Don McGuire, Billy Vaughn, Jimmy Sacca and Seymour Spiegelman spent 1953 in a daze.

The four Western Kentucky University students were hitting the top of music charts as a group call The Hilltoppers. Their first hit was a song called “Trying.”

“It didn’t do well the first months. Then we got a call from a man in Cincinnati who said we had a hit going on up there. Cleveland called the same hour. Then Pittsburgh called,” said McGuire, the last surviving member of the group. “We sat around a desk and looked at each other. The next thing you know we’re a hit.”

The eight years The Hilltoppers performed will be chronicled on a documentary call “The Hilltoppers,” which will air at 8 p.m. Oct. 24 on KET and at 7 p.m. Oct. 30 on KET2. A preview event hosted by KET and WKU is at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Van Meter Hall, where the group recorded “Trying.” Admission is free, but reservations are requested and may be made by calling 502-589-3538 or online at ket.org/events. The documentary screening will be followed by a Q&A with producer and writer Tom Thurman and others. There will also be a special performance by male a cappella ensemble The WKU Redshirts.

“I haven’t seen it yet, but a friend of mine said it was good quality,” McGuire said.

The idea of the documentary originated with Shae Hopkins, the executive director and chief executive officer of KET, Thurman said.

“She grew up in the same neighborhood as the McGuire family. I knew about the group from the writings of Bobbie Ann Mason and Ed McClanahan,” he said. “Bobbie Ann Mason was president of The Hilltoppers Fan Club as a teenager. It took only one conversation with Don McGuire to know that this would be perfect for the KET audience.”

Van Meter Hall seemed the most natural place to hold the premiere, Thurman said.

“That’s where they recorded their first song, ‘Trying,’ so we thought it would be fitting to preview it where they got started, right there on Western’s campus,” he said.

Thurman was surprised that the group became so popular in such a short period of time.

“It was a song they recorded in Van Meter Auditorium. They took it to Dot Records in Tennessee. In a few short weeks they found themselves performing on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show,’ ” he said. “In 1953 they were the most popular group in the entire country. They hit stardom very quickly.”

From the beginning of research and development to post-production has taken six months, Thurman said.

Thurman doesn’t believe The Hilltoppers have gotten the acclaim they deserve in American music history.

“I think their influence was spread more than many people realize. You can hear their influence in groups like the Everly Brothers and even the Beatles in their harmonies,” he said. “I think that’s an important part of their legacy.”

McGuire, who sang in a low voice, said the group couldn’t just sit there and do nothing to earn their fame.

“We worked the disc jokey circuit and did radio. We signed with a booking agency,” he said. “They called and said we were booked on Ed Sullivan. We thought, ‘how are we going to pay for this?’ ”

They managed to get there and were taken to a choreographer, McGuire said. They went into rehearsal the next day.

“There were a couple of movie stars and musicians,” he said.

A man with a camera around his neck approached them. He said he was with “Newsweek.” The young men asked why he wanted to interview them.

“You’re college kids with a hit,” he said. “That’s news.”

The group was asked how they were going to feel with 40 million people looking at them, McGuire said.

“We got through it all right. If you do it live there’s pressure and you feel it,” he said. “That was the most powerful show in the country. (Ed Sullivan) could make or break you.”

The Hilltoppers didn’t just perform in the United States. They performed in places such as the Philippines and Tokyo.

“We’d fly out on Friday, do the show and come back early Monday morning,” McGuire said. “I’ve gone to class many mornings wiping off makeup.”

The group stayed in school so they wouldn’t get drafted, but eventually three of them were called to serve.

“It hurt our popularity,” McGuire said.

By the time they got out of the military, things had changed.

“There were 10 good groups back then and here came rock ’n‘ roll,” McGuire said. “Kids latched on to it and didn’t want to listen to us anymore. In 1960 I hung it up.”

In the end, The Hilltoppers had 21 songs that made it to the Top 40. Out of 18 top songs, they had three. In 1953 they were named Number One Vocal Group in America by several publications.

“We had a fine lead singer in Jimmy Sacca,” McGuire said. “We were a pretty funny group. We backed him up and it worked.”

McGuire has written his memoirs in a book called “From Big Bottom to Broadway.” The book is currently in the editing process.

— Follow features reporter Alyssa Harvey on Twitter @bgdnfeatures or visit bgdailynews.com.