Four Tops

Unity and triumph mark the enduring path of the Four Tops. These Motown icons first aligned while still in high school, preserved their original roster across more than forty years, and rose to elite status on a roster rich with ability, matching the Temptations and the Supremes as the label’s steadiest producers of hits. Unlike many peer vocal ensembles built around a tenor lead, the group relied on the resonant baritone of Levi Stubbs, whose gospel-honed intensity anchored performances, while the polished blend supplied by Duke Fakir, Obie Benson, and Lawrence Payton complemented the sleek arrangements typical of Motown’s productions. Between 1964 and 1967 the quartet cut several landmark Holland-Dozier-Holland songs—“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”—that remain among the era’s most celebrated singles. After Motown relocated to Los Angeles in the early 1970s, the Tops stayed in Detroit and enjoyed renewed visibility on ABC-Dunhill, capped by the 1973 success of “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got)” and additional Top Ten R&B entries. Throughout the 1980s they maintained a busy touring schedule, notched periodic chart returns, and enjoyed a brief return to the Motown roster. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, they issued their final studio album in 1995, remained together until Payton’s passing two years later, and continued performing after the subsequent losses of Benson and Stubbs. Fakir sustained the group as a popular concert attraction.

The Four Tops originated in 1953 (some sources cite 1954) while all four members attended Detroit-area high schools. Levi Stubbs and Abdul “Duke” Fakir were classmates at Pershing High; they encountered Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Lawrence Payton, both students at Northern, at a birthday gathering where the four voices first harmonized. Recognizing immediate rapport, they rehearsed regularly and adopted the name Four Aims. Payton’s cousin Roquel Davis, an emerging songwriter who occasionally joined them early on, arranged a 1956 audition at Chess Records. Although Chess ultimately focused on Davis, who later partnered with Berry Gordy as a writer, the label also signed the quartet, which changed its name to Four Tops to prevent confusion with the Ames Brothers. Their solitary Chess release, “Kiss Me Baby,” preceded short engagements with Red Top and Riverside. Columbia signed them in 1960 and guided the act toward supper-club repertoire, emphasizing jazz and pop standards; during this stretch they toured with Billy Eckstine.

In 1963 the Four Tops joined Berry Gordy’s fledgling enterprise through its jazz-focused Workshop imprint. They recorded a debut album titled Breaking Through that Gordy ultimately shelved, redirecting the group toward R&B and assigning them to Motown’s Holland-Dozier-Holland team. After a decade together, the Tops secured their first chart entry in 1964 with “Baby I Need Your Loving,” which climbed just shy of the pop Top Ten. Early 1965 yielded the ballad “Ask the Lonely,” and momentum built swiftly thereafter. “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)” reached number one that spring, followed by the Top Five “It’s the Same Old Song.” Further 1966 releases—“Something About You,” “Shake Me, Wake Me (When It’s Over),” and “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever”—extended their run. Their fall 1966 masterpiece, the expansive soul production “Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” delivered a second number-one pop single and stands as both the artistic summit of their catalog and one of Motown’s defining recordings. The quartet also earned recognition as one of the label’s strongest live draws, having refined its stagecraft through years of prior club work.

The Four Tops opened 1967 with the dramatic Top Ten single “Standing in the Shadows of Love,” succeeded by the Top Five “Bernadette.” “7-Rooms of Gloom” and “You Keep Running Away” both reached the Top 20 before Holland-Dozier-Holland departed Motown amid a royalty disagreement late that year. Their subsequent Top 20 hits, 1968’s “Walk Away Renee” and “If I Were a Carpenter,” revisited recent material by the Left Banke and Tim Hardin. Producer Frank Wilson oversaw a 1970 resurgence that included a cover of the Tommy Edwards standard “It’s All in the Game” and the Smokey Robinson co-write “Still Water (Love).” The group also partnered with the post-Diana Ross Supremes, achieving a duet success with their reading of “River Deep, Mountain High” in 1971.

Motown’s 1972 headquarters shift to Los Angeles prompted the Four Tops to leave the company and remain in Detroit. They joined ABC-Dunhill and collaborated with Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, who aimed to recapture the signature Motown sound. The first result, “Keeper of the Castle,” returned them to the pop Top Ten after several years. Early 1973 brought “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got),” a gold-certified smash that proved their last Top Five pop entry. That same year they recorded the Shaft in Africa theme “Are You Man Enough.” Additional R&B chart singles followed through 1976’s “Catfish”; after a final ABC album in 1978 they moved to Casablanca in 1981. Their initial Casablanca single, “When She Was My Girl,” topped the R&B chart and nearly reached the pop Top Ten.

The Four Tops rejoined Motown in 1983 for the label’s twenty-fifth-anniversary celebrations and toured extensively alongside the Temptations. They also cut two new albums before departing again over questions of artistic direction. During this period Stubbs supplied the voice of Audrey the man-eating plant for the film adaptation of Little Shop of Horrors. The group next signed with Arista and scored its final Top 40 pop hit in 1988 with “Indestructible.” Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame followed in 1990. After releasing their last studio album—a 1995 Christmas project—they concentrated on live performances. Lawrence Payton’s death from liver cancer in 1997 concluded the original lineup’s remarkable continuity; Theo Peoples, recently departed from the Temptations after six years, joined as replacement.

Early in the following decade a stroke limited Stubbs’s participation and led to the addition of longtime musical director Ronnie McNeir. Benson succumbed to lung cancer in 2005 and was succeeded by Lawrence Payton Jr. Stubbs, whose final appearance occurred at the group’s fiftieth-anniversary concert the prior year, died in his sleep in 2008. Three years later Peoples exited, opening the door for Harold “Spike” Bonhart. Throughout these transitions and into the 2020s, Fakir guided the Four Tops onstage. He stepped away from the group in 2024 after more than seventy years, and passed away on July 22, 2024, at age 88.