Bob Flanigan

Bob Flanigan, a founding member and original lead singer of the innovative vocal group the Four Freshmen, whose elegantly intricate jazz-rooted singing was a profound influence on Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson as well as the Lettermen, the Manhattan Transfer and numerous other vocal acts, died Sunday at his home in Las Vegas of congestive heart failure. He was 84. Flanigan, who retired from performing with the group in 1992 but continued as its manager until his death, was surrounded by friends and family and had been serenaded by an ad hoc group of eight trombone players a few hours before he died, a spokeswoman for the current edition of the Grammy-winning group said Monday.

Ross Barbour, the last surviving original member of the Four Freshmen, the influential close-harmony vocal quartet that came to fame in the 1950s with hits such as "Graduation Day," has died. He was 82. Barbour, who had lung cancer, died Saturday at his home in Simi Valley , said Dina Roth, the current group's personal manager. Barbour's death came three months after that of another founding member, his cousin Bob Flanigan, the original lead singer. The two other founding members were Barbour's brother Don and Hal Kratzsch.

If it hadn't been for romance, a constant theme in their music, the Four Freshmen might not have outlasted their debut performance. "The first place we ever played as the Freshmen was a place called the 113 Club in Fort Wayne, Ind.," founding member Bob Flanigan recalled in a phone conversation earlier this week from his home in Las Vegas. "The most predominant thing we could see from the stage was the pay phone across the dance floor.

If it hadn't been for romance, a constant theme in their music, the Four Freshmen might not have outlasted their debut performance. "The first place we ever played as the Freshmen was a place called the 113 Club in Fort Wayne, Ind.," founding member Bob Flanigan recalled in a phone conversation earlier this week from his home in Las Vegas. "The most predominant thing we could see from the stage was the pay phone across the dance floor.

Ken Albers, 82, who contributed harmonies to the Four Freshmen vocal group that was popular in the 1950s and '60s, died Thursday in Simi Valley after a long illness, according to Ross Barbour, one of the original members of the quartet. Barbour, his brother Don Barbour, their cousin Bob Flanigan and Hal Kratzsch formed the close-harmony group at the Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Music at Butler University in Indiana in 1948. The quartet sang such standards as "Moonglow" and "Mood Indigo."

Jackson Lyrics Questioned: Jewish leaders are protesting Michael Jackson's reported use of anti-Jewish references in video sessions for the song "They Don't Care About Us" being shot in Brazil by director Spike Lee. Jackson had pledged to change the couplets "Jew me, sue me" and "kick me, kike me" in June after the song's release sparked outcry.

After seeing them Sunday at Cafe Lido, one has to wonder what the Four Freshmen thought of the Milli Vanilli controversy. Here's a group that not only does its own singing, much of it involving complex harmonies, but also provides its own musical accompaniment including rhythm section and a four-piece brass front line. Some of today's pop wonders can't even sing and dance at the same time.

Asked the secret behind the Four Freshmen's successful four-decade-plus career, Bob Flanigan, the founder and leader of the vocal quartet, answered quickly: Psychological coercion. "We played about 3,000 colleges in the '50s and '60s, sometimes two a day, and those fans are parents now, and a lot have brainwashed their kids into listening to us," he said with a laugh.

Bandleader Stan Kenton was a stickler for precision. But the big band that played at producer Ken Allan's seventh annual tribute to Kenton, held Sunday at the Irvine Marriott, and also featuring the Four Freshmen, was anything but tight. In fact, it was often downright ragged. More than once, players looked at each other's music, trying to decipher where they were supposed to be. Surprisingly, despite the confusion, the music still sounded pretty good as played by this unrehearsed crew of L.A.

Until the news came six years ago, Carol Krause was having "a pleasant life," she told the hundreds of women gathered at the Hyatt Regency Irvine. "I had a happy marriage, a career as a television journalist . . . a life that was pretty uneventful, until, BOOM!" She learned that her younger sister, Susie, 38, had ovarian cancer. For Krause, 46, who spoke at the Circle 1000 benefit for the Hoag Cancer Center in Newport Beach, it was more than horrible news.