FOUR TOPS – REACH OUT LP – EXC+ A2/B2 UK MONO SOUL MOTOWN

The Four Tops – Reach Out
(Tamla Motown Records  1967  TML11056  Mono)
Matrix No’s: A2/B2 – UK Pressing

G&L Flipback Sleeve in Nr MINT/Excellent+ condition
– some slight wear to edges/corners and a little discolouration on the back

Vinyl in Excellent+ condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality apart from the odd pop/crackle)

(The) Four Tops are an American vocal quartet, whose repertoire has included doo-wop, jazz, soul music, R&B, disco, adult contemporary, hard rock, and showtunes. Founded in Detroit, Michigan as The Four Aims, lead singer Levi Stubbs (born Levi Stubbles, a cousin of Jackie Wilson and brother of The Falcons’ Joe Stubbs), and groupmates Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Lawrence Payton remained together for over four decades, having gone from 1953 until 1997 without a single change in personnel.

Among a number of groups who helped define the Motown Sound of the 1960s, including The Miracles, The Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas, The Temptations, and The Supremes, the Four Tops were notable for having Stubbs, a baritone, as their lead singer; most groups of the time were fronted by a tenor. The group was the main male vocal group for the songwriting and production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, who crafted a stream of hit singles, including two Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits: “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” and “Reach Out I’ll Be There”. After Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown in 1967, the Four Tops were assigned to a number of producers, primarily Frank Wilson. When Motown left Detroit in 1972 to move to Los Angeles, California, the Tops stayed in Detroit and moved over to ABC Records’ Dunhill imprint, where they continued to have charting singles into the late-1970s. Since the 1980s, the Four Tops have recorded for, at various times, Motown, Casablanca Records and Arista Records. Today, save for Indestructible (owned by Sony Music Entertainment), Universal Music Group controls the rights to their entire post-1963 catalog (through various mergers and acquisitions), as well as their 1956 single, “Could It Be You”.

A change of line-up was finally forced upon the group when Lawrence Payton died on June 20, 1997. The band initially continued as a three-piece under the name The Tops, before Theo Peoples (formerly of The Temptations) was recruited as the new fourth member. Peoples eventually took over the role of lead singer when Stubbs suffered a stroke in 2000 with his position assumed by Ronnie McNeir. On July 1, 2005, Benson died of lung cancer with Payton’s son Roquel Payton replacing him. Levi Stubbs died on October 17, 2008. Fakir, McNeir, Payton, and Harold “Spike” Bonhart, who replaced Peoples in 2011, are still performing together as the Four Tops. Fakir is now the only surviving founding member of the original group.

Reach Out is an album recorded by the Four Tops, issued on Motown Records in July 1967. It was the final Four Tops LP to be produced by Motown’s main songwriting and production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland, who departed the label in late 1967 over money disputes.

The group’s most successful LP, Reach Out includes six of the Four Tops’ Top 20 singles: the #1 hit “Reach Out I’ll Be There”, the Top 10 singles “Standing in the Shadows of Love”, “Bernadette”, the Top 20 “7-Rooms of Gloom”, and their Top 20 covers of Tim Hardin’s “If I Were a Carpenter” and the Left Banke‘s “Walk Away Renée”) both of which reached the UK Top 10.

Rounding out the LP are a pair of Monkees covers (“Last Train to Clarksville” and “I’m a Believer”), a cover of The Association’s “Cherish”, and the originals “Wonderful Baby” and “What Else Is There to Do (But Think About You)”. Reach Out was followed a year later by a Four Tops’ Greatest Hits album, which contained all of the group’s hit singles to that point.

With The Supremes “I Hear a Symphony” and “Reach Out” album releases, Motown forever confirmed that they were a major crossover player, never to be thought of as simply an R&B indie only under Berry Gordy’s reign.

Track listing

All tracks produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier, except for “Wonderful Baby”, produced by Smokey Robinson; and “What Else is There to Do (But Think About You)”, produced by Clarence Paul.

1. “Reach Out I’ll Be There” (Holland–Dozier–Holland)
2. “Walk Away Renée” (Bob Calilli, Michael Brown, Tony Sansone)
3. “7-Rooms of Gloom” (Holland-Dozier-Holland)
4. “If I Were a Carpenter” (Tim Hardin)
5. “Last Train to Clarksville” (Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart)
6. “I’ll Turn to Stone” (Holland-Dozier-Holland, R. Dean Taylor)
7. “I’m a Believer” (Neil Diamond)
8. “Standing in the Shadows of Love” (Holland-Dozier-Holland)
9. “Bernadette” (Holland-Dozier-Holland)
10. “Cherish” (Terry Kirkman)
11. “Wonderful Baby” (Smokey Robinson)
12. “What Else is There to Do (But Think About You)” (Stevie Wonder, Clarence Paul, Morris Broadnax)

Credits

• Levi Stubbs: lead vocals
• Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Renaldo “Obie” Benson, Lawrence Payton, and The Andantes: background vocals
• The Funk Brothers: instrumentation