The Four

The 4, from left: George Parks, Greg McCarley, Larry Rains and Paul Crider

A garage rock group from Brownsville in West Tennessee, also known as The 4, they recorded for two different Nashville labels and were later associated with the Memphis music scene.

History[edit | edit source]

Some descriptions of the band reference them as being from Hendersonville, possibly due to their release on Clark Records, which was based in nearby Goodlettsville. The Clark Records release included two songs written by the band members: "Lonely Surfer Boy" written by bassist Paul Crider and guitarist Greg McCarley, and B-side "Now Is The Time," written by guitarist George Parks. Both songs were published by Lonzo & Oscar Music, BMI and produced by Jack Logan, who was A&R director of Nugget Records of Goodlettsville, Tennessee which owned the Clark label. The 7" on Bragg Records included two tracks written by Mason Houghland who was a songwriting partner of Bobby Russell and associated with releases on Elf Records as well.

Due to the proximity of Brownsville to Memphis, the band was more closely associated with the mid-60s rock scene in Memphis, despite recording in Nashville. They received a listing in The Memphis Garage Rock Yearbook, written by Memphis rock historian Ron Hall and published by Shangri-La Projects. After the band folded, guitarist Greg McCarley had some solo recordings on the Klondike label from Memphis as ‘Beau Sybin.’ Guitarist George Parks had a release on Epic that he cut in New York, before becoming a staff writer at Stax Records. In the Liner notes for the 2001 CD "Memphis Soul Revue, Volume One," released by Icehouse records, the author references the recent closing of Stax where artists performed and "George Parks sings "Wake Me Up Before You Leave". People were leaving their 9 to 5's to join the party and see these STAX legends give their best and last performance on Main Street, Memphis, Tennessee."

The garage rock database website Garage Hangover references a recording session in Memphis:

In late 2013 two acetates surfaced of a group called “The 4” from Sam Phillips Recording of Memphis, “69” / “I Gotta Go” and “When Ever Your Down” (sic) / “Midnight Hour”. “69” opens with one of the most intense screams ever committed to vinyl. it was backed with an uptempo pop number “I Gotta Go”. It’s such a different sound that I thought it must be a different group, but both songs were written by George Parks. “When Ever Your Down” was written by Greg McCarley.