Famous Foursomes
Famous foursomes, or things noted for coming in a group of four, are all around us.
When we hear the word foursome, one group immediately comes to mind, The Beatles. The Fab Four are arguably the most famous foursome. John, Paul, George, and Ringo are known worldwide.
At the height of Beatlemania, they couldn’t even show themselves outside. But The Beatles aren’t the only famous foursome; there are foursomes in every part of our lives. Here is a list covering one hundred plus of them.
Well-known Groups of Four
1.) Four Seasons – Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.
2.) Wheels on a vehicle.
3.) Gospel writers – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
4.) The Beatles – John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
5.) Classic Elements – Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire.
6.) Suits in a deck of cards – Hearts, Diamonds, Spades, and Clubs.
7.) Compass Directions – North, South, East, and West.
8.) Four Years of High School and College – Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior.
9.) Great Italian Renaissance artists – Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello.
10.) Four Dimensions – Length, width, height, and time.
11.) Four basic math operations – Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
12.) Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – Symbolic figures representing Conquest, War, Famine, and Death.
13.) Four Quadrants of the Heart – Right atrium, left atrium, right ventricle, and left ventricle.
14.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello.
15.) Base 4 numbers – 0, 1, 2, and 3.
See our Notable Groups of Five List.
Famous Foursomes
16.) Faces on Mount Rushmore – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.
17.) Final Four – College Basketball.
18.) Four Leaf Clovers
19.) The four most depicted in art archangels – Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel.
20.) Four Physical States – Solid, Liquid, Gas, and Plasma.
21.) Four types of teeth – molars, premolars, canines, and incisors.
22.) Four sides of a rectangle
23.) Horse gaits – Walk, trot, canter, and gallop.
24.) Phases of the moon – New moon, first quarter, full moon, and third quarter.
25.) Four main blood types – A, B, AB, and O.
26.) Four digits in a year – For example, 2023.
27.) Four bases in baseball – First, second, third, and home.
28.) Four levels of education – Primary, secondary, undergraduate, and graduate.
29.) Wizard of Oz characters – Dorothy Gale, The Tin Man, The Cowardly Lion, and Scarecrow.
30.) Four humours of the body – black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood.
31.) Four Noble Truths of Buddhism.
32.) Four pillars of faith (Catholicism) – Faith, liturgy/sacraments, life in Christ, and prayer.
33.) Four types of love – Friendship, romantic, love for family, and agape (unconditional love).
See our Notable Trios and Groups of Three.
Notable Fours in Music
Classical String Quartets
Many consider the Classical String Quartet to be the ultimate musical foursome. Here is a list of some of the most famous.
Melos String Quartet
Bamburg Quartet
Pavel Haas Quartet
Quartetto Amati
International String Quartet
Dover Quartet
Fine Arts Quartet
Emerson Quartet
Austrian String Quartet
Kronos Quaret
Dekany String Quartet
Berodin Quartet
The Kohon String Quartet
The Copenhagen String Quartet
Quartetto Italiano
Concord String Quartet
Busch Quartet
Tokyo String Quartet
Amadeus Quartet
Takacs String Quartet
Endres Quartet
Famous Jazz Quartets
Just like Classical String Quartets, Famous Jazz Quartets have provided us with endless hours of fantastic music.
Roland Kirk Quartet
Buddy Rich Quartet
Oscar Peterson Quartet
Benny Goodman Quartet
Art Blakely Quartet
Dave Brubeck Quartet
The Jerry Mulligan Quartet
Modern Jazz Quartet
Thelonius Monk Quartet
Coleman Hawkins Quartet
World Saxophone Quartet
Charlie Parker Quartet
Roy Haynes Quartet
Stan Getz Quartet
The Lester Young Quartet
Ornette Coleman Quartet
Keith Jarret Quartet
Roy Haynes Quartet
The John Coltrane Quartet
Rock and Roll and Popular Groups of Four
The Beatles are just one of many rock and roll foursomes that have been popular. Here are a few more with only four members.
The Beatles
Queen
Led Zeppelin
The Monkees
ABBA
Kiss
Metalica
Pink Floyd
The Who
Black Sabbath
The Doors
Van Halen
Rage Against the Machine
Coldplay
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Megadeath
U2
Disturbed
Sex Pistols
R.E.M.
Music Groups With “Four” in Their Name
And here is a list of popular rock/pop bands with four in their name.
The Four Freshmen.
The Four Lads.
The Brothers Four.
4 Ever Young.
The Four Preps.
The Four Aces.
Gang of Four.
The Four Coins.
The Four Tenors.
Four Non-Blondes.
The Bobby Fuller Four.
All-4-One.
Four Jacks and a Jill.
The Four Seasons.
Not to be confused with Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall
Famous Television Foursomes
Television has featured many different foursomes, and many worked their way into our hearts. Here is a list of some famous television foursomes.
Teletubbies – Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa Laa, and Po
Seinfeld – Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer
The A-Team
Sex and the City
Golden Girls
South Park
Desperate Housewives
Entourage
Designing Women
Living Single
Beverly Hillbillies
Take the TV Show Openings Quiz.
Famous Fours in Movies
Like television programs, movies often use four characters to front a storyline. Here is a list of movies that starred a gang of four.
Movies with Four Main Stars
Wizard of Oz – Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion
Tombstone
Bob, Carol, Ted, and Alice
Anchorman
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, and Donatello
Ghostbusters
Help!
Wild Hogs
The Untouchables
Jumanji
Mean Girls
The Hangover
The Fantastic Four
Little Women
Three Men and a Little Lady
Movies with Four in the Title
Four Brothers
Four Daughters
I am Number Four
Four Christmases
Four Faces West
Four Feathers
Flock of Four
Four Men and a Prayer
Four Rooms
Four Weddings and a Funeral
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Happiness is a Four-Letter Word
The Gang of Four
World War Four
The Sign of Four
Four of a Kind
The Four Musketeers.
Four or Three Musketeers?
Both the Three and Four Musketeers movies are based on a French Novel written by Alexandre Dumas. The novel, one of a series written in 1844, follows the adventures of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. These three are Musketeers of the Guard, a revered position within the King’s Guards.
Enter D’Artagnan, an impressionable young lad who wants nothing but to be a Musketeer. He is captivated by the three imposing friends and vows to become one of them.
Through daring and heroic deeds and some audacious adventures d’Artangan wins over the Three Musketeers. Arthos, Porthos, and Aramis invite D’Artagnan to join them on their journeys. He does become the Fourth Musketeer.
Fun Fact About the Musketeers
Over 40 films have been made about the Three and Four Musketeers.
Foursomes in Sports
Here are a few of the famous foursomes in sports.
Final Four – College Basketball’s Championship Tournament.
Frozen Four – College Hockey’s Championship Tournament.
Four Major Professional Golf Tournaments – Master, PGA, U.S. Open, British Open.
Four Major Professional Tennis Tournaments – French Open, Australian Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open.
Purple People Eaters – Professional football’s Minnesota Vikings feared defensive line.
Fearsome Foursome – Professional Football’s L.A. Rams feared defensive line.
The Four Major Professional U.S. Sports Leagues – NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB.
The Four Horsemen of Wrestling – Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson, and Tully Blanchard.
WCW Fearsome Foursome – Professional Wrestlers Ric Flair, Goldberg, Diamond Dallas Page, and Chris Benoit.
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The Impregnable Quadrilateral
This is a term coined by sportswriter George Trevor in 1930. It refers to the impossibility of winning the four tournaments, the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open, British Amateur, and British Open.
Bobby Jones proved him wrong and did indeed win all four of these tournaments in the same year. Today, the modern grand slam consists of the Masters, the PGA, U.S. Open, and British Open. It is still considered impregnable.
Science and Nature Foursomes
The Four Dimensions – length, width, height, space
Four Directions – North, South, East, West
The Four Elements – Earth, Wind, Fire, Water
Four Sides of a Square
Four Basic Mathematical Operations – Addition, Subtraction, Division, and Multiplication.
Four Chambers of the Heart
Four Leaf Clover
Quaternary Numeral System – In this system, the numbers 0, 1, 2, and 3 can represent any number.
Four Wisdom Teeth
Four Seasons – Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer, not to be confused with the singing group.
The Metaphysical Properties of Four
In Buddhism, four stands for four core values, compassion, affection, love, and impartiality. In the Lakota Tribe, the four directions have meanings. North is wisdom, East is redemption, South is inception, and West is closing.
Many people believe our bodies are made of four different parts physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Holistic healers believe that the elements hold the key to our strengths and weaknesses.
Air is intellect, Water is inner reflection, Earth is being grounded, and Fire is energy. By focusing on which of these elements we are the strongest in, we can help heal ourselves. Since we are surrounded by these elements, we can use that knowledge to further tap into the strength of our element. It should be noted, however, that the number four is considered bad luck in China and Japan.
By the way Metaphysics is considered one of four branches of philosophy.
Miscellaneous Groups of Four
Many foursomes appear in popular culture and our everyday lives.
Four Testaments
Four Cardinal Virtues – Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance. They form the basis for ethics.
Four Pac-Man Ghosts – Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde.
Four Suits in a Card Deck – Hearts, Diamonds, Spades, and Clubs.
The Quad Cities – Davenport, Bettendorf, Moline, and Rock Island.
Four Basic Swimming Strokes – Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Butterfly.
Four Square – A playground game played on a square court divided into four equal parts the total court size is 10 to 30 feet. A player stands in each part, and a ball is used for play. Play consists of hitting the ball into another box in one bounce. If it bounces twice, you receive an out. A predetermined number of outs means you are out of the game. The last player standing wins.
Final Thoughts on Foursomes
Famous Foursomes are all around us. We probably don’t realize that the music we listen to, the scientific breakthroughs, and even the world around us are filled with foursomes.
The next time you hear a Beatles song, don’t think of them as the Fab Four. Think of them as one of many famous foursomes that make our lives richer.
By Tim Moodie and Mike O’Halloran
Tim is embarrassed to say that he has played in many golf foursomes. In each one, he has managed to be on the losing end of whatever prize was up for grabs.
You are on our Famous Foursomes page.
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