Remembering The Four Tops, one of Motown's best groups

The Four Tops are my favorite Motown group, and one of my favorite acts of all-time. If I'm driving somewhere and "Same Old Song" or "Reach Out, I'll Be There" comes on, well, I'll immediately start singing along. Loudly. The music is passionate and often joyous. Some of the credit for that has to go to songwriters Lamont Dozier and Brian and Eddie Holland, and Motown's producers, of course. They found a magic formula that created hits, and sold more than 50 million records worldwide. But I can't imagine these songs without the explosive, lead vocals of Levi Stubbs, or the energetic backing of Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton. My favorite Tops song is Loving You (Is Sweeter Than Ever). Ths track starts with a drum beat (played by song co-writer Stevie Wonder) and goes into a driving, pleasurable melody. A song can be hard to describe in just words. But every time I think of Stubbs' singing and the harmonies at the chorus on that song, I smile. There's was a smoothness to the Four Tops, but also, at times, desperation. In "Reach Out, I'll Be There," Stubbs is so high in his range that he's half, singing, half shouting. He sounds like a man in pain (which as anyone who has tried to sing at the top of their range realizes, he probably was). The vocal – said to be a shout-out to Bob Dylan's singing style – is a classic, aided by an anguished grunt at the beginning of each verse. The Four Tops were not only immensely popular, but enduring. In every sense of the word. Motown often has been described as a factory. It not only churned out hits, but also often changed up members in groups. The Temptations had numerous cast changes, almost as if they were a long running Broadway show. That was the case for many Motown groups. But not the Tops. Stubbs, Fakir, Benson and Payton remained together for decades. The four sang together until Payton's death in 1997. The group continued, and kept going, even as the original members stepped away. A little more than a week ago, Fakir – the last surviving original member – retired from the group. On Monday, Fakir died at 88. The current version of the group, meanwhile, still has tour dates scheduled well into September. It's sad to know that the original Four Tops are gone. They provided so many hit songs, and so much joy to music fans. For me, their music always picks me up, makes me feel better, and gets me ready to take on the day. It always makes me sing along. And I know I'm not the only one. Baker is the sports editor for The Courier.