RIP man...
20 Oct 2008, National Post, Bloomberg
Levi Stubbs, the lead singer of the legendary Motown group the Four Tops, whose voice endures in such songs as I Can’t Help Myself and Reach Out, I’ll Be There, has died. He was 72.
Stubbs died on Friday (Oct, 17, 2008) at his home in Detroit, Mich., Billboard reported. He had suffered a series of illnesses, including cancer and a stroke, which forced him to stop performing in 2000.
The Four Tops had more than 40 hits on the Billboard pop charts, including 24 that reached the top 40. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the group in 1990.
Of the four “Tops” who first came together in 1953, only one — Abdul “Duke” Fakir — survives. Lawrence Payton died in 1997, and Renaldo “Obie” Benson died in 2005. Fakir now leads a version of the Four Tops that includes Payton’s son, Roquel.
The original foursome “performed for over four decades together without a single change in personnel — a record of constancy that is mindboggling in the notoriously changeable world of popular music,” the Hall of Fame says in an online profile.
Stubbs, in a 1987 interview with the Washington Post, said the foursome’s bond as teenage friends kept them tight through the joys and demands of stardom.
“We were all born in the same neighbourhood, and we really grew up together,” he said. “So we’ve known each other all our lives, and we’re still good friends.”
He declined to delve further into why the group stayed so good for so long: “Once you try to figure it out, it might fall apart — know what I’m saying?”
Stubbs was born Levi Stubbles on June 6, 1936, in Detroit. He formed the vocal group, first called the Four Aims, with Benson, Fakir and Payton, according to the Hall of Fame. After a year, they changed their name to the Four Tops.
In 1963, the group signed with Motown Records. The following year they broke on to the Billboard pop charts with Baby I Need Your Loving, which reached No. 11. The Motown songwriting team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland wrote that song for them, as well as many future hits.
In 1965, the group had its first No. 1 hit with I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch). They topped the chart again in 1966 with Reach Out, I’ll Be There.
In 1986, Stubbs provided the voice for the man-eating puppet plant known as Audrey II in the movie Little Shop of Horrors.
Stubbs is survived by his wife of 48 years, Clineice, and five children.
