THE FOUR TOPS

The music of The Four Tops is the soundtrack for multi-generations of music fans around the globe and that timeless legacy remains vibrant and alive almost 60 years since the first of those magic records were cut at Motown’s Hitsville USA studios in Detroit. Penned by the legendary songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, the roll call of Four Tops classics is extraordinary: “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” “Baby I Need Your Lovin,” “Bernadette,” “It’s the Same Old Song,” “Standing In the Shadows Of Love, “Walk Away Renée” and countless others are akin to classic scriptures of pop-soul.

GOLDMINE: Bring us back to the first time you performed with the future members of The Four Tops at a birthday party in Detroit.

Duke Fakir: That was actually before we named the group. We’d just gotten together at this particular party; these young bourgeois young ladies were throwing a nice party, like a graduation party. She invited Levi (Stubbs) and myself. She knew that Levi and I would sing around the school and liked hearing us sing. We figured we’d put a group together so it was more than just the two of us. We picked two of our friends who we knew could sing and also importantly knew how to talk to the girls, (laughs) which is why we went to the party in the first place. Singing was a byproduct (laughs) of going to a party.

GM: Once the four of you started singing together, did you sense that this was a powerful and unique sound?

DF: Yes, I did. We had sung in different little groups around the city. With us singing together, it was like the perfect sound; it was amazing and we knew we had something. So we decided the next day to start rehearsing and actually form a group.

At that time we didn’t know if we could make it a career or not. But we were gonna put in the effort to try and make a singing career. We felt we were good enough at that moment. We felt, this is amazing. So that’s exactly how we started.

GM: When did you realize the band had a career and no 9-5 jobs would be necessary?

Well, we started rehearsing and found that Lawrence Payton had a good musical ear and knew how to create