The Four Tops, from Detroit, Michigan, 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. They were notable for having Stubbs, a baritone, as their lead singer, whereas most male and mixed vocal groups of the time were fronted by a tenor.
While gospel is the obvious reference point for the vocal style and lyrical themes, musically “Reach Out” suggests that they were paying attention to rock as well. As psychedelic rock sought to chronicle the interior drug experience through sound, these Four Tops singles externalize the mind-altering effects of anxiety and jealousy, jolting listeners through a series of dynamic contrasts (major vs. minor; Stubbs’ anguished roars vs. the Tops’ beatific tenors; frantic instrumentation vs. suspenseful moments of near silence), until, by song’s end, the audience is as worn out and on edge as the songs’ narrators.
The Four Tops recorded this in just two takes, and had practically forgotten about the song until it was released, assuming it was a “throwaway” album track. Motown boss Berry Gordy had other ideas and released it as a single. Gordy had a knack for identifying hit songs, and got this one right. Levi was uncomfortable at first, according to Duke Fakir:
He said: “I’m a singer. I don’t talk or shout.” But we worked on it for a couple of hours, recording it in pieces, talking part after talking part.
Lyricist Eddie Holland realised that when Levi hit the top of his vocal range, it sounded like someone hurting, so he made him sing right up there. Levi complained, but we knew he loved it. Every time they thought he was at the top, he would reach a little further until you could hear the tears in his voice. The line “Just look over your shoulder” was something he threw in spontaneously. Levi was very creative like that, always adding something extra from the heart.
The finished song didn’t sound like the Four Tops. We just assumed it was some experimental thing that would go on an album. A few weeks later, Motown boss Berry Gordy sent us a memo: “Make sure your taxes are taken care of – because we’re going to release the biggest record you’ve ever had.” He called us into his office, and I remember one of us asking: “So when are we going to record this great song?” He said: “You already have.” We’re all thinking: “Huh? We haven’t recorded anything better than “I Can’t Help Myself”. Then he played “Reach Out” and we said: “Hold on, Berry, we were just experimenting. Please don’t release that as a single. It’s not us. It has a nice rhythm to it but if you release that we’ll be on the charts with an anchor.” He laughed, but we left the meeting feeling very upset, almost angry.
I was out driving when I heard the song on the radio for the first time. It hit me like a lead pipe. I turned my car round and drove right back to Berry’s office. He was in a meeting but I opened the door and just said: “Berry, don’t ever talk to us about what you’re releasing. Just do what you do. Bye.”
After their first number 1 hit, “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)” in June 1965, the Four Tops released a long series of successful hit singles. Among the first wave of these hits were the Top 10 “It’s the Same Old Song”, “Something About You”, “Shake Me, Wake Me (When It’s Over)”, and “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever”. The Four Tops records often represented the epitome of the Motown Sound: simple, distinctive melodies and rhymes, call-and-response lyrics, and the musical contributions of studio band, the Funk Brothers. Lead singer Levi Stubbs delivers many of the lines in “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” in a tone that some suggest straddles the line between singing and shouting, as he did in 1965’s “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)”.
As important as The Four Tops were to pioneering the Motown Sound, they are only part of the picture. This is a prime example of the talents of Berry Gordy and Motown Records, the Funk Brothers, and the songwriting and production team made up of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland (commonly referred to as Holland–Dozier–Holland or H-D-H).
Berry Gordy III (also known as Berry Gordy Jr.) was born in Detroit to the middle-class family of Berry Gordy II (also known as Berry Gordy Sr.) Berry Gordy Jr. developed his interest in music by writing songs and opening the 3-D Record Mart, a record store featuring jazz music and 3-D glasses. The store was unsuccessful, and Gordy sought work at the Lincoln-Mercury plant, but his family connections put him in touch with Al Green (no relation to the singer), owner of the Flame Show Bar Talent Club. In 1957 Wilson recorded “Reet Petite”, a song Gordy had co-written with his sister Gwen and writer-producer Billy Davis. Gordy reinvested the profits from his songwriting success into producing. In 1957, he discovered the Miracles (originally known as the Matadors) and began building a portfolio of successful artists. In 1959, with the encouragement of Miracles leader Smokey Robinson, Gordy borrowed $800 from his family to create an R&B record company, and he chose the name Tamla Records. He opened a few other labels, Rayber and Motown. The Tamla and Motown labels were then merged into a new company, Motown Record Corporation, and he built that into the historic label and group of artists that pioneered the Soul and R&B sound.
Gordy’s gift for identifying and bringing together musical talent, along with the careful management of his artists’ public image, made Motown initially a major national and then international success. Over the next decade, he signed such artists as the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Jimmy Ruffin, the Contours, the Four Tops, Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Commodores, the Velvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder and the Jackson 5. Though he also signed various white acts on the label (Rare Earth, Rustix, via the Rare Earth label), he largely promoted African-American artists but carefully controlled their public image, dress, manners and choreography for across-the-board appeal.
The Funk Brothers were the brilliant but anonymous studio band responsible for the instrumental backing on countless Motown records from 1959 up to the company’s move to Los Angeles in 1972. Woefully underappreciated as architects of the fabled “Motown sound,” the individual musicians were rarely credited on the records that relied upon their performances. Motown head Berry Gordy Jr. first assembled a studio band in 1959, culling its members from Detroit’s fertile club scene. Most of the players came from a jazz background, although some had more experience with blues or R&B, and there was a great deal of crossover among working musicians of the time. Among the early members were pianist/bandleader Joe Hunter and the rhythm section of bassist James Jamerson and drummer William “Benny” Benjamin, who would go on to become the backbone of the Motown beat. Other regulars who came onboard prior to 1962 were guitarists Robert White, Eddie Willis, and Joe Messina; alternate drummer Richard “Pistol” Allen; percussionists Jack Ashford (who handled the tambourine work) and Eddie “Bongo” Brown; and the aggressive pianist Earl Van Dyke, as well as numerous horn players. Sax solos flow from Norris Patterson, Mike Terry and Eli Fontaine, among others. Later, guitarists Dennis Coffey and Wah Wah Watson modernize the house.
Things began to change over 1967-1968. The Motown hit factory was forced to reinvent its sound to fit changing trends, and with producer Norman Whitfield’s brand of psychedelic soul guiding the label’s fortunes, guitarist Wah Wah Watson came onboard to update the Funk Brothers’ sound. Moreover, the groundbreaking rhythm section of James Jamerson and Benny Benjamin was coming apart due to substance abuse problems. Benjamin passed away in 1969, and Jones took a much greater role in the aftermath of his death. Meanwhile, the massively influential Jamerson had grown unreliable; while he still performed, bassist Bob Babbitt picked up much of his slack, and did an excellent job of replicating Jamerson’s unpredictable melodicism. This core group remained together until 1972, when Gordy moved the Motown offices to Los Angeles, unceremoniously abandoning the Funk Brothers. Still, the group did get one glorious last hurrah in Marvin Gaye’s 1971 masterpiece “What’s Going On”, which made full use of the band’s jazz training (and listed full musician credits).
The third element to the success of not only The Four Tops but Motown Records was the songwriting and production team made up of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland. The trio came together at Motown in the early 1960s. Eddie Holland had been working with Motown founder Berry Gordy prior to that label being formed. Eddie Holland had a career as a Motown recording artist, scoring a US Top 30 hit in 1961 with “Jamie”. Eddie’s brother Brian Holland was a Motown staff songwriter who also tasted success in 1961, being a co-composer of the Marvelettes’ US No. 1 “Please Mr. Postman”. Dozier had been a recording artist for several labels in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the label Anna (owned by Berry Gordy’s sister) and Motown subsidiary Mel-o-dy.
Lamont Dozier about the crafting of “Reach Out I’ll Be There” with Brian Holland:
Brian played the intro on the piano before I jumped in, pushed him out of the way and sang, ‘Now, if you feel that you can’t go on…’ Then he jumped back in with the bridge, and we were both literally sliding on and off the piano stool. I’d slide him off and go, ‘Darlin’ reach out…’, he’d slide back in for ‘I’ll be there…’ and that’s the way we did a lot of the stuff. It was a beautiful experience and one I’ll never forget.
Without Holland-Dozier-Holland, who left Motown in 1967 after disputes with Berry Gordy over royalties and ownership of company shares, the hits for The Four Tops became less frequent. The group worked with a wide array of Motown producers during the late 1960s. The three eventually teamed to create material for both themselves and other artists, but soon found they preferred being writers and producers to being performers (especially Eddie, who suffered from stage fright and retired from performing in 1964). They would write and produce scores of songs for Motown artists, including 25 Number 1 hit singles, such as “Heat Wave” for Martha and the Vandellas and “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” for Marvin Gaye.
From the late 1980s, the Four Tops focused on touring and live performances. They recorded only one album, returning again to Motown for 1995’s “Christmas Here with You”. On June 20, 1997, 59-year-old Lawrence Payton died as a result of liver cancer, after singing for 44 years with the Four Tops who, unlike many Motown groups, never had a single lineup change until then. At first, Levi Stubbs, Obie Benson, and Duke Fakir toured as a trio called The Tops. In 1998, they recruited former Temptation Theo Peoples to restore the group to a quartet. By the turn of the century, Stubbs had become ill from cancer; Ronnie McNeir was recruited to fill the Lawrence Payton position and Peoples stepped into Stubbs’ shoes as lead singer. Stubbs later died on October 17, 2008 at his home in Detroit.
The Four Tops have won many awards during their long and distinguished career, including the following:
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1990)
Vocal Group Hall of Fame (1999)
Hollywood Walk of Fame (1997)
Grammy Hall of Fame (Reach Out I’ll Be There-1998) and (“I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch-2018)
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2009)
Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award (1997)
Billboard magazine Top 100 Artists of All Time (#77)
R&B Music Hall of Fame Induction (2013)
100 Greatest Artists of All Time (#79 – Rolling Stone)
Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2003)
Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame- 2005.
Rolling Stone later ranked “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” number 206 on its list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”. Billboard ranked the record as the number four song for 1966. This version is also currently ranked as the 56th best song of all time (as well as the number four song of 1966) in an aggregation of critics’ lists at Acclaimed Music.
Excerpt credit – Sally O’Rourke/Rebeatmag.com
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