Levi Stubbs has Passed Away (Four Tops Baritone)

[BeatleBoot]

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081018/ENT04/810180357

At Motown, Levi Stubbs' voice was Tops
Singer led 'smooth, classy' Four Tops through years of classic hits

Levi Stubbs, whose gritty, impassioned baritone was one of the most iconic voices to come out of Motown Records, died early Friday morning, peacefully, in his sleep, at his Detroit home. The singer whom Motown founder Berry Gordy called "the greatest interpreter of songs I ever heard" was 72.

It wasn't common for a baritone to front a group, but on Motown hits like "Baby, I Need Your Loving," "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," "Reach Out (I'll Be There)," "Bernadette," and "Ask the Lonely," Stubbs' deep voice was a rare instrument, capable of sheer, soaring joy, but also the most abject, broken-hearted sorrow.

"Levi Stubbs was one of the great voices of all times," Motown colleague Smokey Robinson said Friday. "He was very near and dear to my heart. He was my friend and my brother, I miss him. God bless his family and comfort them."

Stubbs suffered a series of strokes that forced him to retire from touring with the Tops in 2000. The original group -- which also included Detroiters Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Lawrence Payton and Renaldo "Obie" Benson -- got together during their high school days in the early 1950s. Stubbs went to Pershing, where he met Fakir. The two sang together, then formed a group with two friends from Northern High, Payton and Benson.

At first called the Four Aims, then the Four Tops, they were seasoned performers on the posh nightclub circuit. Fakir is now the only survivor of the original group; Payton died in 1997 and Benson in 2005.

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[MuseRider]

1. The Mean Green Mother

is gone.

What a voice he had. The songs of my youth.

RIP.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. One of my favorite groups

Rock on, my brothers, in Heaven.

[shadowknows69]

3. Definitely one of the greats

Good journey bard. RIP.