Pat Dollard

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A few years and half a world separated me and Bash when we were kids … But we are finding we had a lot in common, especially in music we listened to when we were kids. Motown was THE best music around back then. Love and longing for love, as opposed to the hippie anti-war, anti-establishment stuff being churned out by the ‘white’ artists.

You could turn on and turn up a Motown tune and just sit back, or dance, with no taxation to your brain … Just pure music enjoyment.

Thanks, Levi. Great voice … Great songs … Great memories you were in the background of.

Four Tops Singer Levi Stubbs Dies at 72

(Spinner)

Levi Stubbs, the gruff-voiced yet exceedingly expressive frontman of soul music giants the Four Tops, has passed away at age 72 in his Detroit home. The powerful lead singer on hit singles including ‘I Can’t Help Myself,’ ‘It’s the Same Old Song,’ ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There,’ ‘Standing in the Shadows of Love’ and ‘Bernadette’ in the 1960s, Stubbs had been ill in recent years, having recently been debilitated by a stroke and cancer that forced his retirement in 2000.

The Four Tops began their career in 1953 in Detroit as the Four Aims and, after a name change, signed to Berry Gordy’s Motown label in 1963. After a commercially and creatively fertile career at the legendary hitmaking factory, in which they were under the care of the acclaimed songwriting and production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, the Tops’ hit string continued in the ’70s on ABC-Dunhill with songs such as ‘Keeper of the Castle’ and ‘Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got).’ The original quartet remained together for an astounding 44 years, until the death of Lawrence Payton in 1997. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

Stubbs also put his distinctive vocal talents to good use as the voice of the killer plant Audrey II in the 1986 film ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’ And while the Four Tops brand carries on with replacements, with Abdul “Duke” Fakir being the only surviving member (Renaldo “Obie” Benson died in 2005), it can be said that the group ceased to exist in any appreciable form once Levi Stubbs’ robust baritone no longer led the charge.