The Four Tops are one of the greatest vocal groups of all-time. What are favorite tracks from the legends:


My favorite All-Time has to be:
Shake Me, Wake Me (When It;'s Over)


others include:
Baby I Need Your Loving
Ask the Lonely
Reach Out, I'll Be There
Bernadette
7 Rooms of Gloom
Still Water
Catfish

I'll add:

"Ain't No Woman Like the One I Got"
"Are You Man Enough"
"When She Was My Girl"
"It's the Same Ole Song"
"I Believe in You & Me"

...to your list.

One of the few groups to have original members together for over forty years. Too bad death claimed two of 'em and a stroke halted another.

But they are truly an inspiration.

And don't forget:

Let Me Set You Free
Tonight I'm Gonna Love You All Over

My favorites would be It's All In The Game and Yesterday's Dream.

That's all the mothafuckin' FOUR TOP fans on the site. Y'all better show some respect!


Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EVhejng_Aoo
[Edited 10/8/07 22:39pm]

Damnit, somebody betta reply. Hell say the Tops suck for all I care so I can tell you why they don't.

They just don't get it. That's why I don't get upset when people avoid my threads about Phyllis Hyman (I posted her version of "Betcha By Golly Wow") and Dionne Warwick (I posted her "You're Gonna Need Me")...

By the way the Four Tops are DYNAMIC!

LittleBLUECorvette said:

I saved this song in my favorites on my page.

Baby I Need Your Loving
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yt89ZLRkgdE


Bernedette
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UaZoUy7zIVU


Still Water (Love)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZwLS3e1m7tk

LittleBLUECorvette said:

If there was one thing the Four Tops did was create beautiful symphonies around drama thanks to the Funk Brothers, the Andantes and the songwriting of Holland-Dozier-Holland and Smoke(y).

Great three songs right there...

The lead singer was sexy for an older guy

I like "Bernadette" But I gotta confess. When I first heard the song, I thought they were saying "Burn It Up"

ThePunisher said:

Shame on you!

How could've you have heard "Burn It Up" and mistake it for "Bernadette"?

Originally named the Four Aims, the journey of the Four Tops - baritone leader Levi Stubbs, first and second tenors Abdul "Duke" Fakir and Lawrence Payton and bass singer Renaldo "Obie" Benson - began when the four boys met at adjacent high schools in Detroit, Michigan around 1953.

The two sets (Duke and Levi & Obie and Larry) came from two different sets of groups that recently broke up. After singing together at a party, the quartet decided in 1954 to form a singing group upon graduation from high school. Naming themselves the Four Aims, they were a doo-wop harmony group and later a jazz singing group who focused on their sound and style of performing and classic image even before Motown was starting their grooming school.

Matter of fact, the Four Tops - renamed in 1956 after the group was given advice by their manager to change their name being confused with the Ames Brothers - were recording for various labels when Motown was established in 1959 by Berry Gordy and Raynoma Singleton-Gordy. In 1960, the group signed to Columbia and had a fruitless tenure that ended after Berry Gordy eventually convinced the Detroit natives to go to Motown, which they did in 1963.

Signed initially to Motown's Jazz Workshop label, the group continued as a jazz quartet while singing background for records by the Supremes, then a rising girl group on Motown. In 1964, the group were also convinced by Gordy to forego their jazz sound for a more contemporary rhythm and blues sound mixed with a pop-soul style.

Working with Motown's trusted songwriters Edward Holland, Jr., Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier (or Holland-Dozier-Holland), the quartet hit pay dirt with the following singles: "Baby I Need Your Loving", "Ask the Lonely", "I Can't Help Myself (Sugarpie, Honey Bunch)", "It's the Same Ole Song", and "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)" to name a few.

The group became international sensations after their song "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" became their first intercontinental number-one hit, reaching the top spot in the US and UK. In addition, the group became Motown's popular male attraction in the UK scoring more than twenty-one top forty hits throughout their long career in England.

Other hits like "Bernadette", "If I Were a Carpenter" and "Seven Rooms of Gloom" followed. By 1968, however, the fortunes for the Four Tops and many other Motown groups faltered after Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown during a monetary royalty dispute. Struggling with their departure, the group kept it up as a live act with modest chart success until 1970's "All in the Game" and "Still Water (Love)", both of which returned the group to the top forty.

The group then cut three albums with the Jean Terrell-led version of the Supremes and scored a hit with Ike & Tina Turner's "River Deep - Mountain High" but the groups' collaborations were failures compared to the Supremes' work with the Temptations and with Gordy focusing on making Diana Ross a Hollywood star and the Jackson 5 the new top group of Motown, many of Motown's older artists sought out especially after tha label moved to Los Angeles in 1972.

The group asked to be out of their contract after nine years and signing with ABC Records became a sure thing after the group scored their first top ten single in years with "Keeper of the Castle". Their follow-up, "Ain't No Woman Like the One I Got", became their most successful post-Motown single on the pop charts reaching number four. They hit the top forty several more times up until 1976's R&B top ten hit "Catfish", in which afterwards, the group again drifted into chart obscurity.

Despite the hills and valleys, the group - unlike the Supremes, Martha & the Vandellas and the Temptations - managed to stay together with all four members intact and they found their third wave of success after signing to Casablanca Records in late 1980 releasing the number-one R&B and top twenty pop hit, "When She Was My Girl". After a memorable performance with the Temptations at Motown 25, the group re-signed to Motown Records at least for two years before once again departing for Arista Records where their last top forty pop hit - "Indestructible" - released in 1988, came from.

Two years later, the group were rightfully inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and within two years after that to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They've also been inducted to the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

The group's last studio recording with the four original members was 1995's "Christmas Here With You", recorded during a brief reunion again with Motown. In 1997, the dynamic of the group changed forever when Lawrence Payton unexpectedly died of cancer at the age of 59. The group replaced him with Theo Peoples, who had just left the Temptations in the middle of recording that group's comeback album, Phoenix Rising. In 2000, Levi Stubbs suffered a massive stroke and decided to retire as a member of the Four Tops ending his legendary career. He was replaced by Ronald McNair with Theo taking Levi's lead spot.

Then in 2005, Renaldo Benson's life gave out after suffering from cancer also. He died on July 1 of that year at the age of 69. Lawrence's son Roquel replaced him. Since then, Abdul "Duke" Fakir has remained the only original member of the group. Earlier this year, the group released their first single in years with the song "Jenny, Jenny" on a small label. The group has continued to perform nationally.

Even though the original members of the group have been forced to separate by either death or illness, the legacy Levi, Obie, Larry and Duke created lives on in the classic music they've created.

----
Four Tops "FOUREVER"

Timmy84 said:

I was about 8 or 9 years old when I first heard that song. It was a very bad recording too. Seriously though. I love those guys. To me they were just as good as the Temptations. It's too bad they don't seem to get the same amount of respect.

ThePunisher said:

Yep and them motherfuckers (the Temptations) keep changing members and shit.

Today's "Temptations" ain't the Temptations. Even Tops fans know the real Tops are Levi, Larry, Obie and Duke.

WAKE ME, SHAKE IS MY ALL-TIME FAV ALSO!

THAT BASS LINE IS PUT ME INTO A TRANCE EVER TIME I PLAY IT. AND BEFORE I KNOW IT I'VE PLAYED THE SONG AT LEAST 5 TO 6 TIMES IN A ROW.