| The Four
Tops',
story is one of longevity and
togetherness: these Motown legends
teamed up in high school and spent over
four decades without a single personnel
change. In between, they became one of
the top-tier acts on a label with no
shortage of talent, ranking with the
Temptations and the Supremes as Motown's
most consistent hitmakers. Where many
other R&B vocal groups spotlighted a
tenor-range lead singer, the Four Tops
were fronted by deep-voiced Levi Stubbs,
who never cut a solo record outside of
the group. Stubbs had all the grit of a
pleading, wailing, gospel-trained soul
belter, but at the same time, the Tops'
creamy harmonies were smooth enough for
Motown's radio-friendly pop-soul
productions. From 1964-1967, the Four
Tops recorded some of the
Holland-Dozier-Holland team's greatest
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." The group's
fortunes took a downturn when their
chief source of material left the label,
but they enjoyed a renaissance in the
early '70s, which saw them switching to
the ABC-Dunhill imprint. Regardless of
commercial fortunes, they kept on
performing and touring, scoring the
occasional comeback hit.
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 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 an unequivocal flop, and the
group moved on to 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. This too
failed to break them, although they did
tour with Billy Eckstine during this
period.
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, which
didn't bode well for the Four Tops'
impressive hit streak. Their 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
while both made the Top 20, they
heralded a rough couple of years where
top-drawer material was in short supply.
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 Ross Supremes,
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
largely disappeared from sight before
resurfacing on Casablanca in 1981.
Incredibly, their first single, "When
She Was My Girl," went all the way to
number one on the R&B charts, just
missing the pop Top Ten. The
accompanying album, Tonight!, became
their last to hit the Top 40.
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 that
failed to sell well, and wound up
leaving Motown amid confusion over
proper musical direction. Meanwhile,
Levi 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, and continued to tour the
oldies circuit. In 1997, Lawrence Payton
passed away due to cancer of the liver,
which proved to be the only thing that
could break up the Four Tops. After some
consideration, the remaining members
hired Theo Peoples to take Payton's
place on tour. |
