Formed in Detroit in 1965 by:
'Sweet' James Epps
Wallace Toby Childs (d. September 1979)
Ralph Pruitt
and Joseph Pruitt.
Originally from Detroit, the Fantastic Four were formed in 1965.
'Sweet' James Epps, Ralph and Joseph Pruitt, and Wallace Toby Childs instigated the quartet, with Childs and Ralph Pruitt later leaving the line-up.
Wallace Toby Childs passed away in September 1979.
They were replaced by Cleveland Horne (d. 13th April 2000) and Ernest Newsome.
Their first single on the Ric-Tic imprint, 'The Whole World Is a Stage,' proved to be the groups only hit song.
The melody reached number 6 on the R & B charts in 1967.
The follow-up, 'You Gave Me Something (And Everything's Alright)', did make number 12 later the same year.
Other releases included 'Girl Have Pity' in 1966, 'Can't Stop Looking For My Baby' in 1967, 'Ain't Love Wonderful', 'As Long As I Love', 'As Long As The Feeling Is There', all in 1967, 'Goddess Of Love', 'Man In Love', and 'I've Got To Have You' all saw the light of day in 1968.
When Motown purchased Ric-Tic, they had another Top 20 R & B hit with 'I Love You Madly', a song reissued from the Ric Tic recordings.
The song was released in 1968 and was also issued on the Soul imprint, who also released 'Best Of The Fantastic Four' in 1969.
They enjoyed a renaissance during the disco era with a few singles on Westbound Records, amongst them were the songs 'Alvin Stone (The Birth & Death of a Gangster)' and 'I Got to Have Your Love.'
1976 saw the release of 'Night People'.Dennis Coffey produced 'B.Y.O.F. (Bring Your Own Funk)' in 1978, however the track only received a lukewarm response.
The Fantastic Four have remained active, and released 'Working on a Building of Love' in 1990 for Ian Levine's UK based Motorcity label.
In 2000, however, the Fantastic Four lost one of its long-time members, Cleveland Horne who suffered a heart attack and died on the 13th April 2000.
Albums:
Fantastic Four (Motown 1969)
Alvin Stone (The Life And Death Of A Gangster) (Westbound 1975)
Night People (Westbound 1976)
Got To Have Your Love (Westbound 1977)
BYOF (Bring Your Own Funk) (1978)
