When author Iain McCartney told me he was planning to write a book about The Four Tops, I quickly replied it was about time the group I love was honoured in this way, particularly as Duke Fakir’s “I’ll Be There: My Life With The Four Tops” was, in my opinion, such a disappointing, lightweight read. The result isn’t a definitive history of the four life-long friends, said Iain. “There’s no revealing secrets, no gossip. It’s simply a journey through their career via their recordings, and a tribute to a career that’s earned them the plaudits of many, as they were a group like no other.”
So let’s delve a little deeper: The Four Tops – Levi Stubbs, Obie Benson, Duke Fakir, Larry Payton – were an established group in Detroit prior to joining Motown, when they brought with them a wealth of experience, which, among other things, proved they were at ease with most genres of music. This obviously presented Berry Gordy with a problem. He had no idea how to present them on record; that is, until Holland, Dozier and Holland entered the arena.
Iain goes to great lengths to bring to life the guys’ early days, leading up to them being The Four Aims and later joining Motown, where they initially provided back up vocals for signed artists. Before long, however, Levi’s voice grabbed attention, and as lead singer, his became one of the most distinctive voices in soul music, gracing millions of records as the Tops became international stars with top selling singles including their number one “Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” about which (the late) Penny Valentine wrote, “After you have heard it, you will never need to listen to another record for as long as you live.”
Throughout the book, a brilliant selection of visuals highlight the text, and this kicks off from page one. Iain pays due attention to behind-scenes details of releases, adding media reviews and group comments. Alongside the music, the tours (both US and UK) are given plenty of coverage, complete with advertising flyers.
This format continues through the decades, where black-and-white turns into colour. Teaming up with The Supremes is generously referenced – such an inventive combination, probably outweighing that of a previous group collaboration, which was fraught with arguments.
Then before you know it, the Tops have left Motown for ABC/Dunhill Records. Again, their tenure here is well-covered, drawing both on highlights and downsides, until their eventual return to Motown, where, among other things, we delighted in the so-called “Battle Of The Champions” with The Temptations.
Iain’s book resurrected old and (sometimes) forgotten memories, by inviting me to re-visit events. It was a journey I relished. Published by Newhaven Publishing, I bought my copy from Amazon, but I believe it’s also available from other sites. Next year, you’ll be hearing more about Iain, but this time he’ll have a sidekick – me! The Four Tops sang together and stayed together until death parted them. Accept no substitute.
THE FOUR TOPS BOOK by IAIN McCARTNEY
So, what follows now is a Christmas cracker full of quotes collected over the years, for reasons I can’t quite remember. Anyway, I’ve loads of them to share over the coming months, and as far as possible will acknowledge journalists. But often their names aren’t included on the newspaper clippings I unearth, which is a shame.
Let’s TCB…..
“I broke up with Rick the first night of the ‘Street Songs’ tour,” sayeth Teena Marie about her love affair with Mr. James. “The whole tour was kind of a nightmare because we were fighting. We broke up and I never looked back from that night in June 1981…We should never have had a relationship.” Word has it that it was a toxic, turbulent love fest, enjoyed by both parties.
“I spent eighteen years of my life – from seventeen to thirty-six – as an inside member of the Motown family. In truth, it was my first experience with Black culture,” Chris Clark told me during one of our several conversations. “I didn’t go there trying to sing like Aretha Franklin – in fact, I’d had little exposure to Black music at all. For the most part, I was singing the same songs other little white girls were singing: I just had a Blues edge that stood me apart. I never figured out where it came from, and never much worried about it after I managed to find it a home. I found acceptance at Motown and built the roots that would link me for life….Spending the time there that I did – through those years of civil rights struggles and changing perceptions – I developed an affinity with people of colour and was proud to be included in their ranks.”
The next is from one of the first interviews Jean Terrell gave after joining The Supremes: “I think I’ll try to maintain enough of my own individuality and make it fit within the group. We have a good relationship already. We like each other and we’re going to make it…I’ll have some changes to go through, but we’ll adapt as we go along…I’ve learned all The Supremes’ songs, so I’m sure Motown will choose the ones we do best as a group and keep them in (our performances).”
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- Jimmy Ruffin
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- Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
Of his personal life, Jimmy Ruffin once admitted, “I’ve got five kids from three marriages. I was married for the first time at seventeen. I was always advanced for my age. I even got into the Army at fifteen. I’d always put my age up. I’ve had responsibility right from a tiny kid. It seems I’ve been an adult most of my life. My parents died when I was young so I never had the freedom of being irresponsible.”
When Martha Reeves talked about her early touring days, her memories weren’t all good: “We played some places that had horse stables in the back, with straw on the floor. Places where you had to make a fire in the waste basket to keep warm. At the Apollo Theatre, when it was raggedy and dingy and dark, before it was renovated, we were in there, cooking hot dogs on the light bulbs. We would eat popcorn and sardines, and drink a lot of water to try to feel full.”
Jr. Walker and “Shotgun”: “I told Berry (Gordy) I had written this song and he laughed at me, but said ‘go on then, get yourself into the studio and do it.’ We cut it, and when he heard it, he said it was a top twenty record.”
Stevie Wonder (2009) on being blind: “Just having access to information, being able to read books, electronic Braille, and digital information has made things far easier for a blind person. I remember the beginning of the Kurzwell reading machine. I was one of the first to meet Ray Kurzwell and purchase the machine in Boston. To think that the machine was at least two large suitcases at the time, and now you can have a camera and it takes a picture, and you have sound.” (The machine was the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, able to transform random text into computer-spoken words.)
In 1987, Temptation Melvin Franklin admitted, “We must be doing something right, because I don’t think any other group has gone through as many changes as we have and still survived. Most groups lose their lead singer and that’s the end of them. It must be some kind of providence.”
Meatloaf about his performances with Stoney (Shaun Murphy): “Stoney was ripping and I was yelling and screaming and then, when we’d got them going, I jumped off the stage and into the middle of the audience with the mic, as far as I could get. Stoney’s singing, and I’m rocking and running from side to side. I got those people completely nuts. Stoney was so great and, combined with my crazy theatrical antics, it was like this wild element that just blew into town.”
Kim Weston told Bill Randle how she came to join Motown: “I did a demo session for a guy named Johnny Thornton, who was the cousin of Eddie and Brian Holland. Motown didn’t like his songs but they liked my voice. So he literally took me by the hand and pushed me to Motown. Some of the things that I recorded, I was happy with. Unfortunately, most of the things that were hits I didn’t like.”
When he signed with Columbia after leaving Motown, Johnny Bristol said: “It’s all about money. I really had no other choice because of the offers they made me. I was one of Motown’s top five producers and when they came to me: I never talked to Berry Gordy about my contract – they made me a very insulting offer and I felt I couldn’t take it.”
“I signed to Motown as a solo artist,” Saundra Edwards (Mallett) told me during an ’80s interview. “Berry Gordy and I were in the studios one day. He was listening to me singing and playing the piano. ‘Listen to this’, he said. It was ‘Camel Walk’. I started to sing it and he decided to tape it. The Vandellas, including Martha Reeves, were doing so much stuff with Marvin Gaye at the time, and they were around so they did background on the track. Berry felt the song was good enough to release, so it was issued under Saundra Mallett and the Vandellas. I was so young and I couldn’t go out on the road. There was no older person to go with us, no chaperone or anything, so the record was pulled.”
Smokey Robinson talking about Diana Ross: “Diana Ross was the most hard working, most diligent student at Artist Development. Everybody else would be gone and she would still be there. Diana Ross wanted to be….Diana Ross.” And the lady herself said, “I wasn’t one of those real church singers. But people like myself, how they feel about love and life, that feeling comes through their music and their songs.”
“I’m still the guy who was too short to play basketball, too slow to run track, and too small to play football!” explained Lionel Richie on his super stardom. “I was not a lady’s man and the crowd I hung out with wasn’t the ‘in-crowd’. So when people get all excited about me now, I start laughing and hope this other guy they’re talking about hurries up and shows up.”
The wonderful Maxine Powell was regularly quoted about her dedication in preparing Motown artists for the international stage: “I told (them) they had to be trained to appear in the number one places around the country, and even before the Queen of England, and the president of the United States. Those youngsters looked at me and said, ‘That woman is crazy. All I want is a hit record!'”
Valerie Simpson explained how she came to join Motown: “Holland, Dozier, Holland came to New York, scouting talent. We had pretty good demos. I’d play piano and we’d put a little rhythm section on there. They were impressed with that and the next thing I know, we’re going to Detroit, which is weird because that’s where Nick (Ashford) had just come from. But I was ready to leave New York. Motown was a Mecca. It was every writer’s dream to work there.”
R. Dean Taylor didn’t intend to record “Indiana Wants Me”: “I originally did it as a demo and was planning to cut it on The Four Tops. But when I finished it I decided I wanted to put it ot myself. That record was all me. I played drums, guitar: in fact, everything on it, except the strings, is me. My contract with the company was almost up, so I went to Barney Ales, Motown’s vice- president, and said, ‘If you don’t put it ou,t I’ll go somewhere else.’ No one saw it as a hit. But they all sat and listened to it for an hour and Barney said, ‘Y’know, that really is a great record.'”
Brenda Holloway revealed the origin of “Every Little Bit Hurts” : “Barbara Wilson, who was Frank’s first wife, did such a good rendition of it, that I didn’t want to do it. That was why, when I was doing the song I was crying. After she did the demo and they decided to do it with me, I cried in the studio. I wanted her to do it, but she died.”
During 1995, the late Richard Street explained why he left The Temptations in 1992: “I contributed a lot and suffered a lot. I didn’t want to end up in the hospital or have a nervous breakdown. I should have left a long time ago. Being in The Temptations was a bad experience. We were supposed to be brothers – all for one and one for all. It just got to the point where I couldn’t accept being treated like an employee. It was a Gestapo thing. Otis Williams made all the decisions about everything, and Melvin Franklin will follow anything Otis says.”
And finally on a happier note,thanks to Louvain Demps who, in 2015, recalled being rather naughty in the Hitsville studio: “We (the Andantes) would very rarely get together. When we retired, it didn’t bother us not singing any more. We met up together in the studio, and they had a grand piano there – we were leaning on it, just kinda stretching out. And this lady ran down there: ‘Get off that piano. Don’t lean on there, don’t touch it!’ Do you know what we did? It was so naughty of us. We said ‘Listen lady, we bought this thing!’ And we all laid across it. That was so funny: and I’d do it again.” Way to go girls….
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all love, joy and happiness over the Christmas period with friends and family. We live in a troubled world, and for those on duty – sacrificing spending time with their own families so that they can take care of us – I thank you. A week later, we will be welcoming in a new year. We can only hope it’s not a repeat of the last two years, so let’s greet it with hope and optimism. I’ll be back with you on the other side.
Sharon Davis
