Did You Know...

Four friends from two Detroit high schools figured out in 1954 that they sounded good together: Levi Stubbs, Abdul 'Duke' Fakir, Lawrence Payton and Renaldo 'Obie' Benson decided to call themselves the Four Aims. They recorded a demo tape with a friend, Roquel Davis (who later wrote a number of songs with Motown's founder, Berry Gordy). Chess Records invited them to Chicago and eventually signed the act, now named the Four Tops (to avoid confusion with the four members of the Ames Brothers).

It was not a quick, easy ride to the top. Chess dropped the Four Tops after one single, and they label-hopped with weak recording material for several years. They sold plenty of tickets in good venues, but their popular stage act didn't translate into airplay or record sales. At last, their connection to Berry Gordy led to a contract with Motown, and with the proper material and good label support, Four Tops records started to match Four Tops tickets as a commodity.

Beginning in late 1964, the Four Tops started to roll. While any number of groups has had a string of big hits, few artists can claim as large a number of instantly recognizable hits as the Four Tops. The first was 1964's 'Baby I Need Your Loving,' which just missed the pop Top Ten. Now that the nation had heard the Four Tops singing good songs, with Levi Stubbs providing the unmistakable lead vocal, the road smoothed out considerably. 1965 led to four Top 40 hits, including the pop #1 hit 'I Can't Help Myself,' which also spent nine weeks at #1 on the R&B chart. Three months later came the #5 hit 'It's the Same Old Song,' another all-time classic.