The Fantastics - Waiting Around For Heartaches

Label: Deram

Year of Release: 1970

Unlike most of the artists who get featured on this blog, The Fantastics were arguably proper pop stars. They produced a hit single in 1971 in the form of "Something Old, Something New", which despite only getting to number 9 feels like a deathless disc - never far away from an advertising campaign or a mid-afternoon oldies playlist.

Prior to their run in the top ten, though, they were an American act called The Velours who released an eye-watering number of singles across the pond, including the in-demand soul disc "I'm Gonna Change". They changed their name to The Fantastic Temptations and hopped over to the UK to cash in on the demand for the Temptations material on the live circuit, mainly performing covers of their hits for soul-hungry audiences. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they were forced to eventually change their name to The Fantastics - tribute bands weren't really "a thing" in the sixties and confusion was always best avoided - and that name change also coincided with a brace of original recorded material. 

They slipped out a version of "Baby Make Your Own Sweet Music" on MGM in 1968 before moving to the Deram label and releasing "Face to Face With Heartache" followed by this effort. In this case, the B-side, a cover of the Four Tops "Ask The Lonely", has had the largest share of the attention, popping up on so many Northern Soul compilations that you can head over to Spotify or iTunes to enjoy it with enormous ease. 

While that cover is deftly done and unsurprisingly popular with the in-crowd, it's meant that the pep and strut of the A-side has been unjustly ignored over the years, so it's presented here for your attention. "Waiting Round For Heartaches" is, as you'd expect, energetic and thrusting while dripping with heartbroken melodrama, and as such it's surprising that it's heard so infrequently in the outside world. 

The group remained a regular fixture on the British live circuit long after their success with "Something Old", touring and continuing to release records until the eighties.

A very thorough biography of the group, also outlining their gruelling tour schedule throughout the sixties, is available at the Garage Hangover site. 

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