THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

650-Four Tops-Reach Out I’ll Be There.

1966-Number 1 single.

Best Bit-At 2.37. The ad lib, ‘Just look over your shoulder.’ Levi Stubbs was a passionate singer, and when he improvised that line, Holland-Dozier-Holland liked it so much, they left it in.

The Four Tops certainly had longevity, having formed in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in 1953, the four members remained as a quartet with no line up changes, through until the death of Laurence Patton in 1997. The four founding members of the Four Tops were Levi Stubbs, (1936-2008) Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir, Renaldo ‘Obie’ Benson (1936-2005) and Lawrence Payton, (1938-1997) Theo Peoples took Payton’s place in 1998, and remained a group member until 2010, when he left, Harold ‘Spike’ Bonhart, replaced him, until leaving in 2018. At the time of writing, the Four Tops remain active as a touring group, led by the one surviving original member Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir, along with the Tamla Motown veteran Ronnie McNeir, who joined in 1999, Lawrence Payton Jr. who joined in 2005, and Alexander Morris, who joined in 2019.

The Four Tops were originally called ‘Four Aims,’ but in 1956 they decided to change their name to ‘Four Tops,’ to avoid confusion with the American vocal group the ‘Ames Brothers.’ Between 1956-1962 the group issued four unsuccessful singles, on four different record labels, before signing with ‘Motown’ records in 1963, initially recording Jazz standards for Motown’s ‘Workshop Jazz Records’ label, they also sang backing vocals on The Supremes single ‘Run, Run, Run,’ (1964) and the Martha and the Vandellas single ‘My Baby Loves Me (1966.) The Four Tops finally made their commercial breakthrough in July 1964, when Motown’s legendary song writing team of ‘Holland–Dozier–Holland’ offered them the song ‘Baby I Need Your Loving,’ which went on to reach Number 11 on Billboard in America.

The discography of the Four Tops includes 29 studio Albums released between 1965-1995, and 59 singles released between 1956-1989, there are also 10 official compilation Albums, and two live Albums available. The Four Tops who have recorded for ‘Motown’ records, ‘ABC/Dunhill’ records, ‘Casablanca’ records, and ‘Arista’ records, have had 24 top 40 hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in America, with both ‘I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch’) (1965) and ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There,’ (1966) both reaching Number 1. In the UK, the Four Tops have made the top 40 on 30 occasions, with ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ making the Number 1 spot.

‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ was written and produced by the legendary song writing team of ‘Holland–Dozier–Holland,’ (see also best songs 969-823-553-411-212 and 148) and was the first of six singles released from the Four Tops fourth studio Album ‘Reach Out,’ from July 1967. The song has become the Four Tops signature tune, and as with many of the other ‘Motown’ tracks from that period, it features Motown’s in house band ‘The Funk Brothers,’ (see also best songs 948-569-414-382-212-148 and 28) and the female backing vocals of ‘The Andantes,’ who appear unaccredited. ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ was covered in 1971 by Diana Ross, and reached Number 29 on Billboard, and in 1975 the American singer Gloria Gaynor released a ‘Disco’ version of the song, which made Number 14 in the UK. In 1988 the British music producers Phil Harding, and Ian Curnow, issued a remix of the song, which peaked at Number 11 in the UK.

Lamont Dozier (1941-2022) has explained how ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ came about,’Brian, Eddie and I often had discussions about what women really want most of all from a man, and after talking about some of our experiences with women, we all three agreed that they wanted someone to be there for them, through thick or thin, and be there at their beck and call. Thus this song was born.’ In 2014 Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir said,’Eddie (Holland) realised that when Levi hit the top of his vocal range, it sounded like someone hurting, so he made him sing right up there. Levi complained, but we knew he loved it. Every time they thought he was at the top, he would reach a little further, until you could hear the tears in his voice. The line “Just look over your shoulder” was something he threw in spontaneously. Levi was creative like that, he could always add something from the heart.’

‘I can tell the way you hang your head, you’re without love and now you’re afraid, and through your tears you look around, but there’s no peace of mind to be found.’