The Four Guys (1)

The Four Guys (1) (Brooklyn, New York)

Personnel :

Billy Austin

Larry Austin

Bert Carroll

Dee Carroll

Discography :

Singles :
1954 - May this be your life / Bye Bye (Wing 90036)
1954 - Not As Stranger /  Tonight‚The Night (Mercury 70452)
1955 - Add a word / Money Mad (Mercury 70575)
1955 - Say you do / Money Mad (Mercury 70575)
1956 - Drive-In Rock / Do Unto Others (Mercury 70908)
1956 - When i fall in love / somewhere nowhere (Mercury 73013)
1956 - You Took My Heart By Surprise  / You Didn't Have To Tell Me (Kent 111)
1956 - Don't Leave Me  / You Don't Have To Tell Me (Kent 112)

Eps :
1956 - Once in a lifetime /The Shadow of your smile / Sunrise, Sunset / I love Paris (Eclipse 4681)

Lps :
1956 - The Four Guys Live (Eclipse AU-4532)
I Love You / Saturday Night / Gina / Discoteque / Bill Bailey / Havah Nagila / Alley Cat / The New World / May This Be Your Life

Biography :

NEW INTERRACIAL QUARTET
Five months ago, four singing Brooklyn neighbors (two sets of brothers) decided to organize a new interracial agreed to call themselves "The Four Guys."

Negro "Guys are Billy and Larry Austin; white "Guys" are Bert and Dee Carroll. Friends since high school days, "The Four Guys" do harmony-rhythm routines, have appeared on radio and television in New York and Philadelphia, at the Baby grand Cafe in Harlem and have recorded for mercury.
Jet -  Sep 17, 1953

The group was interracial, which Carroll said was extremely rare for the time. He went on to arrange music, writing a song for Elvis Presley called "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck." He also worked with Frankie Avalon and Frankie Lymon, among others.

Songs :

   
You Didn't Have To Tell Me       May this be your life

Book :

Four… Too Soon Bert Carroll "The Four Guys"
During the '50s, four young men banded together to reach out for fame and fortune. They possessed all the creativity, talent, charisma, and drive to fulfill their dream. However, one huge mountain of an obstacle stood in their way...bigotry.  "FOUR...TOO SOON" is the true life story of the inter-racial pop vocal group, "THE FOUR GUYS".  Everywhere this multi-talented ( two black and two white) group performed during the 50s (before Martin Luther King Jr. , the Civil Rights Movement, JFK, RFK ) striving for fortune and fame , they were met and blocked by a "WALL OF BIGOTRY".

When "THE FOUR GUYS" performed at "THE EL CORTEZ (1955 Downtown Las Vegas..." they were taboo on the strip), the manager of the hotel said it all, "You guys are great , but you're "50 YEARS TOO SOON "! It is now exactly 50 years since that statement was made. If those were "the words" of a prophet, then now is the time, at last , for "THE FOUR GUYS" to take their deserved" PLACE IN THE SUN" through the "black on white"

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