31-655: The Fourmost are an English Merseybeat band that recorded in the 1960s. Their biggest UK hit single was "A Little Loving" in 1964. Guitarist/vocalist Brian O'Hara and best friend guitarist/vocalist Joey Bower (born Joseph Bower, 17 November 1939, Dingle , Liverpool, Lancashire) formed the Two Jays in 1957. The group changed its name to the Four Jays in September 1959 when bass guitarist/singer Billy Hatton and drummer Brian Redman (born 21 June 1941, Huyton , Liverpool, Lancashire) joined
62-713: A mod following during the Swinging London period of the mid to late 1960s. Freakbeat bridges "British Invasion mod/ R&B /pop and psychedelia ". The term was coined by English music journalist Phil Smee . AllMusic writes that "freakbeat" is loosely defined, but generally describes the more obscure but hard-edged artists of the British Invasion era such as the Creation , the Pretty Things or Denny Laine 's early solo work. Other bands often mentioned as Freakbeat are
93-978: A policeman's beat and not that of the music". The band the Pacifics were renamed the Mersey Beats in February 1962 by Bob Wooler , MC at the Cavern Club , and in April that year they became the Merseybeats . With the rise of the Beatles in 1963, the terms Mersey sound and Merseybeat were applied to bands and singers from Liverpool, the first time in British pop music that a sound and a location were linked together. The equivalent scenes in Birmingham and London were described as Brum Beat and
124-511: A DVD and CD titled The Fourmost Live at The Club Tropicana , featuring a recording of a show in Skegness on 7 April 2007. They performed both "Hello Little Girl" and "A Little Loving" among other covers of 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s hit songs. Charley Records later issued a 20-track compilation album also titled First and Fourmost , while EMI Records later released a CD stereo/mono version of the original 1965 album in 1999. Brian O'Hara took his own life
155-557: A hit for the Chiffons in 1963), Millward sang a re-make of " The In Crowd ", which featured the brass section from Sounds Incorporated , and Hatton sang cover versions of Little Richard 's " The Girl Can't Help It " and "Heebie-Jeebies". The band appeared in the 1965 film Ferry Cross the Mersey and on the soundtrack album of the same name singing "I Love You Too" (which appeared in two differing versions from mono to stereo). In early 1966,
186-575: A very different effect from the monolithic character of rock, in that the beat was given not by the duplication of one instrument in the rhythm section by another, but by an interplay between all three. This flexibility also meant that beat music could cope with a greater range of time-signatures and song shapes than rock & roll had been able to". Beat groups usually had simple guitar -dominated line-ups, with vocal harmonies and catchy tunes. The most common instrumentation of beat groups featured lead, rhythm and bass guitars plus drums, as popularised by
217-542: The Tottenham Sound respectively. The most distinctive characteristic of beat music was its strong beat, using the backbeat common to rock and roll and rhythm and blues , but often with a driving emphasis on all the beats of 4/4 bar. The rhythm itself—described by Alan Clayson as "a changeless four-four offbeat on the snare drum"—was developed in the clubs in Hamburg , West Germany, where many English groups, including
248-702: The country -influenced "Turn the Lights Down Low" (the B-side of "Auntie Maggie's Remedy"), a short-lived effort to branch out to less pop-oriented fare. In 1968, now on the CBS record label, they recorded " Apples, Peaches And Pumpkin Pie ", an R&B hit by Jay & the Techniques , followed by "Rosetta" (suggested by Paul McCartney , who played piano on it), and "Easy Squeezy". The group soon stopped recording, and became popular on
279-625: The Action , the Move , the Smoke , the Sorrows , and Wimple Winch . By 1967, beat music was beginning to sound out of date, particularly compared with the "harder edged" blues rock that was beginning to emerge. Most of the groups that had not already disbanded by 1967, like the Beatles, moved into different forms of rock music and pop music , including psychedelic rock and eventually progressive rock . Beat
310-682: The Animals from Newcastle and Them from Belfast . From London, the term Tottenham Sound was largely based around the Dave Clark Five , but other London-based British rhythm and blues and rock bands who benefited from the beat boom of this era included the Rolling Stones , the Kinks and the Yardbirds . The Beatles' appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show soon after led to chart success. During
341-520: The Beatles , the Searchers , and others. Beat groups—even those with a separate lead singer—often sang both verses and choruses in close harmony , resembling doo wop , with nonsense syllables in the backing vocals. In the late 1950s, a flourishing culture of groups began to emerge, often out of the declining skiffle scene, in major urban centres in the UK like Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and London. This
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#1732855481165372-558: The Beatles derived their name, combining it with a pun on the beat in their music), and to a lesser extent by British rock and roll groups such as the Shadows . After the national success of the Beatles in Britain from 1962, a number of Liverpool performers were able to follow them into the charts, including Gerry & The Pacemakers (who achieved a number one hit in the UK before the Beatles),
403-441: The Beatles, performed in the early 1960s and where it was known as the mach schau (make show) beat. The 8/8 rhythm was flexible enough to be adopted for songs from a range of genres. In addition, according to music writer Dave Laing , "[T]he chord playing of the rhythm guitar was broken up into a series of separate strokes, often one to the bar, with the regular plodding of the bass guitar and crisp drumming behind it. This gave
434-571: The Fourmost had access to early Lennon–McCartney compositions. The Fourmost's first two singles were written by John Lennon . " Hello Little Girl ", one of the earliest Lennon songs, was released on 30 August 1963 and reached No. 9 in the UK Singles Chart . Their follow-up single, " I'm in Love " (Lennon–McCartney), was released on 15 November 1963 and reached No. 17 in the UK. It was also notable as one of
465-637: The Garden" and " Girls Girls Girls " (first recorded by the Coasters and a hit for Elvis Presley ). O'Hara composed most of their songs, which were used as B-sides including "Waitin' for You", "That's Only What They Say", "He Could Never", and "You Got That Way". On the group's only 1960s album, First and Fourmost , from September 1965, they covered Jackie DeShannon 's, "Till You Say You'll Be Mine". Other tracks included "My Block" sung by Hatton and written by Jimmy Radcliffe , Carl Spencer and Bert Berns (originally
496-549: The Searchers , and Cilla Black . Outside of Liverpool many local scenes were less influenced by rock and roll and more by the rhythm and blues and later directly by the blues . These included bands from Birmingham who were often grouped with the beat movement, the most successful being the Spencer Davis Group and the Moody Blues . Similar blues influenced bands who broke out from local scenes to national prominence were
527-404: The UK and Europe by 1963 before spreading to North America in 1964 with the British Invasion . The beat style had a significant impact on popular music and youth culture from 1960s movements such as garage rock , folk rock and psychedelic music . The exact origins of the terms 'beat music' and 'Merseybeat' are uncertain. The "beat" in each, however, derived from the driving rhythms which
558-489: The band was rocked by the sudden death of rhythm guitarist/vocalist Mike Millward from leukaemia . They recruited George Peckham as replacement. In August 1966, the Fourmost covered another Beatles song, " Here, There and Everywhere ", followed by a cover of George Formby 's "Auntie Maggie's Remedy" in November 1966. The latter song was representative of a comedic element to some of the group's recordings. Peckham wrote and sang
589-630: The bands had adopted from their rock and roll, R&B and soul music influences, rather than the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s. As the initial wave of rock and roll subsided in the later 1950s, "big beat" music, later shortened to "beat", became a live dance alternative to the balladeers like Tommy Steele , Marty Wilde , and Cliff Richard who were dominating the charts. The German anthropologist and music critic Ernest Borneman , who lived in England from 1933 to 1960, claimed to have coined
620-502: The cabaret circuit. Peckham left the band in 1969 to run a recording studio. Joey Bower returned to the band as replacement. A later private pressing album, The Fourmost – featuring O'Hara, Hatton, Lovelady and Bower – included covers such as " Without You ", " I've Got You Under My Skin ", " Rag Doll " and " Save the Last Dance for Me "; it was sold at their shows in 1975. Hatton, Lovelady and Bower all left in 1980 while O'Hara continued
651-719: The earliest Beatles-penned songs to be released in the United States but, as with the Fourmost's other singles, it failed to chart there. Their biggest hit followed. "A Little Loving", written by Russ Alquist, reached No. 6 in the UK Singles Chart in mid-1964. From then on, none of the group's singles cracked the Top 20 in the UK. "How Can I Tell Her" was followed by a cover version of the Four Tops ' " Baby I Need Your Loving ", sung by Millward, while Hatton took lead vocal on "Everything in
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#1732855481165682-478: The group with new members, although a version of the band featuring O'Hara with Hatton and Lovelady did once perform at the new Cavern Club. O'Hara eventually dropped out, selling the band's name. A later line-up featuring longtime bassist/singer Bill Haisman (who had been in the later group alongside O'Hara) plus John Richards (lead guitar, vocals), Gary Pearson (guitar, vocals) and Kevin Clarkson (drums, vocals) released
713-607: The group. The Four Jays played at the Cavern Club on 1 March 1961. Rhythm guitarist/singer Mike Millward (ex- the Undertakers ) joined the Four Jays in November 1961, followed by drummer/singer Dave Lovelady in September 1962. The band changed its name to the Fourmost in October 1962. On 30 June 1963, the group signed a management contract with Brian Epstein . This led to their being auditioned by George Martin and signed to EMI 's Parlophone record label. With Epstein as their manager,
744-582: The influence of which has been detected in Beat music. It was also a major port with links to America, particularly through the Cunard Yanks , which made for much greater access to American records and instruments like guitars, which could not easily be imported due to trade restrictions. As a result, Beat bands were heavily influenced by American groups of the era, such as Buddy Holly and the Crickets (from which group
775-698: The next two years, the Animals , Petula Clark , the Dave Clark Five , the Rolling Stones , Donovan , Peter and Gordon , Manfred Mann , Freddie and the Dreamers , The Zombies , Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders , Herman's Hermits , and the Troggs would have one or more number one singles in America. Freakbeat is a subgenre of rock and roll music developed mainly by harder-driving British groups, often those with
806-513: The same name. Bobby Hebb was originally offered "Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie", but rejected it due to its novelty sound. Jerry Ross then offered it to Jay & the Techniques. The song was originally recorded in January 1967 at Bell Sound Studios in New York with Ross producing and Joe Renzetti arranging and conducting. Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson provided background vocals, accompanying
837-429: The same year. In 2005, they also released a 33-track CD compilation The Best of The Fourmost , which included the stereo version of "I Love You Too", and four previously unreleased songs with booklet notes written by Hatton. In 2008, Hatton and Lovelady lost a court case to own the trademark on "The Fourmost" name, to the iteration of the band dating back to when they both left in 1978. In the following years afterwards,
868-520: The term in a column in Melody Maker magazine to describe the British imitation of American rock'n'roll, rhythm & blues and skiffle bands. The 'Mersey' of 'Merseybeat' refers to the River Mersey . Liverpool lies on the eastern side of the river's estuary. The name Mersey Beat was used for a Liverpool music magazine founded in 1961 by Bill Harry . Harry claims to have coined the term "based on
899-610: The two toured as "The Original Fourmost". Hatton died in 2017. In 2018, the Fourmost completed a 59-date theatre tour on the Sensational 60s Experience Tour along with other acts from that period. Beat music Beat music , British beat , or Merseybeat is a British popular music genre and developed around Liverpool in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The genre melded influences from British and American rock and roll , rhythm and blues , skiffle , traditional pop and music hall . It rose to mainstream popularity in
930-478: Was a major influence on the American garage rock and folk rock movements, and would be a source of inspiration for subsequent rock music subgenres, including Britpop in the 1990s. Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie " Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie " is a 1967 song written by Maurice Irby, Jr., produced by Jerry Ross , arranged by Joe Renzetti and performed by Jay & the Techniques on their 1968 album of
961-483: Was particularly true in Liverpool, where it has been estimated that there were around 350 different bands active, often playing ballrooms, concert halls and clubs. Liverpool was perhaps uniquely placed within Britain to be the point of origin of a new form of music. Commentators have pointed to a combination of local solidarity, industrial decline , social deprivation, and the existence of a large population of Irish origin,