A sonic exploration and tonal analysis of contemporary creative music in a myriad of improvisational/composed settings, textures, and expressions.
Welcome to Sound Projections
I'm your host Kofi Natambu. This online magazine features the very best in contemporary creative music in this creative timezone NOW (the one we're living in) as well as that of the historical past. The purpose is to openly explore, examine, investigate, reflect on, studiously critique, and take opulent pleasure in the sonic and aural dimensions of human experience known and identified to us as MUSIC. I'm also interested in critically examining the wide range of ideas and opinions that govern our commodified notions of the production, consumption, marketing, and commercial exchange of organized sound(s) which largely define and thereby (over)determine our present relationships to music in the general political economy and culture.
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Saturday, December 8, 2018
The Four Tops (1953-Present): Legendary and iconic singing group
The Four Tops'
story is one of togetherness and success. These Motown legends teamed
up in high school, spent over four decades together without a personnel
change, and in between became a top-tier act on a label with no shortage
of talent, ranking with the Temptations and the Supremes
as its most consistent hitmakers. Where many other R&B vocal groups
spotlighted a tenor, the Four Tops were fronted by deep-voiced Levi Stubbs -- who had all the grit of a gospel-trained soul belter -- yet the Tops' creamy harmonies, filled out by Duke Fakir, Obie Benson, and Lawrence Payton,
were smooth enough for Motown's pop-soul productions. From 1964-1967,
the group recorded some of the greatest and most popular Holland-Dozier-Holland
compositions, including "Reach Out, I'll Be There," "I Can't Help
Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," "Standing in the Shadows of Love,"
"Bernadette," and "Baby I Need Your Loving." When Motown moved to Los
Angeles in the early '70s, the Tops
remained in Detroit and enjoyed a renaissance with the ABC-Dunhill
imprint, highlighted in 1973 by "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've
Got)," among several additional Top Ten R&B hits. Through the '80s,
they continued to perform and tour, scored the occasional comeback hit,
and were briefly reunited with Motown. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
inductees in 1990, the group released their last studio recording in
1995, remained intact until Payton's death two years later, and continued through the deaths of Benson and Stubbs the following decade. Fakir continues to lead the Four Tops as a beloved live act.
The Four Tops began life in 1953 (some accounts say 1954), when all of the members were attending Detroit-area high schools. Levi Stubbs and Abdul "Duke" Fakir went to Pershing, and met Northern students Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton
at a friend's birthday party, where the quartet members first sang
together. Sensing an immediate chemistry, they began rehearsing together
and dubbed themselves the Four Aims. Payton's cousin Roquel Davis,
a budding songwriter who sometimes sang with the group during its early
days, helped them get an audition with Chess Records in 1956. Although
Chess was more interested in Davis, who went on to become Berry Gordy's songwriting partner, they also signed the Four Aims, who became the Four Tops to avoid confusion with the Ames Brothers. The Four Tops'
lone Chess single, "Kiss Me Baby," was followed by similarly brief
stints at Red Top and Riverside. They signed with Columbia in 1960 and
were steered in a more upscale supper-club direction, singing jazz and
pop standards, and during this period toured with Billy Eckstine.
In 1963, the Four Tops signed with longtime friend Berry Gordy's new label, specifically the jazz-oriented Workshop subsidiary. They completed a debut LP, to be called Breaking Through, but Gordy scrapped it and switched their style back to R&B, placing them on Motown with the Holland-Dozier-Holland
songwriting team. After a full decade in existence, the Four Tops
finally notched their first hit in 1964 with "Baby I Need Your Loving,"
which just missed the pop Top Ten. Early 1965 brought the follow-up
ballad hit "Ask the Lonely," and from then on there was no stopping
them. "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" went all the way to
number one that spring, and the follow-up "It's the Same Old Song"
reached the Top Five. The hits continued into 1966, with "Something
About You" "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)," and "Loving You Is
Sweeter Than Ever" all coming in succession. The fall of 1966 brought
the group's masterpiece in the form of the virtual soul symphony "Reach
Out, I'll Be There"; not only did it become their second number one pop
hit, it also wound up ranking as the creative peak of the group's career
and one of Motown's finest singles ever. During this period, the Tops
also earned a reputation as one of Motown's best live acts, having
previously honed their performances for years before hitting the big
time.
The Four Tops
kicked off 1967 with the dramatic Top Ten smash "Standing in the
Shadows of Love," which was followed by the Top Five "Bernadette."
"7-Rooms of Gloom" and "You Keep Running Away" reached the Top 20, but
toward the end of the year, Holland-Dozier-Holland
left Motown over a financial dispute. The Tops' next two hits, 1968's
"Walk Away Renee" and "If I Were a Carpenter," were both covers of
well-known recent songs (by the Left Banke and Tim Hardin, respectively) and made the Top 20. They enjoyed a resurgence in 1970 under producer Frank Wilson, who helmed a hit cover of the Tommy Edwards pop standard "It's All in the Game" and a ballad co-written by Smokey Robinson, "Still Water (Love)." The Tops also recorded with the post-Diana RossSupremes, scoring a duet hit with a cover of "River Deep, Mountain High" in 1971.
When Motown moved its headquarters to Los Angeles in
1972, the Four Tops parted ways with the company, choosing to remain in
their hometown of Detroit. They signed with ABC-Dunhill and were teamed
with producers/songwriters Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter,
who did their best to re-create the group's trademark Motown sound. The
immediate result was "Keeper of the Castle," the Four Tops' first Top
Ten hit in several years. They followed it in early 1973 with "Ain't No
Woman (Like the One I've Got)," a gold-selling smash that proved to be
their final Top Five pop hit. That year they also recorded the theme
song to the film Shaft in Africa, "Are You Man Enough." Several more
R&B chart hits followed over the next few years, with the last being
1976's "Catfish"; after a final ABC album in 1978, the Tops
resurfaced on Casablanca in 1981. The first single for their new label,
"When She Was My Girl," went all the way to number one on the R&B
chart, just missing the pop Top Ten.
The Four Tops rejoined Motown in 1983, the year of the company's 25th anniversary, and toured extensively with the Temptations.
They also recorded a couple albums of new material, and wound up
leaving Motown amid confusion over musical direction. Meanwhile, Stubbs provided the voice for Audrey the man-eating plant in the film version of Little Shop of Horrors. The Four Tops next caught on with Arista, where in 1988 they scored their last Top 40 pop hit, the aptly titled "Indestructible." The Four Tops
were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. Following
the 1995 release of their final studio album -- a Christmas recording --
they've stuck to performing and touring. In 1997, Lawrence Payton passed away due to liver cancer, ending the astonishing longevity of the original lineup. Theo Peoples, who had recently spent six years with the Temptations, was eventually added to the lineup.
Early the next decade, a stroke sidelined Stubbs and prompted the addition of Ronnie McNeir, who had been group's musical director. Benson died of lung cancer in 2005 and was replaced by Lawrence Payton, Jr.Stubbs,
whose last performance was at the Four Tops' 50th anniversary concert
the previous year, died in his sleep in 2008. Three years later, Peoples left the group, enabling the entry of Harold "Spike" Bonhart. All the while, and into the late 2010s, Fakir has continued to lead the Four Tops on-stage.
Levi
Stubbs’ awesome lead vocals bestow upon the Four Tops a powerful
identity as well as commercial authority, evident in some of the most
distinctive music ever recorded at Motown. “Reach Out I’ll Be There”
showcases the innovation of Hitsville U.S.A. at its peak, while the
Tops’ togetherness and teamwork throughout their career remains as an
example for many, matched by few.
FAST FACTS
First Hit: “Baby I Need Your Loving”
Biggest Hit: “Reach Out I’ll Be There”
Top Album: Four Tops Reach Out
Career Highlight: Harmony and Unity across five decades
Levi Stubbs, Renaldo “Obie” Benson, Lawrence Payton and Abdul “Duke”
Fakir first sing together at a high school party in Detroit, 1954, and
mold themselves into a harmony group called the Four Aims. They begin to
perform at supper clubs in the city, with a repertoire of jazz songs
and standards.
In 1956, the quartet changes its name to the Four Tops to avoid
confusion with a nationally popular act, the Ames Brothers. Their
horizons widen, and they hit the road across North America, honing their
act and performing with Count Basie, Louis Jordan and Billy Eckstine,
among others. “We were like gypsies,” says Duke. The Tops also record,
unsuccessfully, for labels such as Chess, Riverside and Columbia.
The Four Tops sign to their hometown hitmaker, Motown, in April 1963, and record Breaking Through,
an album of (mostly) standards for release on the company’s Workshop
Jazz imprint. The LP is shelved and the foursome begins working with
Berry Gordy’s hottest new creative team, Holland/Dozier/Holland. “Baby I
Need Your Loving” – showcasing the melancholy drama of Levi Stubbs’
lead – breaks through: the record is a Top 20 smash in the fall of ’64.
The
union with H/D/H starts blazing a trail. “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar
Pie, Honey Bunch),” becomes the Tops’ first No. 1 record and a hit
overseas, followed by “It’s The Same Old Song,” “Something About You”
and “Shake Me, Wake Me (When It’s Over).” Levi’s voice, fronting the
harmonies of his three companions and those of studio sirens the
Andantes, is a new asset for Motown, amplified by the magic of its
studio musicians, the Funk Brothers.
The pinnacle of this collaboration arrives with “Reach Out I’ll Be
There,” a U.S. chart-topper and a worldwide success in 1966. Upon first
hearing, the Tops were uncertain of its appeal, but it soon becomes
their signature song – and one of Motown’s all-time most popular
anthems. Two follow-ups, “Standing In The Shadows Of Love” and
“Bernadette,” complete the trilogy of innovation.
The Four Tops’ live appearances continue to command audiences and
respect, perhaps none more than their first U.K. tour in 1967, promoted
by the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein. Motown’s affiliate in London
picks “Walk Away Renee” from the group’s Reach Out album, and
another major, global hit is the result. Even so, this phase of the
Tops’ career ends when Holland/Dozier/Holland leave Hitsville.
The
foursome’s heavenly harmonies are showcased in the remake of Tommy
Edwards’ “It’s All In The Game,” which plays well on the charts of 1970.
British music fans take the track into the Top 5 there, as they do in
’71 with “A Simple Game,” cut in London. A concept album, Still Waters Run Deep,
also burnishes the Tops’ shine, while the commercial logic of teaming
up with the Supremes delivers a Top 20 hit, “River Deep, Mountain High.”
This partnership yields three albums.
The new decade brings further change. The Four Tops leave Motown in
1972, but not before Obie Benson plays his part as co-writer of “What’s
Going On,” a song which redefines Marvin Gaye – and Motown – forever. Marvin tells Frank Wilson, who produced Still Waters Run Deep, that the Tops’ album helped inspire his work.
The group’s popularity endures in the ’70s and into the ’80s with
hits such as “Ain’t No Woman (Like The One I’ve Got)” and “When She Was
My Girl.” The Tops reconnect with Motown for the company’s 25th
anniversary TV special in 1983, where they and the Temptations
stage a show-stopping “battle of the bands.” The match is magic: the
groups embark on several co-headlining tours at home and abroad,
including a sold-out stint on Broadway.
The Four Tops re-sign to Motown Records in 1983 and record an album, Back Where I Belong, reuniting them with the work of Holland/Dozier/Holland, notably “I Just Can’t Walk Away.” The next album is Magic, swiftly followed by a performance at the globally televised event Live Aid that summer.
In 1986, Levi lends his inimitable voice (as a carnivorous plant) to the movie version of Broadway smash Little Shop Of Horrors.
The song is nominated for an Oscar® and he performs it on the Academy
Awards telecast. In 1988, another film song, “Loco In Acapulco,” is
recorded by the Tops, as written and produced by Lamont Dozier and Phil
Collins. It is a Top 10 hit in Britain.
The unity of Levi Stubbs, Obie Benson, Duke Fakir and Lawrence
Payton is reinforced by their ’88 recording of “The Four Of Us,” a
Payton-penned song. “It is,” later writes music historian Stu Hackel, “a
tribute to the blue-collar quartet who wore their shiny jackets
together ’til death.” With Payton’s passing in 1997, the original
quartet’s extraordinary 43 years together come to an end. In 2009, the
Four Tops are honored with the Grammy® Lifetime Achievement Award.
The only thing that can outlast the Four Tops’ lineup is their incredible body of work.
United by their friendship and a love of music, the Four Tops stuck
together for forty years. Mix their classy, polished vocals with the
brilliant songwriting of Holland-Dozier-Holland at Motown Records and
you have an unstoppable hit machine.
Biography
The Four Tops were one of soul music’s most popular and long-lived vocal groups.
This quartet from Detroit endured for more than forty years without a
single change in personnel. Moreover, they charted hits at every stage
in their lengthy career. Although they are best remembered for the
records they made at Motown in the Sixties, the Four Tops also had
substantial success at such labels as ABC, Casablanca and Arista in
subsequent decades. They even returned twice to Motown later in their
career. All the while they remained a solid draw on the touring circuit,
performing a hundred shows per year.
The Four Tops consisted of lead singer Levi Stubbs, first tenor Abdul
“Duke” Fakir, second tenor Lawrence Payton and baritone Renaldo “Obie”
Benson. Working closely with the in-house songwriting and production
team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland, the Four Tops
cut some of Motown’s most memorable singles during the label’s
mid-Sixties zenith. The list of classics recorded by the Four Tops
during this fruitful period includes “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “I Can’t
Help Myself,” “It’s the Same Old Song,” “Reach Out I’ll Be There,”
“Standing in the Shadows of Love” and “Bernadette.” Between 1964 and
1988, the Four Tops made Billboard’s Hot 100 chart
forty-five times and its R&B chart fifty-two times. Twenty-four of
their singles made the Top 40, and seven of those entered the Top 10.
While their career took off at Motown, the Four Tops had a
significant prehistory before arriving at the label, having already
logged nearly a decade in show business. Stubbs and Fakir attended
Pershing High School in Detroit’s North End, while Payton and Benson
attended Detroit’s Northern High School. The four young men met at a
friend’s birthday party, where they first sang together. They formed the
Four Aims soon after graduating high school in 1954. Modeling
themselves after such harmony groups as the Ink Spots, the Mills
Brothers and the Four Freshmen, the Aims evolved into a versatile
nightclub act. With a natural talent for arranging harmonies, Payton
became the group’s musical director. Also closely affiliated with the
group was Payton’s cousin, Roquel “Billy” Davis, who provided
management, material and even vocal assistance in the formative years.
To avoid possible confusion with the Ames Brothers, the Four Aims
renamed themselves the Four Tops. In 1956 they signed to Chess Records,
for which they recorded one single (“Kiss Me Baby”). They also released a
single apiece on the Columbia (“Ain’t That Love,” 1960) and Riverside
(“Pennies from Heaven,” 1962) labels. During this stage in their career,
they sang in close harmony, with no single voice standing apart from
the others. In their pre-Motown years, they opened or sang backup for
the likes of Della Reese, Count Basie, Billy Eckstine, Betty Carter and
Brook Benton.
Berry Gordy approached them about signing to Motown in 1962, but they
didn’t ink a deal for nearly two years. (The group later said they
wanted to be sure that Gordy’s upstart independent label would
survive.) “Their vocal blend was phenomenal,” Gordy wrote, recalling his
initial impressions of the Four Tops in his autobiography, To Be Loved.
“Smooth, classy and polished, they were big stuff. I wanted them bad. I
could see how loyal they were to each other, and I knew they would be
the same way to me and Motown.”
Their first project for Motown was an album of show tunes, entitled Breaking Through,
that the label chose not to release. At this point, with failed singles
on three labels and an unreleased album on a fourth, the Four Tops’
future seemed uncertain. Then came the successful union
with Holland-Dozier-Holland, which yielded a hit, “Baby I Need Your
Loving,” on the first try.
Levi Stubbs’ bold, dramatic readings of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s
tailor-made material set a high standard for contemporary soul in the
mid-Sixties. It was the songwriting trio’s idea to reshape the Four Tops
from a close-harmony group to one with a distinct lead vocalist
(Stubbs), while Payton, Benson and Fakir provided harmonies, background
vocals and occasional leads or co-leads. In addition, it was decided to
highlight Stubbs’ upper range, where his raspy, anguished vocals most
soulfully communicated the passion of Eddie Holland’s lyrics. “Sometimes
we cut in keys a little high for him to force him to reach for the
notes,” Holland told writer Stu Hackel.
The Four Tops hit Number One in mid-1965 with “I Can’t Help Myself,”
an infectious Motown classic that spotlighted the group’s
call-and-response vocals. However, the apex of their work with
Holland-Dozier-Holland was “Reach Out I’ll Be There.” From its dramatic
neoclassical arrangement to Stubbs’ thunderous vocals, it was one of
Motown’s greatest recordings. It was the Four Tops’ second Number One
hit, remaining on the charts for nearly four months.
The prolific union of the Four Tops and Holland-Dozier-Holland lasted
from 1964 through mid-1967, ending when the songwriters left Motown in a
financial dispute with Gordy. The Four Tops’ last work with the trio
included the originals “7 Rooms of Gloom,” “You Keep Running Away” and
memorable covers of the Left Banke’s “Walk Away Renee” and Tim Hardin’s
“If I Were a Carpenter.”
The Four Tops remained at Motown for five more years, working with
various staff producers but forging their closest union with Frank
Wilson. Their later Motown hits included “Still Water (Love),”
co-written by Wilson and Smokey Robinson, and artful covers of Jimmy
Webb’s “MacArthur Park” and the Fifties pop standard “It’s All in the
Game.” This stage of the Four Tops career also included a pair of albums
recorded with the Supremes—The Magnificent Seven (1970) and The Return of the Magnificent Seven (1971)—and the thematically ambitious albums Still Waters Run Deep (1970) and Nature Planned It (1972).
Moving to Dunhill/ABC in 1972, the Four Tops found themselves in the
capable hands of another dynamic songwriting and production trio,
consisting of Dennis Lambert, Brian Potter and Steve Barri. The
reinvigorated quartet enjoyed immediate success with the singles “Keeper
of the Castle” (Number Ten pop, Number Seven R&B), “Ain’t No Woman
(Like the One I Got)” (Number Four pop, Number Two R&B) and “Are You
Man Enough” (Number Fifteen pop, Number Two R&B). They remained at
ABC until the end of the decade. In 1981 they moved to Neil Bogart’s
Casablanca label, where they enjoyed another return to the upper reaches
of the charts with the breezy pop-soul hit “When She Was My Girl”
(Number Eleven pop, Number One R&B).
For 1983’s Motown 25 TV special, the Four Tops and the
Temptations held a show stopping “battle of the bands,” amicably trading
songs. The concept was so well-received that the two groups frequently
toured together thereafter. In 1985 the Four Tops recorded a final album
for Motown, entitled Magic. A year later, Levi Stubbs served as the singing voice of the man-eating plant in the popular film Little Shop of Horrors.
The Four Tops’ last charting single was “Indestructible” (Number
Thirty-Five pop), released on Clive Davis’s Arista label in 1988. Its
B-side—“If Ever a Love There Was,” a collaboration with Aretha
Franklin—reached Number Thirty-One on the R&B chart.
Only death could stop the original lineup of the Four Tops. Lawrence
Payton died of cancer in 1997. The Four Tops continued to tour,
eventually replacing Payton with Theo Peoples (formerly of the
Temptations). Renaldo “Obie” Benson succumbed to cancer in 2005, and
Levi Stubbs died from stroke-related complications in 2008.
Duke Fakir, the quartet’s sole surviving member, has kept the Four
Tops alive. In addition to Fakir and Peoples, Lawrence Payton, Jr. (son
of founding member Lawrence Payton) and Ronnie McNair (a Motown
acquaintance) round out the revamped lineup. "They have the same feeling
as the original Tops—as close you can get without being the real
thing,” Fakir said in a 2010 interview.
Inductees: Renaldo Benson (born June 14, 1936, died July 1, 2005),
Abdul Fakir (born December 26, 1935), Lawrence Payton (born March 2,
1938, died June 20, 1997), Levi Stubbs (born June 6, 1936, died October
17, 2008)
Still Standing; In the Shadows of Motown The Four Tops, With a Change or Two, Celebrate at 50
Inside
the tiny house where Motown Records began, Abdul Fakir is standing in
famed Studio A, pointing out the worn spots on the floor where he and
other members of the Four Tops stood when cutting their records.
He
gestures to the sound booth, where the songwriters Brian Holland,
Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland sat, tweaking their arrangements.
Motown's founder, Berry Gordy, stayed in his office upstairs in a house
next door. But Mr. Gordy could hear the session through the walls. ''If
he came down, you had a hit,'' recalled Mr. Fakir, known as Duke.
On
a day last month, a group of tourists descends the stairs. They fill
the small studio, now part of the Motown Historical Museum, clamoring
for autographs. Eulalio Brown of Port Huron, Mich., awaits his moment.
Posing for a picture with Mr. Fakir, Mr. Brown, who claims a collection
of Motown records ''as big as Motown itself,'' is asked what set the
Four Tops apart. ''Longevity,'' he says, noting their five decades as
recording artists.
Yet
time has ravaged the Tops, too. Half the group no longer performs,
including Levi Stubbs, whose gravelly voice was the signature of almost
every song. Younger replacements have felt the sting of audiences who
wanted nothing to change. Hits are scarce, too: the last was 15 years
ago.
But
while other groups of their era have broken up or been relegated to
county fairs, the Tops still draw crowds to summer amphitheaters, where
they crisply perform classics like ''Standing in the Shadows of Love,''
as well as jazz tunes and fresh pop material.
And
while the group is split on whether to continue if another original
member can't go on, the Tops aren't packing up their sequined tuxedos
just yet. On Wednesday, the group marks its 50th anniversary at a
concert here that is being taped as their first television special.
Lifelong
friends like Aretha Franklin and Mary Wilson, an original Supreme, will
be on hand at the Detroit Opera House, honoring the group that was
formed after its four original members, then high school students, met
at a party in 1954.
Mr.
Fakir, 68, will join Renaldo Benson, known as Obie, who is also 68,
along with the two newest Tops, Ronnie McNair, 54, and Theo Peoples, 43.
Mr. Peoples, formerly of the Temptations, will take on the parts sung
by Mr. Stubbs, who stopped singing four years ago, felled by ill heath.
Now
confined to a wheelchair, Mr. Stubbs, who declined to be interviewed,
last appeared in public in April, at a benefit in Detroit.
The
other original Top, Lawrence Payton, died in 1997. Their absence makes
the anniversary bittersweet. ''It's like having one body with two limbs
missing,'' Mr. Benson said over a lobster lunch last month in a downtown
Detroit restaurant.
Not
that the new members have had it easy. Mr. Peoples, the youngest Top,
watched fans walk out of concerts when they discovered that he, not Mr.
Stubbs, was singing lead. Not that he blamed them. ''They're loyal fans
of Levi's,'' Mr. Peoples said. ''I can't take that as an insult.''
The
Tops frequently team up with Mr. Peoples's former group, the
Temptations, with whom they first sang on Motown's 25th-anniversary
special in 1983. Audiences sometimes confuse the two groups, given that
they consist of identically dressed black men (five in the case of the
Temptations) who sing in harmony and perform dance routines. But numbers
tell the story: over the years there have been 21 Temptations, but only
6 Tops. And for the first 43 years, simply Mr. Fakir, Mr. Benson, Mr.
Stubbs and Mr. Payton.
Mr.
Fakir credits the quartet's closeness to the years they spent bouncing
around the jazz club circuit. Leaving Detroit for New York, they shared a
studio apartment and rotated three suits among them. (The Top with the
most important appointment had first pick, Mr. Fakir said.)
The
Tops toured with the jazz balladeer Billy Eckstine, who admonished them
to forgo fancy dance steps until they had mastered their songs, as well
as Count Basie and his orchestra. In 1963 they landed on the Jack Paar
''Tonight'' show, singing a jazz arrangement of ''In the Still of the
Night.''
Watching
in Detroit, Mr. Gordy instructed his staff to sign them up. By then the
Tops were eager to trade the club scene for a label already known for
generating hits, said Suzanne E. Smith, assistant professor at George
Mason University and the author of ''Dancing in the Street: Motown and
the Cultural Politics of Detroit.''
But
it took the Hollands and Mr. Dozier another year after that to concoct
the Tops' first hit single, ''Baby, I Need Your Lovin','' in 1964, and
another year for the Tops to land their first No. 1 hit, ''I Can't Help
Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch).'' Their second No. 1 hit, ''Reach Out,
I'll Be There,'' followed in 1966.
''We
didn't know what bag to put them in,'' Mr. Dozier said by telephone
from his home in Las Vegas. They concluded that Mr. Stubbs's plaintive
voice should be most prominent, backed by the Tops' harmonies and
layered with vocals by a female group, the Andantes.
Motown's
choreographers and costume designers added to the presentation --
''things they wouldn't have gotten'' without joining Motown, Ms. Smith
said.
Snappily
dressed even offstage, the Tops liked to carouse in all corners of the
globe. Mr. Dozier remembers 18-hour days that stretched until 3 a.m.
But
relations with Motown grew strained by the early 70's, when Mr. Gordy
took the label to Los Angeles. That was around the time Mr. Benson went
in a decidedly un-Tops direction by writing the lyrics for ''What's
Goin' On,'' which Marvin Gaye recorded after revamping it with Al
Cleveland. Gaye embraced the protest song over initial objections of Mr.
Gordy, who doubted the tune would sell, Mr. Benson said.
Mr.
Benson was inspired to write it after an afternoon in the
Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. He was stunned, he said, when
police descended on a crowd of hippies, pummeling them for no apparent
reason.
After
leaving Motown, the Tops scored occasional hits through the 1970's and
1980's, the last being ''Indestructible,'' which reached No. 35 on the
pop charts in 1988. Mr. Stubbs meanwhile became known to a new
generation as the voice of a man-eating plant in the film version of
''Little Shop of Horrors.''
While
its Motown hits sell tickets, Mr. Fakir said the Tops were always
cycling newer material through their act, saving their biggest songs,
like ''Reach Out'' for a show-ending medley. By that point familiar
lyrics like ''I'll be there, to always see you through'' are a game
saver in the event of an off night.
''They
could be sick, they could be on crutches,'' he explains, but once the
audience hears those words, ''Wham! You've got 'em.''
The
decline of Mr. Stubbs and Mr. Payton's death are cautionary tales to
Mr. Fakir and Mr. Benson, who have talked about retiring the Tops should
one of them falter.
''We're
not worried about ourselves, but we want people to enjoy it,'' Mr.
Fakir said. He went on, ''When things start to diminish, it's time to go
home.''
That
prospect alarms Mr. Peoples and Mr. McNair, who separately insisted
they would be willing to carry on the Tops' tradition. ''This is
history,'' Mr. Peoples said. ''I just can't see people not having the
option of going to see the Four Tops anymore.''
Mr. McNair added: ''It's not about who's up there. It's about the music.''
A version of this article appears in print on July 27, 2004, on Page E00001 of the National edition with the headline: Still Standing; In the Shadows of Motown The Four Tops, With a Change or Two, Celebrate at 50. Order Reprints|Today's Paper
Levi Stubbs, 72, Powerful Voice for Four Tops, Dies
DETROIT
— Levi Stubbs, the gravelly-voiced, imploring lead singer of the Motown
group the Four Tops, who stood out in 1960s pop classics like “Reach
Out, I’ll Be There,” and “Bernadette,” died on Friday at his home here.
He was 72.
His
death was confirmed by the office of the Wayne County Medical
Examiner. No cause was given. Mr. Stubbs had had a series of illnesses,
including a stroke and cancer, that forced him to stop performing in
2000, although he briefly participated in the Four Tops’
50th-anniversary concert in 2004, which was broadcast on public
television.
Formed
while its original members were in high school, the Four Tops were one
of the most successful groups of the 20th century. They had more than 40
hits on the Billboard pop charts, including their first No. 1 single,
“I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)” in 1965.
Hugely
popular abroad as well as in the United States, the group became a
linchpin of Motown Records, the Detroit label started by Berry Gordy
Jr., and was second only to the Temptations, with whom it was often
compared, in popularity among its male artists. In 1990 the Four Tops
were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Unlike
the Temptations, whose members regularly changed, the Tops exhibited
extraordinary loyalty, with the original four remaining together for
more than 40 years. In fact, they began their singing career almost a
decade before joining Motown in 1963.
In
1953 Mr. Stubbs, a student at Pershing High School in Detroit, and his
friend Abdul Fakir, known as Duke, attended a birthday party at which
they met two other founding members of the group, Renaldo Benson, known
as Obie and Lawrence Payton, who were students at Northern High School.
(Mr. Fakir, who continues to perform with the Tops’ current lineup, is now the last surviving member.)
Originally
calling themselves the Four Aims, they were rechristened the Four Tops
in 1954 and signed with Chess Records, the Chicago rhythm and blues
label, in 1956.
The Four Tops in the mid-’60s. Clockwise from bottom left, Levi Stubbs, Obie Benson, Abdul Fakir and Lawrence Payton.
It
was clear from the beginning that Mr. Stubbs, with his booming,
rough-edged baritone, would be the lead singer, Mr. Fakir said in a 2004
interview. Yet many of his songs were written in a tenor range that
pushed his voice higher and made it sound urgent and pleading.
Mr.
Stubbs and the group did not plan a pop career, but began as jazz
singers. Leaving Detroit in the mid-1950s, they headed for New York,
bouncing around the nightclub circuit.
The
four singers shared a studio apartment and rotated three daytime suits
among them; whoever had the more important appointment got first pick,
Mr. Fakir recalled.
The
Tops added choreography to their act, but were advised to drop it when
they toured with the jazz balladeer Billy Eckstine, who told them to
master their singing. In 1963 Mr. Stubbs and the other Tops appeared on
the “Tonight” show, then hosted by Jack Paar, singing a jazz arrangement
of “In the Still of the Night.”
Mr.
Gordy, who saw their performance, told his staff to sign them up, and
assigned the songwriting team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie
Holland to shape their sound and deliver them a hit song.
It
took a year before the group recorded “Baby, I Need Your Loving,”
followed by their first No. 1 hits, “I Can’t Help Myself” in 1965 and
“Reach Out” in 1966.
“We
didn’t know what bag to put them in,” Mr. Dozier said in 2004. The
three songwriters concluded that Mr. Stubbs’s booming voice should be
most prominent, backed by the Tops’ harmonies; layered with vocals by a
female group, the Andantes; and supported by the Motown studio band
known as the Funk Brothers.
The combination worked.
“Stubbs’s
bold, dramatic readings of some of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s choicest
material set a high standard for contemporary soul in the mid-’60s,” the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said when the Tops were inducted.
The Four Tops, from left, in 1990: Renaldo "Obie" Benson, Levi Stubbs, Abdul "Duke" Fakir and Lawrence Payton.Credit
Ron Frehm/Associated Press
Snappily
dressed, even offstage, the Tops toured extensively throughout the
United States and around the world, recording more hits like “It’s the
Same Old Song” and “Standing in the Shadows of Love.”
In
1971 the group joined the Supremes to record a cover version of the Ike
and Tina Turner song “River Deep — Mountain High.” But by then,
relations with Motown were strained, and the group left the label after
Mr. Berry moved it to Los Angeles.
The
Tops continued to record during the 1970s and ’80s, often touring with
the Temptations. Their biggest post-Motown hit was “Ain’t No Woman Like
the One I’ve Got,” in 1973.
Levi
Stubbles was born in Detroit on June 6, 1936, a cousin of the soul
singer Jackie Wilson. His younger brother, Joe, sang with the Falcons
and the Contours, two rhythm and blues groups.
Mr.
Stubbs is survived by his wife of 48 years, Clineice; five children,
Deborah, Beverly, Raymond, Kelly and Levi Jr.; and 11 grandchildren.
Mr.
Stubbs took on a side project to become the voice of a man-eating
plant, Audrey II, in the 1986 musical film “Little Shop of Horrors,” and
also was the voice of Mother Brain, an evil character on the cartoon
show “Captain N: The Game Master,” from 1989 to 1991.
By
1995, Mr. Stubbs’s health had begun to fail, forcing him to curtail his
performances. Mr. Payton died in 1997, and Mr. Benson in 2005. Mr.
Fakir has continued singing with Mr. Payton’s son Roquel; a former
Temptation, Theo Peoples; and Ronnie McNair, a veteran Motown singer.
Before his death, Mr. Benson said in an interview that he was saddened by performing without Mr. Stubbs and Mr. Payton.
“It’s like having one body with two limbs missing,” he said.
A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B10 of the New York edition with the headline: Levi Stubbs, Powerful Voice for the Four Tops, Dies at 72. Order Reprints|Today's Pape
The Four Tops, American vocal group that was one of Motown’s most popular acts in the 1960s. The members were Renaldo (“Obie”) Benson (b. June 14, 1936, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.—d. July 1, 2005, Detroit), Abdul (“Duke”) Fakir (b. December 26, 1935, Detroit), Lawrence Payton (b. 1938, Detroit—d. June 20, 1997, Southfield, Michigan), and Levi Stubbs (byname of Levi Stubbles; b. June 6, 1936, Detroit—d. October 17, 2008, Detroit). The
Four Tops formed after singing together at a party in 1953, calling
themselves until 1956 the Four Aims. They spent a decade performing
primarily jazz-oriented material in clubs and releasing poorly received singles before signing with Motown Records. Under the stewardship of Motown’s premier songwriting and producing team, Holland-Dozier-Holland
(Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland), the Four Tops became
consistent hit makers, registering their first hit, “Baby I Need Your
Loving,” in 1964. “I Can’t Help Myself” (number one on the pop and rhythm-and-blues
charts in the United States) and “It’s the Same Old Song” followed in
1965, establishing the group’s signature sound: Stubbs’s gruff,
passionate lead vocals set against gentler background harmonies. The
group reached a pinnacle
of fame in 1966 with its second million-seller, “Reach Out I’ll Be
There.” Splitting with Motown in 1972 when the label relocated to
California but returning for another five-year stint with the company in
the mid-1980s, the group’s original lineup continued to tour and record
together throughout the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. The Four Tops were
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
It’s been 60 years since the Four Tops formed
in Detroit, four high school kids (Duke Fakir, Levi Stubbs, Renaldo
“Obie” Benson, and Lawrence Payton) who just loved singing together. The
band was active for 10 years before joining up with Berry Gordy’s
Motown label in 1963, and then the hits started to flow. “I Can’t Help
Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “It’s the
Same Old Song” — the list goes on.
The Four Tops are still active in 2014, though with
Duke Fakir the lone remaining original member, it is a legacy act.
Still, Fakir has assembled a solid group of singers around him, pulling
people from the Four Tops’ extended family. Lawrence Payton Jr., for
example, is singing bass.
We spoke to Fakir about the Tops’ upcoming show with the Temptations at Freedom Hill, and much more.
Metro Times: Duke, you’re the last remaining original Top. How do you pick bandmates?
Duke Fakir: It was very easy for me because
they were all very close to us. We have the son of Lawrence Payton, then
we have a co-writer and very close friend of Renaldo “Obie” Benson —
his name is Ronnie McNeir and he’s been with us about 12 years. He’s
been a very close friend of ours for over 30 or 40 years. The third
person, Harold Bonhart, is a guy who sounds quite a bit like Levi. He’s
fairly recent, but I’ve known him about eight years. He’s been with us a
couple of years now and he’s ready, and we’re sounding good. I have
never had to put an ad out. It’s always been someone close to us, in our
family, who was able to step in when the time was right.
MT: Musically, how close is the current band to the classic lineup?
Fakir: About as close as you can get. This is
the best sounding band since Levi stopped singing and since Obie and
Lawrence are not there. We’re very close. Of course, being with the
Tempts, you always get everybody’s A-game. It’s like play-off time or
something. It’s very friendly, but it’s competitive once you get on
stage. You have to be at your best, otherwise you can get talked about
in the dressing room, laughed at. We play games with each other, and
that keeps us all on our feet.
MT: Motown moved to L.A. in 1972, but you stayed here …
Fakir: We’re home guys. I’m a Detroit man, I
love Detroit. It’s important and I’m glad I didn’t go out to L.A. We get
a chance to go out there anytime we want, we work out there quite a
bit, but Detroit is my home. I love it. I play golf with all my retired
friends that I grew up with. I’m the only one still working.
MT: So much has been written about the Four Tops. Tell us something that people don’t know …
Fakir: People don’t realize how important it is
that people, when they’re working together, get along and have the same
objectives. We all had the same goals, and we kept those from a young
age all the way through to “death do us part.” It was easy for us to do
that. The formula for success is that unity is stronger than one.
There’s not too much people don’t know about the Tops. They don’t know
how many genres of music we have recorded and enjoyed singing. We
started out singing all types of music, not just R&B. We started
singing jazz, pop, hit parade, country & western, blues, everything
but hip-hop. We’re pretty good at it. We have some stuff on albums that
people would be very surprised it’s the Four Tops. I’ve been talking to
Sirius Radio about having our own station. There are hundreds of songs
that people haven’t heard.
MT: Wait, you guys played country?
Fakir: We’ve got a couple of country songs,
yes, we do. We like music. We weren’t brought up singing one kind of
music; we were brought up singing songs. Even while we were recording,
we looked around at what else was out there and did some covers.
“Eleanor Rigby,” “Michelle,” you name them, we’ve got them all.
MT: You were Beatles fans then?
Fakir: We were Beatles fans, of course. Their
manager, Brian Epstein, brought the Four Tops over for a UK tour, but
before that he also brought us over for promotion. He told us on the
last night of promotion, ‘If you can do the best show you’ve ever done
here tonight, I can guarantee you when you come back for your concert
tour it’ll be front page news and it will be like that for years. I’m
gonna make you all as popular here as the Beatles are in the United
States.’ He did just that. When we came back, it was front page news,
all the tickets were sold out, we had a wonderful tour. Then he hosted a
party with the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Small Faces, and a few
others I can’t even remember. We had a great time that night. We all
discussed music and how we got it done. It was just great. Very
exciting.
MT: Do you ever get bored playing the hits, night after night?
Fakir: I have this mindset: I’m a born artist.
As long as the audience loves the songs that we do, we’re going to keep
doing them. It’s a joy to see people jump up and get excited. For me,
it’s a thrill. They want to be a part of it, and that’s wonderful. Where
else are you going to get that kind of love?
MT: What can we expect from this show?
Fakir: We’re doing all of our biggest hits.
It’ll be exciting, it’ll sound great, and it’ll feel great. We’ll throw
in a couple of cover songs that we enjoy. It’ll be a fun show.
The Four Tops plays with the Temptations at 7:30
p.m. on Saturday June 21 at Freedom Hill; 14900 Metropolitan Parkway,
Sterling Heights, 888-929-7849; freedomhill.net; $10-$85.
LevI Stubbs, Renaldo “Obie” Benson, Lawrence Payton, and Abdul “Duke”
Fakir were born and raised in the tough North End of Detroit. All were
friends in high school but sang in two different vocal groups. In 1954 Levi, Obie, Lawrence, and Duke were asked by a friend to
entertain at her graduation party. It was the first time the four had
sung together and they knew they had found something special as soon as
their voices blended together. They called themselves the Four Aims since they were aiming to get to
the top. After signing with Chess Records in 1956, the group changed
their name to the Four Tops to avoid confusion with another vocal group
called the Ames Brothers. The Four Tops’ first single for Chess, “Kiss Me Baby”, was a minor
regional hit but subsequent releases on the Chess, Red Top, Singular,
Riverside, and Columbia labels failed to click with the record buying
public. The group was able to make a living during these hitless years
by playing talent contests, block parties, and small Midwestern
nightclubs. The turning point for the Four Tops came in 1963 when they signed
with Motown Records. The next year Berry Gordy Jr. placed the group with
Motown’s hot, young production team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier,
and Eddie Holland. The threesome were riding a series of hits with
Martha & The Vandellas and the Supremes and they had a song called
“Baby I Need Your Loving” that was originally intended for one of the
female groups. The Four Tops recorded their first memorable hit at a 3
a.m. session at the Hitsville U.S.A. Studio on West Grand Boulevard in
the spring of 1964. “Baby I Need Your Loving” spent 12 weeks on the
Billboard charts, reaching a peak of #11. The follow-up singles, “Without the One You Love” and “Ask The
Lonely”, were solid hits, but the Four Tops and Holland-Dozier-Holland
really hit their stride with 1965’s #1 single “I Can’t Help Myself”. The
up-tempo song is powered by Funk Brother James Jamerson’s bass and the
lead vocal of Levi Stubbs. The partnership of the Four Tops and Holland-Dozier-Holland proceeded
to put together nine consecutive Top 20 singles including “It’s The
Same Old Song”, “Something About You”, “Shake Me, Wake Me”, “Standing In
The Shadows Of Love”, “Bernadette”, “7 Rooms Of Gloom”, “You Keep
Running Away”, and a second #1 hit, “Reach Out I’ll Be There”, from 1965
through 1967. “The Four Tops Greatest Hits” collected the
first twelve hit singles produced by the partnership and quickly became
the highest charting album of the group’s career. In 1967, Holland-Dozier-Holland walked out on Motown in a dispute
over money. H-D-H then decided to form their own record company and
created the Hot Wax and Invictus labels. Their new company produced a
number of hits from a roster of artists that included; the Chairmen Of
The Board, Freda Payne, Flaming Ember, and the Honey Cone. Despite losing their ace songwriting and production team, the Four
Tops continued their string of hits in 1968. The group had Top 20
singles with cover versions of “Walk Away Renee” and “If I Were A
Carpenter”, but the group would no longer be a force at Motown with
original material. In fact, outside of a duet with the Supremes on their
cover of “River Deep – Mountain High”, the Four Tops’ only other Motown
Top 20 hit was with Smokey Robinson’s “Still Water (Love)” in 1970. By 1972 Motown had left Detroit and relocated in Los Angeles. Musical
tastes in the United States were changing and the Four Tops had reached
the end of their reign at the label. The group was still very popular
in Europe, however. One of their last singles at Motown, “A Simple
Game”, featuring the popular rock group the Moody Blues, was a #3 hit in
England but only reached #90 in the United States. The group left Motown in 1972 to sign with ABC/Dunhill. The Four Tops
started off with a bang as they recorded a couple of big hits; “Keeper
Of The Castle” and “Ain’t No Woman (Like The One I Got)”. The rise of
disco music cut into the Four Tops’ chart success in the 70’s, but the
group continued to tour the world performing to packed houses. In 1981, the group signed with Casablanca Records, a label that had
been a leader in the disco field. They had one big comeback single on
Casablanca with “When She Was My Girl” before returning to Motown in
1983. After performing in a “battle of the bands” with the Temptations on the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever television special, the Four Tops embarked on the first of several co-headlining tours with the Temptations that was billed as T ’n’ T. The initial tour lasted nearly three years, traveled around the world, and included a series of sold-out shows on Broadway. In 1986, Levi Stubbs provided the memorable voice for the man-eating plant Audrey II in the film Little Shop Of Horrors. Two
years later the group once again left Motown to sign with Arista
Records. It was there that the Four Tops recorded their final Top 40
hit, “Indestructible”, in 1988. Two years later, the group was inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by fellow Motown artist Stevie
Wonder. The forty-three year partnership of the Four Tops ended in 1997 with
the death of Lawrence Payton. Payton was the musical genius who arranged
the group’s voices in tight four-part harmonies throughout their long
career. Aretha Franklin, who had known Lawrence since their childhood in
the North End of Detroit, sang at his funeral. The group continued as a
threesome calling themselves the ‘Tops’ in Payton’s memory. Lead singer Levi Stubbs suffered from declining heath following a
stroke in 2000. This prevented him from performing anymore with the
group. Levi passed away in his sleep in 2008 at his home in Detroit. The Four Tops were inducted into Michigan Rock and Roll Legends in
2005. That summer, “Obie” Benson died of lung cancer. The cancer was
discovered after Obie had a leg amputated just a few weeks earlier. In
2009, the Four Tops' first big hit, "Baby I Need Your Loving", was voted
one of MIchigan's Legendary Songs. In 2011, their first # 1 single, "I
Can't Help Myself", was also voted a Legendary Michigan Song.
Video:
Watch the Four Tops perform "I Can't Help Myself" on Shindig in 1965 at:
“The Four Tops: The Ultimate Collection”, Motown CD. This collection contains 25 of the group’s highlights from the Motown years. “Four Tops: Forever”, Universal Music 4 CD Box Set. This has
it all. It consists of mostly Motown material, but it does contain the
highlights from the Dunhill/ABC, ABC, Casablanca, and Arista labels.
Internet and Video Links:
Although there is no official Four Tops Web site, you can watch some great video of the group by clicking on www.youtube.com/. Simply type in Four Tops in the Search box at the top of the page and then click on the video that you want to watch.
THE MUSIC OF THE FOUR TOPS: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH THE FOUR TOPS:
The Four Tops in 1968. (L-to-R) Levi Stubbs, Renaldo "Obie" Benson, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, and Lawrence Payton
The Four Tops are a vocal quartet from Detroit, Michigan, USA, who helped to define the city's Motown sound of the 1960s. The group's repertoire has included soul music, R&B, disco, adult contemporary, doo-wop, jazz, and show tunes.
Founded as the Four Aims, lead singer Levi Stubbs, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton remained together for over four decades, performing from 1953 until 1997 without a change in personnel.
The Four Tops were among a number of groups, including the Miracles, the Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas, the Temptations, and the Supremes, who established the Motown Sound heard around the world during the 1960s. They were notable for having Stubbs, a baritone, as their lead singer, whereas most male and mixed vocal groups of the time were fronted by a tenor.
The group was the main male vocal group for the highly successful songwriting and production team of Holland–Dozier–Holland, who crafted a stream of hit singles for Motown. These included two Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits for the Tops: "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" in 1965 and "Reach Out I'll Be There" in 1966. After Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown in 1967, the Four Tops were assigned to a number of producers, primarily Frank Wilson, but generally with less success.
When Motown left Detroit in 1972 to move to Los Angeles, California, the Tops stayed in Detroit but signed a new recording deal with ABC Records'
Dunhill imprint. Recording mainly in Los Angeles, they continued to
have chart singles into the late 1970s, including the million-seller "Ain't No Woman", their second release on Dunhill, produced by Steve Barri and the composers Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter.
In the 1980s, the Four Tops recorded for Casablanca Records, Arista Records and Motown, returning to that label on two occasions for brief stays. Apart from their album Indestructible (owned by Sony Music Entertainment), Universal Music Group
controls the rights to their entire post-1963 catalog (through various
mergers and acquisitions) and also their 1956 single, "Could It Be You".
A change of lineup was forced on the group when Lawrence Payton
died on June 20, 1997. The group initially continued as a three-piece
under the name the Tops,[1] before Theo Peoples (formerly of the Temptations)
was recruited as the new fourth member. Peoples eventually took over
the role of lead singer when Stubbs suffered a stroke in 2000, with Ronnie McNeir then joining the group. On July 1, 2005, Benson died of lung cancer. Payton's son Roquel Payton replaced him. Levi Stubbs died on October 17, 2008.
Fakir, McNeir, Roquel Payton, and Harold "Spike" Bonhart, who
replaced Peoples in 2011, are still performing together as the Four
Tops. Fakir is the only surviving founding member of the group.
History
Early years
All four members of the group began their careers together while they were high-school students in Detroit. At the insistence of their friends, Pershing High students Levi Stubbs and Abdul "Duke" Fakir performed with Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton from Northern High at a local birthday party. The quartet decided to remain together and named the group the Four Aims. With the help of Payton's songwriter cousin Roquel Davis, the Aims signed to Chess Records in 1956, changing their name to the Four Tops to avoid confusion with the Ames Brothers.
Over the next seven years, the Tops had unsuccessful tenures at Chess, Red Top, Riverside Records and Columbia Records. Without any hit records to their name, they toured frequently, developing a polished stage presence and an experienced supper club act, as well as supporting Billy Eckstine. In 1963, Berry Gordy, Jr., who had worked with Roquel Davis as a songwriter in the late 1950s, convinced the Tops to join the roster of his growing Motown record company.
In 1964, Motown's main songwriting and production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland,
created a complete instrumental track without any idea of what to do
with it. They decided to craft the song as a more mainstream pop song
for the Four Tops and proceeded to create "Baby I Need Your Loving"
from the instrumental track. On its release in mid-1964, "Baby I Need
Your Loving" made it to number 11 on the Billboard pop chart. However,
the song proved to be much more popular on trend-setting radio stations
in key U.S. markets and has since grown in popularity over the years to
be one of the group's classic tracks. After the single's success, the
Tops were pulled away from their jazz material and began recording more
material in the vein of "Baby I Need Your Loving".
The first follow-up single, "Without the One You Love (Life's Not
Worth While)", just missed both the pop and R&B Top 40 charts, but
"Ask the Lonely", written and produced by Motown A&R head Mickey
Stevenson with Ivy Hunter, was a Top 30 pop hit and a Top 10 R&B hit
in early 1965. From there, the group really began to make its mark.
Success
After their first number 1 hit, "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)"
in June 1965, the Four Tops released a long series of successful hit
singles. Among the first wave of these hits were the Top 10 "It's the Same Old Song",
"Something About You", "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)", and
"Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever". Four Tops records often represented
the epitome of the Motown Sound: simple, distinctive melodies and
rhymes, call-and-response lyrics, and the musical contributions of
studio band, the Funk Brothers.
Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote most of Levi Stubbs's vocals in a
tenor range, near the top of his range, in order to get a sense of
strained urgency in his gospelpreacher-inspired leads. They also wrote additional background vocals for a female group, the Andantes,
on many of the songs, to add a high end to the low-voiced harmony of
the Tops. Ivy Hunter's "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever" was one of a
few exceptions.
August 1966 brought the release of the Four Tops' all-time biggest hit and one of the most popular Motown songs ever. "Reach Out I'll Be There" reached number 1 on the U.S. pop and R&B charts[2] and the UK chart and soon became the Tops' signature song. It was almost immediately followed by the similar-sounding "Standing in the Shadows of Love"; its depiction of heartbreak reflecting the opposite of the optimism in "Reach Out". It was another Top 10 hit for the Tops.
Performing at New Rochelle (New York) High School, c. 1967
The Top 10 U.S. hit "Bernadette" centered around a man's all-consuming obsession with his lover,[2] continued the Four Tops' successful run into April 1967, followed by the Top 20 hits "7-Rooms of Gloom",
and "You Keep Running Away". By now, the Tops were the most successful
male Motown act in the United Kingdom (in the United States, they were
second to the Temptations), and began experimenting with more mainstream pop hits. They scored hits with their versions of Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter" in late 1967 (mid-1968 in the U.S.) and the Left Banke's "Walk Away Renée"
in early 1968. These singles and the original "I'm in a Different
World" were their last hits produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland, who left
Motown in 1967 after disputes with Berry Gordy over royalties and
ownership of company shares.
Late Motown period
Without
Holland-Dozier-Holland, the hits became less frequent. The group worked
with a wide array of Motown producers during the late 1960s, including
Ivy Hunter, Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, Norman Whitfield and Johnny Bristol, without significant chart success.
Their first major hit in a long time came in the form of 1970's "It's All in the Game", a pop Top 30/R&B Top Ten hit produced by Frank Wilson. Wilson and the Tops began working on a number of innovative tracks and albums together, echoing Whitfield's psychedelic soul work with The Temptations. Their 1970 album Still Waters Run Deep was a forerunner of the concept album. It also served as an inspiration for Marvin Gaye's 1971 classic album What's Going On, the title track of which was co-written by the Tops' Obie Benson.
The 1971 single "A Simple Game" featured backing vocals from members of The Moody Blues. The song did not fare well on the U.S. charts, but reached number three on the UK charts.
ABC Records and Casablanca Records
Motown as a company began to change during the early 1970s. Older acts such as Martha and the Vandellas and The Marvelettes were slowly moved aside or dropped to focus on newer acts, such as Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5, Rare Earth, and the now-solo Diana Ross. In addition, the company moved its operations from Detroit to Los Angeles, California, where Berry Gordy planned to break into the motion picture and television
industries. In 1972, it was announced that the entire company would
move west and that all its artists had to move as well. Many of the
older Motown acts, already neglected by the label, opted to stay in
Detroit, including The Funk Brothers studio backing band, Martha Reeves, and the Four Tops.
The Tops departed Motown for ABC-Dunhill, where they were assigned to writer-producers Dennis Lambert
and Brian Potter and the label's head of A&R, Steve Barri as
producer, with The Tops' own Lawrence Payton later also serving as a
producer and writer. He also took over lead vocal duties on several
tracks.
After the release of "Catfish"
(a top 10 R&B hit) in 1976, the major hits started to dry up and
the Tops left ABC after an album recorded in Philadelphia with the MFSB
musicians resulted in only minor chart success in 1978. The group
disappeared from the recording scene until the early 1980s. Signing a
deal with Casablanca Records, the Tops made a comeback in 1981 with the #1 R&B hit "When She Was My Girl".
Produced by David Wolfert, it just missed the Billboard pop Top 10,
peaking at #11. The group also scored a UK Top 10 hit with the song and
had another hit there with the follow-up, "Don't Walk Away".
Return to Motown
By
1983, The Tops had rejoined Motown, where their former ABC-Dunhill
producer, Steve Barri was vice-president of A&R. They were featured
on the company's television specialMotown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever,
taking part in one of the highlights of the show - a
battle-of-the-bands between The Tops and The Temptations, patterned
after similar competitions Berry Gordy had staged during the 1960s. Levi
Stubbs and Temptation Otis Williams decided the Temptations/Tops battle would be a good one to take on the road and both groups began semi-regular joint tours.
The first of The Tops' albums under their new Motown contract was Back Where I Belong. A whole side of the album was produced by the Holland-Dozier-Holland, including the R&B Top 40 single, "I Just Can't Walk Away". Only one more Tops album would be released by Motown, Magic
in 1985. The lead single from that album, "Sexy Ways", was almost a Top
20 R&B hit, peaking at #21 on the Soul Charts in mid-1985. In July
of that year, the group performed at the Live Aid concert, singing three of their hit songs. The album Hot Nights
was completed in 1986, but was then cancelled, as the group and the
Motown label began to disagree over marketing and musical direction. The
following year, the Four Tops decided to leave for Arista Records, buying back several masters they had recorded for Hot Nights. It's not clear how many songs from Hot Nights were used on Indestructible, but the 2001 box set, Fourever includes the title track (previously released as a single), Red Hot Love and The Four of Us (previously released outside the U.S. on a CD single of "Loco in Acapulco"), as well as Indestructible.
The title track of 1988's Indestructible was the group's final Top 40 hit, reaching No. 35. It was also featured in the 1988 science-fiction cop film, Alien Nation. Another track, "Loco in Acapulco",
written and produced by British pop musician Phil Collins and former
Motown composer-producer Lamont Dozier, climbed into the UK Top 10 and
made #7 in early 1989. The Arista contract provided an opportunity to
pair Levi Stubbs with fellow Arista artist, another legendary R&B
vocalist from Detroit, Aretha Franklin, who was at the height of her own 1980s hit streak. This pairing resulted in the song "If Ever A Love There Was", which became a popular R&B and Adult Contemporary hit, as well as being featured on the soundtrack of the motion picture I'm Gonna Git You Sucka.
In December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103
became the group's scheduled return flight to the U.S. for Christmas
after completing their European tour. A prolonged recording session and a
performance at the television show Top of the Pops caused them to oversleep and miss the ill-fated flight which crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, after a terrorist bomb was detonated on board.[3][4] They left London however using a later British Airways flight.
From
the late 1980s, the Four Tops focused on touring and live performances.
They recorded only one album, returning again to Motown for 1995's Christmas Here with You.
On June 20, 1997, 59-year-old Lawrence Payton died as a result of liver
cancer, after singing for 44 years with the Four Tops who, unlike many
Motown groups, never had a single lineup change until then. At first,
Levi Stubbs, Obie Benson, and Duke Fakir toured as a trio called The Tops. In 1998, they recruited former Temptation Theo Peoples to restore the group to a quartet. By the turn of the century, Stubbs had become ill from cancer;
Ronnie McNeir was recruited to fill the Lawrence Payton position and
Peoples stepped into Stubbs' shoes as lead singer. Stubbs later died on
October 17, 2008 at his home in Detroit. The group also did commercials
for the Detroit-based pizza chain Happy's Pizza, which became successful over the years.
The group was featured in several television specials during this time, including Motown 45, and several by PBS,
including a 50th-anniversary concert dedicated to the group (available
on DVD). The concert turned out to be bittersweet; it featured a brief
appearance of the wheelchair-bound Levi Stubbs, and a memorial to
Lawrence Payton, announced by Obie Benson. Benson appeared on one more
PBS special and died on July 1, 2005, from lung cancer. The final PBS special, titled Motown: The Early Years,
featured a message of Benson's passing following the credits. Lawrence
Payton's son Roquel (real name Lawrence Payton, Jr.) replaced Benson as
the new bass (Roquel could be seen in the pledge break interviews of Motown: The Early Years). Theo Peoples also left the Tops to form his own group and was replaced by Harold 'Spike' Bonhart as lead singer.
Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame- 2005.[6]
After similar releases in the Motown "Definitive DVD" series on The Miracles, The Temptations, The Supremes, and Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops' Motown Definitive DVD, Reach Out, was finally released on November 11, 2008.
The Four Tops received The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the 51st Annual Grammy Awards.[19][20]
Speaking in January 2010 to noted UK soul writer Pete Lewis of the award-winning Blues & Soul,
Fakir confirmed plans for the "new" Four Tops to release a new album,
while revealing his personal feelings about the current line-up: "To me
the new group is like an extension of the family, because we've all been
very close for so many years... Which makes it easier for ME, because I
truly miss Lawrence, "Obie" AND Levi - I'd be lying if I said I didn't -
and not one of them could EVER be replaced. But, you know, these new
guys do perform well enough for the people to still enjoy the shows and
still enjoy the music. So for me, it kinda makes it bittersweet.
Because, at the end of the day, the legacy is still going on and I'm
very pleased that it IS!"[21]
The Four Tops sang the National Anthem before the start of game 5
for the 2011 ALCS between the Texas Rangers & Detroit Tigers on
October 13, 2011 in Detroit, MI. When singing the last line of "The Star Spangled Banner",
"...and the home of the brave", they quickly sang the words "Ain't No
country Like the One I Got", before singing the last word, "brave". The
Four Tops were honored with an induction into the R&B Music Hall of Fame at the Inaugural ceremony held at Cleveland State University's Waetejen Auditorium on Saturday August 17, 2013.
Kofi Natambu, editor of and contributor to Sound Projections, is a writer, poet, cultural critic, and political journalist whose poetry, essays, criticism, reviews, and journalism have appeared in many literary magazines, journals, newspapers, and anthologies. He has written extensively about music as a critic and historian for many publications, including the Black Scholar, Downbeat, Solid Ground: A New World Journal, Detroit Metro Times, KONCH, the Panopticon Review,Black Renaissance Noire, the Village Voice, the City Sun (NYC), the Poetry Project Newsletter (NYC), and the African American Review. He is the author of a biography Malcolm X: His Life & Work (Alpha Books) and two books of poetry: The Melody Never Stops (Past Tents Press) and Intervals (Post Aesthetic Press). He was the founder and editor of Solid Ground: A New World Journal, a national quarterly magazine of the arts, culture, and politics and the editor of a literary anthology Nostalgia for the Present (Post Aesthetic Press). Natambu has read his work throughout the country and given many lectures and workshops at academic and arts institutions. He has taught American literature, literary theory and criticism, cultural history and criticism, film studies, political science, creative writing, philosophy, critical theory, and music history and criticism (Jazz, Blues, R&B, Hip Hop) at many universities and colleges. He was also a curator in the Education Department of Detroit’s Museum of African American History. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Natambu currently lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Chuleenan.
