| TisMe |
10-17-2008 05:20 PM |
RIP Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops
Lead singer with the Four Tops and one of the most distinctive and powerful voices in Motown
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.
Levi Stubbs 1936 - 2008 RIP
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