The original members were Al Alberts (originally Albertini), Dave Mahoney, Lou Silvestri, and Rosario "Sol" Vaccaro. They all came from Chester, Pennsylvania.
Alberts went to South Philadelphia High School, Temple University, and the United States Navy, where he met Mahoney. Originally, Alberts sang with Mahoney playing behind him, and later they added Vaccaro on trumpet and Silvestri on drums. They played locally in the Philadelphia area, and Alberts started his own record label, Victoria Records, when they could not find a distributor to release their first record, (It's No) Sin. It sold a million copies, and Decca Records soon signed the group, billing them as The Four Aces featuring Al Alberts.
Alberts, however, left the group in 1956 to try to make it as a soloist, but never made the charts. He was replaced as lead singer by Fred Diodati, who had attended South Philadelphia High School a few years after Alberts.
Eventually the group broke up, but Diodati still has a group which he calls the Four Aces, though it contains none of the original members. In 1975 a court awarded Diodati the right to the name in a court suit in which the original members tried to establish their right.
The original FourAces were the cargo liners Excalibur, Exochorda, Exeter, and Excambion, built for American Export Lines by New York Shipbuilding of Camden, New Jersey between 1929 and 1931.
During World War II, all four vessels were taken over by the U.S. Navy, renamed, and designated as AP- and APA-class troop transports.
After World War II, American Export Lines purchased four C3-class transports built by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. at Sparrow’s Point, Maryland, had them refitted as passenger liners, and placed them in service as the new "FourAces." Carrying the names of the original quartet, the new "FourAces" sailed under the AEL flag until the 1960s.
They played locally in the Philadelphia area, and Alberts started his own record label, Victoria Records, when they could not find a distributor to release their first record, "(It's No) Sin." It sold a million copies, and Decca Records soon signed the group, billing them as The FourAces featuring Al Alberts.
In 1975 a court awarded Diodati the right to the name in a court suit in which the original members tried to establish their right.
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