i just LOVED him. i loved the group!





my 56 ford pick up truck(in pieces at the moment)is named after him!!!



R.I.P



Four Tops Lead Singer Levi Stubbs Dies at 72



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 in as the voice of the killer plant Audrey II in the 1986 film 'Little Shop of Horrors.' While the Four Tops brand lives on in name with Abdul "Duke" Fakir as the only surviving member (Renaldo "Obie" Benson died in 2005), it can be said that it ceased to exist in any appreciable form once Levi Stubbs' robust baritone no longer led the charge.
Posted by Gaylord Fields on Oct 17th 2008 1:00PM