Classics IV

Anyone who doesn't have a clear image of the Classics IV can be forgiven -- they went through so many shifts in personnel and sound (not to mention a name change after they'd started recording), they were little more than a name attached to some excellent (and very good-selling) records of the second half of the 1960s, without a personality or identity to grab onto easily. Although they're considered a late-'60s phenomenon, owing to the chronology of their hits, the group can trace its roots back to R&B harmony (i.e., doo wop) music of the late '50s. Detroit-born, Florida-raised Dennis Yost, who joined on drums and moved into the singer's spot, came from a Jacksonville-area band called the Echoes; he was just old enough to remember '50s R&B when it was current and, among many other groups, loved the Five Satins; and in addition to playing the skins, he sometimes liked to sing when the calls came for a '50s number like "In the Still of the Night." After his own group broke up in the mid-'60s, Yost joined a band called Leroy & the Moments, which included Wally Eaton (bass, vocals), James Cobb (guitar), and Joe Wilson (keyboards). His arrival, along with the changing times, also signaled a change in the group's name -- as there was no "Leroy" anyway, that could go, and the Moments was already taken, so, taking their lead from Yost's Classic-model drum kit, they became the Classics. Their sound was extremely diverse by all accounts -- they could cover most of the Top 40 note-perfect, which was ideal for audiences in Jacksonville but didn't necessarily give them much to work with as a recording act. Part of their act included a tribute to the Four Seasons, who were still burning up the charts in those days -- and, though they had a history that went back much further, were...