It began in late 1963 with Mentor, Ohio native Dan Klawon, who heard about The Beatles when a girl on his street brought back "She Loves You" and a Beatles LP from England.  Shortly afterwards, Dan formed The Mods, the first Cleveland group to be British-Invasion influenced from the word go.

Originally, The Mods were Dan Klawon on drums, Dave Smalley on rhythm guitar, Dave Burke on bass, and Wally Bryson on lead guitar.  Later, they were joined by Jim Bonfanti, who played tambourine and sang harmony vocals on the more harmony-oriented songs and replaced Dan Klawon behind the drums on British R&B standards.

Having established themselves as the top British inspired group in Cleveland, The Mods appeared on several local TV shows, and became the resident band at the Painesville Armory, where they opened for visiting acts such as the Yardbirds and Tommy Roe.  In the summer of 1966, The Mods went to Chicago to record two group originals, "It's Cold Outside" and "I'm Goin' Home" written by Dan Klawon.  While in Chicago, they changed their name to The choir.  that was how they were billed when the single came in December 1966.

"It's Cold Outside", of course, has become a classic.  It topped the local charts for five weeks, rose to the lower reaches of national surveys, and is often played in Cleveland to this day.  It's less well known flipside "I'm Goin' Home" was recently covered by the Chesterfield and re-issued on "High in the Mid-Sixties: Vol. 9" (which consists entirely of Ohio bands.)

Soon after the single was recorded, Klawon and Burke left the group, some new members were added, and Jim Bonfanti settled into the drum set permanently.  While Bonfanti was to become the backbone of the band, it was Dan Klawon's initial inspiration and attitudes that set the tradition of musical integrity retained by the group.  the band became more harmony-oriented and less R&B-oriented, but continued to write and perform their own music.  Unfortunately, the two follow-up Choir singles "No One Here To Play With"/"Don't You Feel A Little Sorry For Me" and "When You Were With Me"/"Changin' My Mind", never achieved the success of their debut.  the band experienced several personnel changes, which, combined with the lack of a strong follow-up to "It's Cold Outside", led to a premature breakup in the spring of '68.

After The Choir had disbanded, Bonfanti drummed for a while with guitarist Joe Walsh and keyboardist Phil Gialombardo in a trio called Pie (Pie broke up when Walsh left to join the James Gang).  After toying with a name change to the more timely White Rain, in late 1968 Bonfanti had formed a new version of The Choir.  The new lineup included Kenny Margolis (who had been in an earlier version of the band) on acoustic piano (equipped with pickups), Phil Gialombardo on Hammond organ, Denny Carleton on bass, and Randy Klawon (Dan's younger brother) on guitar and organ, with vocal chores divided amongst everyone except Klawon and Bonfanti.  The new band soon became extremely popular on the local circuit.

The new Choir's repertoire encompassed jazz, R&B, ballads and classical rock, and about 20 original songs.  The group had an unusual keyboard-dominated sound, sometimes even using three keyboards on songs like "MacArthur Park" and Traffic's "Colored Rain".  While other bands were simply performing standard tunes by The Beatles, Stones and Who, etc., The Choir was attempting projects of some magnitude, like taking "MacArthur Park", which was written for full orchestra, and rearranging it for three keyboards, bass, drums and guitar, or performing a 7-minute concerto with four time changes.

In 1969, The Choir entered the studio to record an album's worth of songs.  The result was eight original songs and a cover tune by The Kinks.  the tapes were shopped around to several labels, but they were never released on vinyl.

At the time, The Choir's chief competition was Cyrus Erie, whose repertoire ws dominated with cover material by The Who, Small Faces, Stones, Beatles, etc., and included relatively few originals.  Cyrus Erie was a huge live draw however, even bigger than The Choir.  With The Choir-Cyrus Erie rivalry, the British-influenced Cleveland rock scene reached a peak, but was soon weakened by numerous personnel changes in both bands (several members quit The Choir to join Cyrus Erie, which initiated a series of exchanges between both groups that saw members playing in both groups at various times).  During one of these personnel shuffles, Denny Carleton and Randy Klawon left to join Moses, a new group formed by Brian Sands, which performed about 80% original music.

The Choir released a final single, "Gonna Have A Good Time Tonight" (the Easybeats song)/"So Much Love" on the Intrepid label.  The single received little notice and in the summer of 1970, The Choir disbanded for good.  they played their last gig at D-Poo's Tool & Dye Works, the only rock 'n' roll club in the Cleveland Flat at that time.

Shortly after The Choir disbanded, Eric Carmen and Jim Bonfanti formed a new band, Raspberries, which also included two members of the original Choir, Wally Bryson and Dave Smalley.  Within two years, they became the biggest Cleveland rock group chart act ever.  By 1975 though, Raspberries had disbanded, and the dominance of Cleveland rock by mod-inspired groups also ended.

Aside from a reunion at Kenny Margolis' New Year's Eve Party in 1976, The Choir hasn't played together for 15 years, but local bands that feature ex-Choir members continue to draw well to this day.  Wally Bryson has been in a couple bands with Dan Klawon (Tattoo and The News) and another with Dave Smalley (The Secret), and to this day ex-Raspberries producer Jimmy Ienner calls him for recording sessions in New York or L.A.  Wally is currently performing and recording original music with Kenny Margolis and Dan Klawon in Sittin' Ducks.  Randy Klawon has joined Denny Carleton's latest group The Window, and, on his own, Carleton has recorded several cassettes and continues to be one of the biggest champions of the local music scene with projects like samplers of local talent on his Green Light label.  Since forming his label, Carleton has received correspondence from as far as West Germany and Spain inquiring about The Choir.