Culture

'Four Tops' Singer Levi Stubbs Dies at 72

by Jarrett Martineau | October 17, 2008 at 11:28 am

231 views | 7 Recommendations | 3 comments

Legendary Four Tops vocalist Levi Stubbs has died at the age of 72.

He will be greatly missed for his incredible contribution to music.

When the world falls apart
Some things stay in place
Levi Stubbs' tears
Run down his face...

- Billy Bragg
[via HuffPo]

Motown legend and Four Tops lead singer Levi Stubbs passed away in his home today (October 17) following a series of illnesses, according to Billboard.com. He was 72.

Stubbs and the Four Tops were responsible for some of the most enduring songs in pop and R&B history, from "Baby I Need Your Loving" to "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" to "Reach Out I'll Be There". Over their storied career, the Tops sold more than 50 million records and scored 45 chart hits, maintaining their original lineup of Stubbs, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson, and Lawrence Payton for more than 40 years.

Stubbs continued regularly performing with the group until 2000, when illness forced him off the road.

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Christina 123

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:58 on October 17th, 2008

Jarrett Martineau, I like this story. It's good stuff. Oh I love the Four Tops (or the "Four Gas Bags" as Tony Blackburn affectionately called them here in England). They were VERY big in the UK. Levi Stubbs had a great voice (cosnidering his age, too).

Paul Conneally

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 05:45 on October 18th, 2008

Jarrett Martineau, I like this story. It's good stuff. This should be front page. A massive talent.

Paul Conneally

at 05:57 on October 18th, 2008

Levi Stubbs, who died yesterday aged 72, was one of the most distinguished soul singers of his generation and, as lead singer with the Four Tops, a pioneer of the Motown sound that dominated the pop charts in the 1960s.

Between 1964 and 1968 the Tops enjoyed 12 Top 20 American hits, including I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honeybunch), It's The Same Old Song and Bernadette. But perhaps the group's – and Stubbs's – finest moment was Reach Out I'll Be There, a number one record in 1966 which characterised the Motown sound at its most sublime, with its galloping rhythm and symphonic orchestrations, and Stubbs's soulful, beseeching baritone pitched somewhere between a cry for help and a prayer against the silken harmonies of the other Tops.