The Four Tops
The Four Tops got together as The Four Aims at high school in 1954 and had been
playing the Detroit club circuit since the mid-fifties, but after
changing their name to The Four Tops in 1956 and signing with Motown
in 1963 their recording of Holland/Dozier/Holland's Baby I Need Your
Loving was a smash hit in America.
It was the start of a five-year run which provided a dozen Top 20
hits, including such soul-stirring epics as I Can't Help Myself,
It's The Same Old Song and Reach Out I'll Be There - a
worldwide Number One.
Unfortunately their luck walked out with Holland/Dozier/Holland,
who left the Gordy empire in 1967 after a heated disagreement, and The Four
Tops began to slide.
It was only in 1970, under the aegis of producer/writers like Frank
Wilson and Smokey Robinson that The
Four Tops regained their it status with a revival of the Tommy Edwards
hit It's All In The Game, and the socially-aware ballad Still
Water (Love). That same year they teamed up with The
Supremes for the first of three albums of collaborations. Another
revival - Richard Harris' novelty hit MacArthur Park - brought
them success in 1971, while Obie Benson also co-wrote Marvin
Gaye's hit single What's Going On?.
 After
working with The Moody Blues on A
Simple Game in 1972, The Four Tops elected to leave Motown
when the corporation relocated its head office from Detroit to California.
They signed a contract with Dunhill Records and immediately restored
their chart success with records that marked a return to their mid-60s
style, notably Are You Man Enough? (the theme song to the Blaxploitation
movie Shaft In Africa).
Subsequent releases were less dynamic and for the remainder of the
70s The Four Tops enjoyed only sporadic chart success. After two years
of relative inactivity they signed with Casablanca Records and
immediately secured a Number 1 soul hit with When She Was My Girl.
In 1983 the group performed a stirring medley 'duel' of their 60s
hits with The Temptations during the Motown
25th Anniversary television special. They then re-signed to the label
for the aptly titled Back Where I Belong - one side of which
was produced by Holland/Dozier/Holland.
But disappointing sales and disputes about their musical direction
led them to leave Motown once more, this time
for Arista Records, where they found immediate success with the
singles Indestructible and Loco In Acapulco (the latter
taken from the soundtrack to the movie Buster).
 Their
immaculate choreography and stunning harmonies - built around the
gruff, soulful lead vocals of Levi Stubbs - has ensured them continued
success as a live act from the 60s to the present day - notably in the
UK and Europe where they have always been held in higher esteem than
in their homeland. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame in 1990.
The Four Tops are also relatively unique in that they retained a
consistent line-up, right up until Lawrence Payton's death in June
1997. The following year the group recruited Theo Peoples (from The
Temptations) to restore them to a quartet. By the turn of the
century, Stubbs had become ill from cancer and Ronnie McNair was
recruited to fill the Lawrence Payton position while Peoples stood in
for Stubbs' as lead vocalist.
Obie Benson died on 1 July 2005, from lung cancer. Lawrence
Payton's son, Lawrence Jr, joined the group in Benson's place.
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