The Fantastic Four [1969] - Best Of The Fantastic Four [Soul #SS 717]

It's becoming a bit like 'Haircut 100 day' on here today i.e. "Fantastic Day" which may be lost on younger or foreign visitors, they were an 80s pop group who had a #9 pop hit in the UK with a song of that name in 1982.

As they say, 'in for a penny, in for a pound'" and as it is very poor on the new release front, I'll continue the Fantastic theme with a compilation from  The Fantastic Four.

They were founded in 1965 and released their first single "Girl Have Pity" on Ric-Tic in 1966. Their second single "Can't Stop Looking For My Baby" was scheduled for release on Ric-Tic 113 as part 1 and part 2 before it but remained unreleased until afterwards with a different cat.no. and different B side.

Incidentally "Girl Have Pity" was also recorded, but unreleased (officially), by The Carstairs  at the same sessions as "It Really Hurts Me Girl" around 1973, probably owing to Cartairs member Cleveland Horn being previously a  member of Fantastic Four, but it doesn't sound like he did the lead vocals on Fantastic Four's original. Also, Red Coach label owner Gene Redd Jr.'s father co-wrote the song with, believe it or not, George Clinton and two others. It appeared years later on a 1993 compilation CD "Old School Harmony Volume 1", which I believe may have been the the source of a vinyl bootleg on South Union. Hayley Records also issued a previously unreleased version by Steve Mancha in 2014. I actually think I prefer, the slower and deeper Carstairs version, a desert island disc for sure, what an incredible vocal performance, how on God's earth did this never get an official release? Perhaps Redd was pre-occupied with managing and producing Kool & The Gang at the time? I said it the other day and will say it again ... they simply don't make them like this anymore!

The Fantastic Four released ten singles in total for Ric-Tic (five of them registering on R&B chart and three on Hot 100) before the label was acquired by Motown where they released just three singles on the Soul imprint prior to leaving for Westbound in 1973. The first couple of singles were on the Eastbound subsidiary in 1973-74 before the switched to the main label in 1975 where they remained until 1978 releasing five albums and around seven or eight singles, of which six entered the R&B chart. So, it would seem Berry Gordy missed a trick with these guys, although Motown did release a compilation "Best Of The Fantastic Four" in 1969 (included below) which includes many of their sides released on Ric-Tic.

Ian Levine latched onto them in 1992 and they released an album on his Motorcity label of mainly synthesised covers on some Northern Soul favourites which didn't really do them any favours!

Those good fellows at Kent released "The Lost Motown Album" on CD in 2015 which contained twelve track originally intended for an album titled "How Sweet It Is" along with an additional thirteen bonus tracks. Many of these tracks were previously unreleased. Ace/Kent commented on the sleeve notes that the album title may have been a suggestion that Motown's intention was to utilise lead singer 'Sweet' James Epps as a solo artist and discard the group.

Details

Rating:	8.2
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Motown
Format:	Album / Compilation
Media:	Vinyl / Digital
Label:	Soul / Universal
Cat No:	None
Date:	1969
Key/BPM:	1A/100
Price:	£15-£25 (approx.) / £8.99

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