Let Them Call Your Valentine Sweetheart

Looking for something beyond chocolates and flowers to give this Valentine's Day? A serenade in four-part harmony by a quartet of dapper gents will strike a chord with your sweetheart (or at least with her co-workers).

“Those memories last a lifetime,” says Jon Greene, 75, of Matawan, who sings bass in a barbershop quartet known as “The Bayshore Four.”

Greene, together with Herb Van Note, 78, of West Long Branch, Allan Dean, 54 of Atlantic Highlands, and Ed Smith, 79 of Toms River, are part of a small army of barbershop singers who will fan out across Monmouth and northern Ocean counties, including and , between February 11-14, delivering Singing Valentines for, well, a song really.

For only $50, four gentlemen in their “Class A's” (that's navy blazer, tie, and white slacks) will arrive at your office, restaurant, school or home and sing two love songs, present your personal Valentine message, hand your honey a long stemmed rose, and capture the moment with a keepsake photo. Reservations are being accepted now.

All four belong to the Chorus of the Atlantic, the Red Bank Area Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society. The BHS is an international society of close, four-part barbershop harmony singers founded in 1938 and dedicated to promoting and preserving barbershop music as an art form, according to its website. There are over 25,000 members, predominantly in North America.

“I fell in love with it,” said Van Note, after a fellow choir friend asked him to tag along to a barbershop meeting. That was in 1980 when he was working as a police officer in West Long Branch and raising a family.

“I said 'sign me up," he recalls, "and fortunately, our wives were all supportive of us guys meeting every Friday night to sing and eat."  Although he's sung all four parts, Van Note sings the tenor part now, with charming expression.  

Ed Smith is a New Jersey native who'd never sung before in his life when he was invited to try barbershop singing. A friend from church asked him if he liked to sing, to which he replied “Yes, in the shower.”

“I don't read music and I've never attempted to learn,” said Smith. “It keeps me out of arguments over what to do with the music,” he said with a laugh. “I learn my music by ear.”

So he was surprised, and flattered, when he was first asked to sing the lead, which is the voice that carries the melody.

Allan Dean, 54 of Atlantic Highlands, is the publisher of the Atlantic Highlands Herald, New Jersey's first official electronic newspaper, and the group's baritone.

“I'm the junk man,” he deadpans, “because it's the baritone who sings the notes that are left over.”

“In reality, it's a diminished 7^th chord,” Dean explained. “The baritone pulls it all together, giving that classic barbershop sound.”

He sang in his high school and college choruses.  Then, as a stay at home dad in the late nineties, he was interested in getting a quartet together and found the BHS online.

“I came to barbershop quartet the old fashioned way – over the internet,” he quipped.

They all agree that they love what they do. Over decaf, laughter and gentle ribbing flow easily between the longtime friends. Even their banter has a harmonious flow as they finish each other's sentences or tee up the next guy's punchline.

Bass singer Jon Greene, a retired Staten Island school principal who also taught math at St. John Vianney High School in Holmdel, is used to being in front of a crowd. His musical background dates from his own school days and church choirs over the years.

“I'm a ham, I think,” he says of himself with a twinkle in his eye.

“I like the audience reaction. To connect with the audience. I like to make the girls cry on Valentines Day. I like to make jokes in between songs."

His friends agree.

“Jon's the master of the corny joke,” said Dean.

The singers of the Chorus of the Atlantic perform regularly for retirement parties, garden clubs, Kiwanis luncheons, nursing homes, schools, awards ceremonies and more. The Red Bank chapter meets every Tuesday evening for rehearsal and general business. All four men hold and have held positions on the executive board.

“One of my most favorite performances was one of our most recent,” began Greene, “It was for the Point Pleasant Women's Garden Club, and we had fun singling out one particular lady who'd mistaken us for waiters.”

“She was a great sport,” said Van Note.

“Sometimes as we're walking into an office to get ready to sing, people think we're Chippendales or something,” said Greene as his friends broke into laughter.

"But we're really more like Clydesdales."

To reserve your Singing Valentine, contact Jon Greene at 732-583-1684.

For More Information:

The Barbershop Harmony Society, legally and historically named the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (SPEBSQSA), is the first of several organizations to promote and preserve barbershop music as an art form. To learn more, visit barbershop.org.

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