The Four Tops

Time to go to Detroit for this installment of stuff you'd be surprised that's in my collection. Ah Detroit, home of a crumbling economy, Enimem and Robocop. Hailing from that area nowadays isn't something to be proud of. But if days of yore the area churned out quite a number of successful artists spanning many genres. One of those groups was The Four Tops. Of course back in the 60's Detroit was home to the famous record label Motown. Which gave us so many superstars. The Four Tops were one of those artists that gave us countless hits.

The Four Tops started out with a group of High School friends in Detroit in the mid 50's. The band at that point was dubbed The Four Aims ans signed to another legendary label in Chess Records. After years of going nowhere and getting little to no attention, Motown head Berry Gordy Jr. convinced the band to join the Motown label in '63. From there it was a constant stream of success up until the mid 70's. Here's an amazing fact to, the bands lineup didn't change at all from '53 to '97. Think about that, over four decades with the same guys, still releasing music and touring. The only reason the lineup changed was death. Groups today simple don't have that staying power anymore. Much like every "Oldies" act, there's been a ton of best of releases throughout the years. That being said, for the post I'm going with the '74 release, 'The Four Tops Anthology'. This is a pretty much in depth 2 CD collection of the groups material from the Motown years. All the jams are here, including some collaborations with fellow Motown artists, The Supreme's. Well worth the listen.

Growing up Motown played a big part of my musical life. I grew up listening to all the Motown greats, The Temptations, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops and the list goes on and on. Somehow I've always felt that The Four Tops didn't get enough respect maybe as fellow labelmates The Temptations. The group always had solid hits with the likes of "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)", "It's The Same Old Song", "Reach Out I'll Be There and "Bernadette". In any case it's time to dust of the hits and enjoy some good ol R&B.

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