,” said Kline. “He was smiling”. Anderson passed away later that evening.
The last person to sing lead for the 139th Street Quartet was Dan Jordan, the gold-medal lead of the New Tradition. While officially, he sang with the 139th Street Quartet from 1992-1994, Dan had been associated with the quartet from their early years. Kline explained that Jordan would sometimes “fill in” at chapter shows for either Larry Wright or Johnny Sherburn if they had a conflict, so when Johnny Sherburn decided to step back after his wife’s surgery, Dan was able to step right into the quartet.
Jordan joined the Society in 1974 while in high school. Besides his accomplishments as a barbershopper, Jordan has the distinction of being the singing voice of Homer Simpson in an episode of the Simpsons TV show. That episode featured the young Simpson singing in a barbershop quartet. He also appeared on such hit shows as “ER”, “The Gilmore Girls” and “Arrested Development”. He also sang baritone for seven years with the Dapper Dans of Disneyland.
Jordan is an encyclopedia of information about the quartets that never won the championship. “The Clef Dwellers. To a lot of people, they don’t know who those guys are at all. But to me, they placed third, second, second, and third. Just like that. In 1948-1949, 1950 and ‘51”. He lamented that as great a quartet as they were, the Clef Dwellers lost to incredible quartets such as the Pittsburghers, Mid-States Four, the Buffalo Bills and the Schmitt Brothers. Sadly, Jordan notes that no one knows anything about that quartet. “Now if you read about them and realized how much these guys did, it might change your mind.”
Jordan said that many of today’s younger barbershoppers know very little about the history of the great quartets from long ago. He says that even the Grand Tradition, the pre-cursor to the 1985 champion New Tradition in which he sang lead, has become obscure to many. “A group like mine that medaled in the 1980’s – three times – they’re gonna go Grand Tradition? Who’s that?”
In late July, Dan Jordan suffered a serious stroke and has been in rehabilitation since. His long-time friend Rayma Powers said that Jordan is undergoing treatment in Los Angeles and has had virtual visits from many of his long-time barbershop harmony fans. She said that the members of his quartet The Gangbusters “brightened his day” and that Jim Kline also paid a recent visit. “They sang “Yesterday” together for his speech therapist”. Afterwards, Kline said that Jordan knew all the words and had perfect pitch. Powers said that Jordan was elated to hear the news about the quartet. “I can’t believe it”, he told her.
What’s in a Name?
The uniqueness of the quartet’s name has a great deal of folklore behind it. The fact that they got their name from the street that Neushul’s company was located is true, but there’s a whole lot more to the story. Neushul explained that “at the turn of the century, quartets would stand on the corner and sing songs”. According to Neushul, that phenomenon happened again 50 years later with the advent of “Doo-Wop”. “The quartets each had names”, said Neushul. “And the quartets were named after the corner where they sang”. Since Neushul’s company was located on 139th Street, the group decided that the name 139th Street Quartet was a fitting moniker.
According to Neushul, the quartet’s very first competition was the 1975 district contest. “We got beat by the San Francisco Storm Door and Whale Oil Company”. That following spring, they qualified for the 1976 International Contest where they placed 10th.
The 1977 Contest
In 1977, the quartet again qualified for the international and were hoping to do well. Neushel recalled an almost harrowing experience at the contest. The quartet had been asked out to dinner at a fancy French restaurant, and had to wear a suit. It seems that Doug Anderson – being from California – didn’t own a suit. Furthermore, none of the others had thought to bring any formal clothing to the convention. The only thing they had were their pink suits/costumes, so that’s what they wore to the restaurant. “It was just great,” said Neushel of the dinner – and their attire. Afterwards, the quartet went back to the arena for the contest only to discover everyone in a panic. “You guys are on. You’re on!” cried a backstage volunteer. It seems the quartet had mis-judged their timing. They arrived just as the quartet that was preceding them was finishing their second song. They scrambled onto the stage and – without skipping a beat – went on to compete. Neushel joked that he was glad none of them spilled their meal on their suits!
Of course, they lost that year to the Most Happy Fellows – by only 50 points. “It wasn’t because of the dinner debacle, though”, Neushel said “The Most Happy Fellows were really good”. Kline remembers how he reacted to the second-place finish. “We were (pleasantly) shocked. We did not expect that at all”. Nueshel’s friend Terry Clarke, bass of the Boston Common, recalled the outcome of the contest. He said that all the medalists’ quartets were happy with their placement. “We were elated at the judge’s selections”. Like all the members of the 139th Street Quartet, Clarke believed that the Most Happy Fellows were the obvious choice. “There’s no question,” he said.
Drama in Cincinnati!
One of the biggest controversies in the history of the barbershop harmony competition was over a song the quartet sang in the 1977 International called “Don’t Put a Tax on the Beautiful Girls”. According to Kline, Doug Anderson – who arranged the majority of the quartet’s songs – found the obscure song in the UCLA Old Songs Library. After the contest – at which they placed second – the quartet began recording an album containing that – and many other songs from their repertoire. After the LP had been recorded and distributed for sale, it fell into the hands of one of the arrangement judges for the upcoming contest in Cincinnati. Kline explained that the quartet got a letter from that judge who wrote to say that he had researched their song and discovered that the melody line had been altered – something that was illegal at the time. The judge warned them that if they were intending to sing that song at the contest – which he would be judging – he intended to disqualify them. Kline admits that Doug Anderson did “change a few notes so that it was more barbershoppy” but insists they didn’t think it would cause that much of an uproar. Kline said the quartet “took umbrage” with the letter and voted to sit out the 1978 competition in Cincinnati – two months before the contest.
“All of the sudden, the place explodes,” said Neushel. He said they were contacted by then Society president Roger Thomas. “I want you there,” Neushel recalls him saying. Kline adds that the chairman of the judges at that time was Ed Waesche. “I worked with him to see if we could come up with a solution”. Kline said Waesche explained to him that the judge was out of line for sending the letter directly to the quartet – that it should have been sent through his office. “He was upset,” said Kline of Waesche. Neushel added that Waesche would allow the quartet to sing the song, but they would be penalized, not disqualified. The quartet rethought the idea and Neushel, Kline and Anderson all voted in favor of competing. But lead Jim Meehan was still not pleased with that resolution. He was adamant that they should remove the arrangement judge from the panel – something that wasn’t going to happen. Neushel said that Meehan was a man of principles and felt strongly about not competing, especially after announcing their intention not to compete. “So Jim said ‘well, I quit’”. So just like that, the quartet was left without a lead.
The week before the contest!
“We still had our airplane tickets,” lamented Kline. Who said he went to the contest and was barraged by fans wanting to know why the quartet was not competing. “It was a very sad, sad contest for me.” Neushel reflected back on what would have happened if Meehan had stayed with the quartet. “If we had been singing with Jim Meehan, I’m sure we would have won (in 1978). Soon after that, though, Meehan – who worked as a lobbyist for a gas company – was transferred to Sacramento and dropped out of barbershopping. The four never got together again to sing, although they remained friends.
Jim Henry said “They didn’t follow the rules as well as some would in that era, but everything they did would be perfectly acceptable today.” Henry said that they “paved the way” for other quartets, but unfortunately it may have cost them the chance to win.
Replacing Jim Meehan
Shortly afterwards, Dan Jordan – who would later compete with the quartet in 1992-1993 and 1994 – introduced them to Larry Wright, who had sung with the popular Sundowners quartet. “I had just moved to LA from Chicago. I was out there less than a year when Jim called me and said that they’d like me to take a shot at it (trying out for the lead part)”.
“It was a little rough,” admits Kline about that first session together. Unlike singing with Jim Meehan – where things “just came together real easy” – Wright’s voice had a different quality. “Right from the start we knew we didn’t have a great mix of voices,” Wright said. “I didn’t sing as high and bright as Jim Meehan. I was trying to sing notes that I couldn’t sing.” But in their second rehearsal, the quartet went over “My Romance”. “We were sounding really good,” said Kline. “we could tell that here is a serious musician”.
“Jim was my biggest supporter,” said Wright. “I had been out of barbershopping for seven years, so the others questioned whether I was going to fit in with this group.”. Wright said that years later, Kline shared with him that their original lead, Jim Meehan, had second thoughts about his decision to quit the quartet and had made overtures that he wanted to come back. “Jim defended me. He told Meehan that he had made his decision and had to live with it.
Incidentally, Kline wasn’t the only one who recognized Wright’s abilities as a musician. Longtime barbershop icon Freddie King was also aware of his abilities. “(The Sundowners) had this tremendous sound and were an extremely talented bunch”. Prior to the 1970 International Contest, he was concerned that the Sundowners were the only real threat to his quartet the Oriole Four. “Just the thought of competing against them made us quake”. So he decided to use a little psychological strategy to motivate his lead singer, Jim Grant. Prior to departing for Atlantic City, NJ, King wrote an “anonymous” note to Grant and placed it in his garment bag. The note read: “Some People say that Larry Wright is the best lead in the world!”. Grant was furious when he found the note. King said that was all the motivation he needed. Of course, the Oriole Four would go on to convincingly beat the Sundowners – as well as several other fine second-place quartets such as the Pacificaires and the Far Westerners – to win the gold medal that year.
Like Klein and Anderson, Larry Wright also grew up in a barbershop harmony family. “My dad sang barbershop and both me and my brother Craig got indoctrinated into it.” Wright said that his father sang in a couple of quartets that would often rehearse in their house and the young boys would be mesmerized. “The first quartet I was actually in was with my dad singing lead, I sang baritone and my brother Craig sang tenor. Round out the quartet was their friend Dave Brady, who sang bass.
During this time, Wright met Lyle Pilcher, a famous coach of the Four Renegades. He had heard the quartet sing and he mentioned that the quartet would do great in competition – if they got a new lead! “So my dad graciously bowed out, I moved to lead and we connected with Doug Miller, who sang baritone. And that’s how we formed the first Sundowners.” That first year the quartet placed 5th at the international contest. “We were pretty much surprised. We were a bunch of young kids who didn’t know any better.”
In 1979, the 139th Street Quartet placed 5th in Salt Lake City. What followed was a series of top-10 finishes for the quartet. But after the 1988 contest in San Antonio, where they finished 6th, the quartet regrouped. Kline said the quartet “really wanted to win and that “it (the 6th place finish) was rather disappointing.”
Coincidentally, before leaving, the quartet ran into Johnny Sherburn. “We sang a couple of tags with him,” said Kline, “and wow! We could ring chords!” Based on that, Neushel, Anderson and Kline voted to make the change. “Needless to say, Larry Wright did not take it well.” Kline said that Wright did not speak to the others for some time. “It was a very unfortunate moment in the 139th Street’s history”. Kline said that all three members of the quartet” loved singing with Larry” but if the quartet was going to win, they needed to make the change. “It was the hardest thing to do,” said Kline.
The following year – with Johnny Sherburn singing lead – the quartet placed 3rd in Kansas City. Then in 1990, the quartet finished a close second in San Francisco, only losing by 20 points to the Acoustix. “It broke my heart,” said Kline of the loss. He explained that they had beaten every quartet that had competed the prior year, “so we thought we had done the job”. And, although Kline was surprised that the Acoustix won, he was humble. “When I listened to the Top-20 album, it was very clear who the winners were” said Kline. “I would have been embarrassed had they given it to us because we were clearly not the best quartet”.
The Legacy Quartet Contest
Among the four songs that the committee selected for the 139th Street Quartet “contest” songs in the Legacy Quartet Contest was “Bowery Boys Medley”, one of their more popular songs. “That was Doug’s arrangement” said Larry Wright. “He had arranged that when (Jim) Meehan was in the quartet. They felt it was a very strong song for them.” Kline explains that the quartet first sang that song at the 1977 International. “It had wonderful segues from one song to the next”. He said that the quartet loved to sing the song. “It had a little tap dance in there and a really nice tag”. Former lead Johnny Sherburn also recalled the song. “That embodies the quartet. Their look, their smooth cleverness in presentation. They just fit that mold.” Several years later, the Gas House Gang would sing the song in competition.
Another one of their favorite songs – and one featured in their “Final” virtual round was “If I Were You, I’d Fall In Love With Me” from the 1988 competition. Kline explains that the quartet first competed with that song in 1985. “The quartet dressed up as hard-rock singers with wigs”. He said that each member wore a different costume with Doug Anderson even brandishing a lead pipe to “intimidate” the audience. “It was like a threat”, he said. “If I were YOU, I’d Fall in Love with ME!”.
Then, for the 1988 contest – the one used in the virtual final round – they dressed as “nerds” instead of hard-rock singers. Kline – who is a practicing dentist (one of the few in the Society) – made some fake buck teeth and Pete Neushul made big Coke-bottle type glasses. “I went to this friend who is an optometrist. I said ‘hey I need some wire glass frames’ and then I went and got some bullet proof – not glass – but like the stuff they use in banks. Like 2 inches thick. I cut that out with a bandsaw”. The final touch to the package was how they styled their hair as a “Poindexter”. “And we wore tuxedos” said Kline. “It was the first and only time we ever wore one”. “It was a spoof on all the guys who wear tuxedos by the way,” added Neushel.
The other song featured in their final virtual round was “My Alabama”, a song written by lead Larry Wright. “My Alabama was a country song I wrote and then decided to arrange it for barbershop”, said Wright. I played (the country version) for the other guys and they said “Hey! That might be able to be done in barbershop”. Kline said “We just loved singing that song”. Even so, the quartet took some heat from the judges as it was deemed as an “art” song, which was forbidden at the time. “It didn’t matter,” said Kline. “All kinds of people were coming up to us saying ‘I love that song’”. He went on to add that often critics will judge a piece of art much differently that the general public. “And that’s what we got. We got a lot of people who dug it”.
Jim Henry talked about the night that song was presented at the virtual finals. “I had the honor hosting our chat room with Jim Kline. He is one of the sweetest, kindest, most humble individuals you’ll ever meet, and he was dealing with the loss of Doug”. Henry said that during that song, he switched his screen to “spotlight” mode to watch Kline’s reaction. “And, you know, some of those moments that happened in that song, especially at the very end “How I Miss Them, How I miss them, How I miss my home”, and then Larry Wright takes the tenor note, and it’s Doug that goes “How I Miss My Alabama Home”. Henry said that he watched Kline’s reaction to that tag. “I will take that with me. Embrace that for the rest of my life. That made everything worth it to me.”
More than Just Great Singers
One of their historic accomplishments was hosting the Quiet Dons, a barbershop quartet from the USSR in 1990. “That was all Peter”, said Kline. “Peter made that happen.” Kline said that Neushel saw a news feature on television about the Russian quartet and contacted his friend Terry Clarke, the bass of the gold medal Boston Common – and a top-level Public Relations executive. “This was perestroika, this was glasnost. Time to, you know, make a PR thing out of this,” Kline said of Neushel’s rationale.
One of the people helping the 139th Street Quartet make the arrangements was former BHS staffer Ray Heller. “He was like the go-to guy on the Russian thing. Heller was just like fantastic,” said Neushel. He explained that a group of barbershoppers “chipped in” and paid for the quartet’s airfare. They landed in New York City and made their very first appearance at Carnegie Hall! The quartet then toured other chapters, ultimately ending up in San Francisco to sing at the International Convention. “These guys were treated like royalty”, said Neushel. He explained that the quartet’s home village was very poor. “We visited them two years later in their hometown and they lived on dirt streets”.
Johnny Sherburn was singing lead in the quartet at that time. Unfortunately, he had to decline going to Russsia as his wife was recuperating from surgery. “I would have been gone a month,” said Sherburn. He suggested that the quartet ask their long-time friend Dan Jordan to step in. Jordan was the gold-medal lead in the New Tradition quartet that won in 1985 – the same quartet that Johnny Sherburn sang in as tenor.
Kline said that they are still in contact with the four members of the Russian quartet. He said that he spoke with the bass and lead shortly after Doug Anderson died and Dan fell ill. “They were devastated” at that news.
In 2014, the quartet was inducted into the BHS Hall of Fame. Among the reasons for their induction was that they were the catalyst behind the College Quartet Championship, the precursor to today’s Next Generation Varsity Quartet Contest. “They foolishly put me in charge of the long-range planning committee for the (Far Western) district,” said Neushel. One idea that was presented by both Jim Kline and myself was a College Quartet Contest. Kline and Neushel then got together with International President – and fellow Far Western District Member/Past President – Sam Aramian at a district contest and “Pitched the idea”. Neushel recalls that Aramian called the international headquarters the following Monday. “I don’t know what transpired,” said Neushel, but the next thing he knew, long-time BHS staffer Ray Heller was assigned to help them. “Heller was just fantastic,” said Neushel. “I certainly think that changed the whole society”.
Kline explains that the quartet always seemed to get “kids involved”. “We had two songs, two arrangements that were different songs put together. The kids would sing one song and we would sing the other”. He said that – unbelievably it all worked together and was a “great entertainment package”.
Lastly….
Each member of the quartet spoke fondly of their time together. Pete Neushel said “it allowed me to exceed my abilities as a musician. I would scribble out some lyrics and I’d walk into Doug and Larry and say ‘here’s a song I wrote about my dad’. And they’d go “OK’, and then it would turn up as an actual song!” Neushel said that he doesn’t know how to write music, but that having Larry Wright and Doug Anderson at his side made that possible. Johnny Sherburn watched how those relationships built over the years. “Doug and Pete were incredibly creative together. They wrote and arranged a lot of songs.” He went on to add that Larry Wright “also did some amazing arrangements with Doug.”
Jim Kline reflected back on that 1978 contest. Although winning in 1978 would have been nice, “we had the next ten years of wonderful music making,” with Larry Wright. Their personalities and talents blended perfectly. Both Wright and Neushel would write the music and Anderson would arrange the score. “It was a wonderful time,” said Kline. He joked about being included in this contest. “Quite frankly, we all got used to losing”, he quipped. “I was totally flabbergasted (by the win).” He said that he has lived with the feeling that he tried and tried, but never won the championship. Even so, he says the journey was “wonderfully fulfilling”. “We didn’t need a gold medal to make this just a fabulous hobby for 20 years”.
Citations:
Besides the personal interviews conducted for this story, material was researched and obtained from past Harmonizers, www.barbershop.org, BHS Archives and Laughter, Love and a Barbershop Song, by Fred Gielow.
Legacy Background: https://www.barbershop.org/legacy_background