in august 1961, at 12 years of age, twin brothers chuck (bass) and john panozzo (drums) first played music together with their 14-year-old neighbor dennis deyoung who played accordion and sang, while living in the roseland, chicago area, eventually using the band name 'the tradewinds'. chuck left to attend seminary for a year but returned to the group by 1964. tom nardin had been brought in to replace chuck on guitar, and chuck decided to play bass guitar when he returned to the band. john panozzo was the drummer, while deyoung had switched from accordion to keyboards. in 1965, the tradewinds name was changed to tw4 (there were 4) after another band, the trade winds, achieved fame nationally. by 1966, the panozzo brothers had joined deyoung at chicago state college and kept the group together by performing at high schools and fraternity parties while studying to be teachers. in 1969 they added a college friend folk guitarist, john curulewski, after nardin departed. hard rocker guitarist james "j.y." young came aboard in 1970, making tw4 a quintet.