The two ruling musical houses in the Sixties were the British invasion and Motown. From Motown, we get the great quartet, the Four Tops. The four guys were Levi Stubbs who sang lead and he was backed by Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Lawrence Payton. This is the second number one for the Four Tops and you can refer back to 1965 and “I Can’t Help Myself” to get a thumbnail of their early life.

After their first number one, they wanted another, but it took four more records before they would reach the top again. They recorded “Reach Out, I’ll’ Be There” as just another song on their new album and didn’t think anything more about it. That is, until Berry Gordy called them into his office one day and told them they should pay attention to the song “Reach Out.” Duke Fakir says he barely remembered the song, but soon, they started hearing it on the radio and then they knew what Gordy was talking about.

This was the last number one the Four Tops had. They stayed with Motown until the hits got fewer and farther between, until finally, in 1972, they left Motown over royalty disputes. To be fair, it was more than just about money. Motown had moved from Detroit to Los Angeles and the four guys wanted to stay in Detroit. Also, the last several hits the Four Tops had for Motown were covers of other people’s songs, like “MacArthur Park” and “It’s All in the Game.” They wanted to do original work and so, approached Dunhill Records to see what they would do for them. Dunhill came up with two songs, “Keeper of the Castle,” which went to number ten and “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I Got)” which went to number four. But, that was as good as they did at Dunhill and soon, they were on to other labels. The Four Tops disappeared from the charts after a couple weak hits in the Eighties.

In 1983, Motown celebrated its 50th Anniversary with a spectacular television show. This was the show where Michael Jackson first did the “moonwalk.” The Temptations were scheduled to perform and the Four Tops were invited to appear along with them. The “battle of the bands” was so great and received with such enthusiasm that The Four Tops agreed to tour with the Temptations and also agreed to come back to the Motown label.

One thing to note about the Four Tops, is that the group started with the four original guys in the mid-Fifties and the line-up stayed the same until 1997 when Lawrence Payton died, thus ending a forty year run of the same four singers.

“Reach Out, I’ll Be There” entered the pop charts on September 17, 1966 and spent two weeks at number one. It is considered the Four Tops signature song. Rolling Stone magazine has ranked the song at number 106 on its list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”