Chuck Blasko and The Vogues return for concert in Turtle Creek

Anyone who attended Turtle Creek High School in the late 1950s, it seems, has a story about The Vogues.

“It's rare when The Vogues aren't part of a conversation,” said Patrick Lanigan, owner of a funeral home in Turtle Creek that bears his name.

The four-member, male vocal group famously ascended from day jobs in the Mon Valley to Billboard's Top 100 when they were just a few years out of high school.

“People talk about how unusual it was to see them in high school, and a few years later see them on national television,” Lanigan said.

Memories likely will come flooding back Saturday for old friends and longtime fans of the group, when original Vogues member Chuck Blasko returns home for a concert in front of the Turtle Creek Volunteer Fire Department station on Monroeville Avenue.

Lanigan is sponsoring the free concert, which falls on the second day of a three-day fundraising fair for the volunteer firefighters. The concert also will coincide with the 50th anniversary of The Vogues' first hit, “You're the One,” which reached No. 4 on Billboard's Top 100.

Blasko of Greensburg said he looks forward to a performance in his hometown, where he played football on Friday nights and watched the glow of steel mills from his hallway window.

“It'll be nice to sit and relax, and talk about old times,” he said.

Blasko was a senior at Turtle Creek High School when the group — then known as the Val-Aires — was formed.

“They used to sing on the steps of the junior high,” said Joe Sauter, a Turtle Creek High School graduate and member of the volunteer fire department.

“That was my introduction to rock ‘n' roll, and knowing those guys made it even more special.”

The group briefly split up after high school as members joined the military or attended college. They reformed in 1965 as a four-member group: Blasko, Hugh Geyer, Bill Burkette and Don Miller.

A few months later, their first single as The Vogues hit national airwaves.

“We still all had regular jobs when the first record hit, so we were leery about going on the road,” Blasko said.

But after the group's rendition of “Five O' Clock World” also hit No. 4 on the charts, a national tour and performances on “American Bandstand” and “The Ed Sullivan Show” soon followed.

They were one of many vocal groups in and around Pittsburgh that went from performing on street corners or for small audiences to entertaining in front of national audiences, Blasko said.

The Marcels and The Skyliners also earned national acclaim with hits that included “Blue Moon” and “Pennies from Heaven,” respectively.

Local rock ‘n' roll disc jockey Porky Chedwick, also known to listeners as the “Daddio of the Raddio” and the “Platter Pushin' Papa,” helped the groups.

“He would play your song for weeks, or months, and then flip it over to the B-Side,” Marcels singer Walt Maddox said.

Blasko said by 1982, he was the only original Vogues member who hadn't left to pursue another career. He hired replacement singers and continued to perform.

Stan Elich of Weirton, W.Va., purchased the trademark and began touring with another version of The Vogues in the mid-1980s.

Original members Burkette and Geyer have performed with that group, which tours nationally.

Lanigan said he's looking forward to Saturday's show by Chuck Blasko and The Vogues.

“It's going to be a great evening,” Lanigan said. “And the fact that it's a free concert may, in turn, help the fire department.”

Kyle Lawson is a contributing writer for Trib Total Media.