The Four Tops
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The Four Tops Biography
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. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
Written by Steve Huey