The Fantastic Four

Detroit R&B and soul group the Fantastic Four formed in 1965. "Sweet" James Epps, Ralph and Joseph Pruitt, and Wallace Childs were the original members. Childs and Ralph Pruitt later departed, and were replaced by Cleveland Horne and Ernest Newsome. Their first single on Ric-Tic, "The Whole World Is a Stage," was their lone huge hit, peaking at number 6 on the R&B charts in 1967. The next release, "You Gave Me Something (And Everything's Alright)," reached number 12 that same year. Motown eventually purchased Ric-Tic, and they had another Top 20 R&B hit with "I Love You Madly," which came out in 1968 and was also issued on Soul. They enjoyed renewed appeal during the disco era with some singles on Westbound that were moderately successful, among them "Alvin Stone (The Birth & Death of a Gangster)" and "I Got to Have Your Love." Dennis Coffey produced "B.Y.O.F. (Bring Your Own Funk)" in 1979, but didn't have much luck with it. the Fantastic Four have remained active, and released "Working on a Building of Love" in 1990 for Britian's Motorcity label. In 2000, however, the Fantastic Four lost one of its long-time members, Cleveland Horne when he suffered a heart attack and died on April 13, 2000. ~ Ron Wynn