Four Just Men - That's My Baby/Things Will Never Be The Same

Back in August we did a nice little Tower Records Spotlight. One of those featured in that two week spotlight was a band called Just Four Men doing their song, There's Not One Thing. Read that post here. We're back today with the same band, but here they are called Four Just Men. This double sider was the Liverpool quartet's debut single, released in the UK in November of 1964 on Parlophone Records. In the states it was released in February of 1965 on Tower Records.

The A-Side was composed by singer Dimitrius Christopholus and guitarist John Kelman. That's My Baby has a wonderful and unique whining guitar riff throughout the song. It lifts the ballad to new levels. The Flip-Side, Things Will Never Be The Same was composed by Christopholus and Kelman and bassist, Lawrence Arendes. The break-neck speed song features more great guitar work from Kelman and a chord transition reminiscent of an early Everly Brothers song. This song would have been prime for a screaming lead, and clocking in at a quick 1:48, would seem they would have had time to stick one in there. Both sides are solid all the way through.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

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.