music: "Just The Lonely" - Fantastic Four (Ric Tic 121b)

Al Kent was born Albert Prentis Hamilton in Detroit in 1937.

He had made some solo recordings in New York City for Wizard, Baritone and Checker.

Prior to 1967, he had a small amount of input to Golden World as a songwriter.

After the sell-off however his name appeared on almost every Ric-Tic disc as either a songwriter or producer.

He would also release three solo efforts including the classic "You've Got To Pay The Price" c/w "Where Do I Go From Here". The 45 reached Pop #42 R&B #22.

Al moved on to Motown for several years, then joined Armen Boladien at Westbound, where he worked again with the Fantastic Four.

At Golden World he met his future wife Norma Toney.

Norma was a prolific songwriter who had just co-written "Inky Dinky Wang Dang Do" for the Dramatics.

She also co-wrote three songs by the Fantastic Four plus the Flaming Embers "Bless You".

Her finest moment, however, came when she co-wrote the BMI award winning song "Deeper And Deeper" for Freda Payne.

The Fantastic Four's first recording hit the streets in December 1966. It was Gene Redd's "Girl Have Pity" which, although an excellent song, did poorly in the charts.

At that time the group consisted of Sweet James Epps (lead), Joseph and Ralph Pruitt and William Hunter. Hunter was soon replaced by Wallace Childs.

The follow-up came in February 1967 with "Can't Stop Looking For My Baby" c/w the beautiful "Just The Lonely".

They were on the right track and chart action soon followed when the classic "The Whole World Is A Stage" c/w "Ain't Love Wonderful" hit Pop #63 and R&B #6.

The Fantastic Four

This is the chart detail that I am aware of :

Their final recording for Ric-Tic was the fabulous "I Love You Madly". Ken Sands recalls that the session took place at Magic City Studios. The song was recorded on a four track machine by Ken and second engineer Steve Smith. Ken later transferred the song on to 8 track at United Sound. There he also did the overdubs and remixing. 

Perhaps surprisingly, the Fantastic Four became Ric Tic's most successful act, out-selling even Edwin Starr and J.J. Barnes.

When Motown bought out the rest of the company's assets, the Fantastic Four moved to Motown's Soul label. Sadly they felt that it was a wasted spell there although three singles did see the light of day, plus an album of their mainly Ric-Tic work.

In 1970 they went into semi-retirement.

Several years later Armen Boladian persuaded them to sign with his Eastbound label, although most of their product would appear on the sister label, Westbound.

Cleveland Horne and Ernest Newsome had now replaced Wallace Childs and Ralph Pruitt. 

Ann Bridgeforth moved with her family from Chicago to Mount Clemens in the late fifties.

Born and bred a singer, she sang at her cousin's club, Michelle's Playroom. As she picked up on gigs, she changed her name to Little Ann. This was her family's pet name due to her being the youngest of seven brothers and sisters.

She was taken to Dave Hamilton's studio on Highland by a guy named Eddie Grace.

Hamilton would record songs and lease them to other companies and "Going Down A One Way Street", Ric-Tic 142 was one of them.

Apparently when they took the song to Wingate he demanded they change the lyrics and the arrangements. He also put an instrumental on the flip side.

Sadly this was Little Ann's only foray on vinyl and she thought that her career was over.

In the early eighties an acetate was uncovered by someone in England. The song was dubbed "When he's not around" by Rose Valentine and it became a monster on the Northern Soul scene. 

A visit to the home of Dave Hamilton in 1990 by Gilly from England, led to the chance discovery of the song on a master tape. It was actually by Little Ann and called "What Should I Do?".

This magical song eventually gained release in the UK on a CD of Dave's work by Ace/Kent records.

Thirty five years after launching her career, she appeared on stage in England, to the type of adulation she would have dreamt about as a child. 

Sadly, Ann died in February 2003. 

Continued