Four Tops

The Four Tops are a vocal quartet from Detroit, Michigan, USA, who helped to define the city's Motown sound of the 1960s. The group's repertoire has included soul music, R&B, disco, adult contemporary, doo-wop, jazz, and show tunes. Founded as the Four Aims, lead singer Levi Stubbs, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton remained together for over four decades, performing from 1953 until 1997 without a change in personnel.

The Four Tops were among a number of groups, including the Miracles, the Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas, the Temptations, and the Supremes, who established the Motown Sound heard around the world during the 1960s. They were notable for having Stubbs, a baritone, as their lead singer, whereas most other male and mixed vocal groups of the time were fronted by a tenor.

Links to Peel
Peel was a constant supporter of 60s and 70s soul music, but confessed in a Disc & Music Echo article of January 1968, that he thought the Four Tops' Walk Away Renee tune was very well done and danceable: "I'm not terribly jazzed with Tamla Motown material. Four Tops' (Walk Away Renee) is very well done, and danceable, but I prefer the version by the Left Banke."

Nonetheless he continued play some of the Four Tops tracks well into after the 60's and 70's, when the group achieved their big hits. He also included in his playlists, covers of Four Tops songs by amongst others the Jeff Beck Group's session version of Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever and also Snuff's Standing In The Shadows Of Love. The Four Tops lead singer Levi Stubbs was also a title of Billy Bragg's Levi Stubbs' Tears, which entered the 1986 Festive Fifty and the Peelenium 1986.

Shows Played

 * 1967
 * 01 October 1967: You Keep Running Away (single) Tamla Motown
 * 1981
 * 01 January 1981: I Cant Help Myself
 * The Four Tops - It's The Same Old Song
 * 31 December 1985: It's The Same Old Song (LP - Second Album) Motown
 * 1986
 * 08 October 1986: It's The Same Old Song (LP - Second Album) Motown
 * 1999
 * 16 December 1999: (JP: "Whenever Billy Bragg does Levi Stubbs' Tears, I always think to myself - I really ought to play a Four Tops record...and this time I've remembered...") I Can't Help Myself (7”) Tamla Motown