Thursday, August 1, 2013

Tower Records Spotlight: Just Four Men - There's Not One Thing

This band has some serious identity issues. Just Four Men hailed from Liverpool and performed and recorded under the names: The Silhouettes, Dee Fenton and the Silhouettes, Four Just Men, Just Four Men (pre-dating the men's hair coloring product by a cozy 40 years), and, eventually, Wimple Winch (best know for their freak beat nugget, Save My Soul). They never did find a good name, in my opinion.

The band released two singles in their native UK before turning to the eventual Wimple Winch moniker. Surprisingly, they somehow managed just 1.5 records here in the states. The first single was released as Four Just Men. They got both sides of that record on Tower. Then their second single, There's Not One Thing, which we have here, only got half a release back in October of 1965. Let me explain...or try. The other side of this record, the A-Side if you will, was a Freddie and the Dreamers number. Tower Records somehow decided to release two Freddie singles with Flip-Sides by different bands. This is one of them. So, yeah, Just Four Men only got the Flip-Side of a Freddie crap ass single. Ok, on to the song...

I'm not going to try to convince you There's Not One Thing is a great song. It's not. It's got a nice flow to it, nice harmonies and a cool and surprising bridge. So, it's quite okay or slightly better. I saw that writer Richie Unterberger called them "slightly above average". I'll buy that. But, what is great about this is the very nice jazzy guitar work of John Kelman. Of particular note is his stand-out guitar break at the 1:56 minute mark. I also like his chord work at the fade-out. Kelman co-authored the song with singer Dimitrius Christopholos.
Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side. 

2 comments:

  1. This is a better song than you make it out to be. But you are correct in one thing. That guitar work is nice. Great blog. Keep up the work.

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    1. This post has seen a lot of action in both the number of hits, and the conversation on Facebook. I almost didn't post it. I guess I undersold or, better put, underestimated this song. Thanks for the encouraging words.

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