Over the weekend a musical legend passed away. He fronted one of the most popular Motown groups of the 60's and 70's, and was the voice of Audrey II in the 1986 classic, "Little Shop of Horrors." His name is Levi Stubbs, and he was the lead singer for The Four Tops.
My mom introduced me to The Four Tops when I was in High School. She had purchased their greatest hits CD, and while I had heard a lot of the songs before, I didn't know that they were all done by The Four Tops.
Classic songs such as “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)”, "Bernadette", “Baby, I Need Your Loving", and "Walk Away Renee" can be attributed to this popular group. The only male Motown group that was more popular than The Four Tops were The Temptations.
But the thing that made The Four Tops special was that unlike The Temptations, who were always switching members, The Four Tops stayed the same for 40 years. They started out together in high school as The Four Aims in 1953 before changing their name in 1954.
In 1956 they signed with Chess Records, a Chicago R&B label. They didn't join Motown until 1963, a full 10 years after they started making music.
From the very beginning it was clear that Stubbs, who possessed a loud booming voice would be the lead singer, according to Abdul Fakir, the only surviving member of the group. Yet many of their songs were written in Tenor range, which in turn produced the urgent and pleading sound that he was famous for.
Levi Stubbs died last Friday at his home in Detroit. He was 72 years old. He will be missed, but in his memory, I will listen to The Four Tops all day today. You can too, I have some of their songs over on my play list today. I only wish I could have found the song "Walk Away Renee" to put on there. It is by far my favorite Four Tops song, and I can listen to it over and over again.
6 comments:
I love the four tops.
But then I am older than your Mother.
What a great tribute for such a talented guy and an incredible band. I didn't realize they were always the same four guys. I will have to go read the liner notes again because I thought they told about all the changes the band had made throughout their career. Just Walk Away Rene is absolutely the very best song they ever did. Left Banke may have done it first, but the Four Tops were the ones who brought it to life. I think I'm going to listen to my CD today.
Fabulous tribute Donald.
I love you, always.
Great write up, and I was glad to see you included his performance in Little Shop of Horrors - along with Steve Martin's sadistic dentist character, Levi Stubbs was my favorite highlight of that movie!
I didn't hear about this Donald. Sorry about this. A legend gone.
Donald, you should be happy to note that today on "The View" Sugar Pie Honey Bunch was playing as the ladies walked out to the stage, and Whoopie started out the show with a tribute to Levi Stubbs.
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