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Four Tops legend Levi Stubbs dies of cancer in Detroit

troubleman84

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Four Tops Vocalist Levi Stubbs Dies At 72

October 17, 2008 , 11:15 AM ET

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The Four Tops, 1965

Gary Graff, Detroit

Arguably the most powerful voice in Motown's storied history has been silenced. Four Tops lead singer Levi Stubbs, Jr., died today (Oct. 17) at his home in Detroit after a long series io illnesses -- including cancer and a stroke -- that forced him to stop performing in 2000. He was 72.

Funeral arrangements are pending for Stubbs, who is survived by Clineice, his wife of 48 years, and five children.

"He had one of the most prolific and identifiably voices in American history," the Motown Alumni Association's Billy J. Wilson tells Billboard.com. "It's a deep loss, to the entire Motown family and to the world."

Stubbs' death leaves Abdul "Duke" Fakir as the Tops' only living member from the original quartet, which formed in 1954 as the Four Aims and signed with Motown nine years later. Laurence Payton passed away in 1997, and Renaldo "Obie" Benson died in 2005.

Fakir continues to lead a version of the Tops that includes Payton's son Roquel, former Temptations member Theo Peoples and Motown veteran Ronnie McNeir.

Stubbs -- born Levi Stubbles in Detroit -- gave voice to enduring hits such as "Baby I Need Your Loving," "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Brenadette" and others. The Tops have sold more than 50 million records and racked up 45 chart hits for the Motown, ABC Dunhill, Arista and Casablanca labels, and the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

Stubbs also provided the voice of Audrey II, the man-eating plant in the film version of the musical "Little Shop of Horrors" in 1986, and of Mother Brain in the 1989 animated TV series "Captain N: The Game Master."

Stubbs' last public appearance with the group came at the group's 50th Anniversary Concert on July 28, 2004 at Detroit's Music Hall Center.
 
He was suffering pain for too long. Levi's job on this earth was done, he gave us some great, memorable music with that operatic baritone of his.

After Marvin Gaye and David Ruffin, probably the most powerful singer in Motown history. Probably THE most powerful of the three.
 
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Four Tops frontman Levi Stubbs dead at 72

By MIKE HOUSEHOLDER, Associated Press Writer Mike Householder, Associated Press Writer – 3 mins ago

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DETROIT – Four Tops lead singer Levi Stubbs, who possessed one of the most dynamic and emotive voices of all the Motown singers, died Friday at 72.

He had been ill recently and died in his sleep at the Detroit house he shared with his wife, said Dana Meah, the wife of a grandson. The Wayne County medical examiner's office also confirmed the death.

With Stubbs in the lead, the Four Tops sold millions of records, including such hits as "Baby I Need Your Loving," "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" and "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)."

The group performed for more than four decades without a change in personnel. Stubbs' death leaves one surviving member of the original group: Abdul "Duke" Fakir.

Stubbs "fits right up there with all the icons of Motown," said Audley Smith, chief operating officer of the Motown Historical Museum. "His voice was as unique as Marvin's or as Smokey's or as Stevie's."

The Four Tops began singing together in 1953 under the group name the Four Aims and signed a deal with Chess Records. They later changed their names to the Four Tops to avoid being confused with the Ames Brothers.

They also recorded for Red Top, Riverside and Columbia Records and toured supper clubs.

The Four Tops signed with Motown Records in 1963 and produced 20 Top-40 hits over the next 10 years, making music history with the other acts in Berry Gordy's Motown stable.

Their biggest hits were recorded between 1964 and 1967 with the in-house songwriting and production team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland. Both 1965's "I Can't Help Myself" and 1966's "Reach Out" went to No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart.

Other hits included "Shake Me, Wake Me" (1966); "Bernadette" and "Standing in the Shadows of Love" (both 1967).

They toured for decades afterward and reached the charts as late as 1988 with "Indestructible" on Arista Records. In 1986, Stubbs provided the voice for Audrey II the man-eating plant in the film "Little Shop of Horrors."

The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Original Top Lawrence Payton died of liver cancer in 1997. Renaldo "Obie" Benson died of lung cancer in 2005.

Stubbs was born in 1936 in Detroit and attended Pershing High School, where he sang with Fakir. They met fellow Detroiters Payton and Benson while singing at a mutual friend's birthday party, then decided to form a group.

"These are four of the greatest people I have ever known. They were major pros even before they came to Motown," Gordy said when the Four Tops' star was unveiled in Hollywood.

Stubbs is survived by his wife, five children and 11 grandchildren.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Irwin contributed to this report.
 
FOUR TOPS DISCOGRAPHY (selected works):

Four Tops (1964)
Second Album (1965)
On Top (1966)
Live! (1966)
On Broadway (1967)
Reach Out! (1967)
Yesterday's Dreams (1968)
The Four Tops Now (1969)
Soul Spin (1969)
Still Waters Run Deep (1970)
Changing Times (1970)
Nature Planned It (1972)
Keeper of the Castle (1972)
Main Street People (1973)
Catfish (1976)
Tonight! (1981)
Indestructible (1988)

HIT SINGLES:
"Baby I Need Your Loving" (No. 11)
"Ask the Lonely" (No. 24)
"I Can't Help Myself" (No. 1)
"It's the Same Old Song" (No. 5)
"Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)" (No. 18)
"Reach Out I'll Be There" (No. 1)
"Bernadette" (No. 4)
"Standing in the Shadows of Love" (No. 6)
"7 Rooms of Gloom" (No. 14)
"You Keep Running Away" (No. 19)
"It's All in the Game" (No. 24)
"Still Water (Love)" (No. 11)
"River Deep Mountain High" (No. 14; w/the Supremes)
"Just Seven Numbers" (No. 40)
"Keeper of the Castle" (No. 10)
"Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)" (No. 4)
"Are You Man Enough" (No. 15)
"When She Was My Girl" (No. 11)
"Indestructible" (No. 35)
 
Information on Levi Stubbs:
*Born Levi Stubbles, Jr. on June 6, 1936 in a poor Detroit neighborhood.
*First cousin of fellow Detroit music legend Jackie Wilson.
*Started singing as member of the Thrillers.
*Left the group in 1954 to form the Four Aims with high school buddy Lawrence Payton and new friends Abdul "Duke" Fakir and Renaldo "Obie" Benson; group changed their name to the Four Tops in 1956.
*Gained international fame as the lead singer of the Four Tops after 1964's "Baby I Need Your Loving".
*Sung lead or co-lead on 23 top forty hit singles with the Four Tops.
*Was married to longtime wife Clineice since 1960; the couple have five grown children.
*One of the few Motown stars to not leave Detroit; after Motown moved to Los Angeles in 1972, the group left the label and signed with ABC Records.
*Voiced destructive eating plant Audrey II in the movie "Little Shop of Horrors".
*Inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the Four Tops in 1990.
*Suffered a stroke in his Detroit home in 2000 and was diagnosed with cancer and forced to spend the remaining years of his life in a wheelchair.
*Made final appearance with Four Tops in 2004.
*Died today of cancer at 72.
 
RIP.

thank you very much for all these wonderful songs.
 
Thanks Timmy for such a beautiful tribute to Levi with this thread. My dad is so devastated today he was a teen in the 60s and turned 20 in 1968. For him watching these people pass away is hard but i remind him the music lives on for us to appreciate :flowers:
 
hopespringseternal said:
Thanks Timmy for such a beautiful tribute to Levi with this thread. My dad is so devastated today he was a teen in the 60s and turned 20 in 1968. For him watching these people pass away is hard but i remind him the music lives on for us to appreciate :flowers:
Click to expand...

Aw, that's sweet you did it but yeah the music live on even if the voice is stilled forever. He is now a part of God's angels and it makes sense since he had an angelic voice. ^_^

RIP, Levi.
 
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003875218
Reaction to Stubbs' death has been pouring forth as the word spread. The Temptations' Otis Williams told Billboard.com that the wheelchair-bound Stubbs came to see his group perform with the current Four Tops a couple of times this year, in Toledo and in the Detroit area. "We had him in the dressing room and sang 'Baby I Need Your Loving' ... He would try to sing along with us, and as he was singing you could see tears well up in his eyes. He just longed to be on stage and do what he was known to do."

Williams called Stubbs "our black Frank Sinatra. Frank not only had the voice but what made Sinatra unique was the way he'd phrase the song. Levi had that same kind of talent; whatever he was singing he would phrase it so uniquely that you would just stand there in awe."

War's Lonnie Jordan told Billboard.com he was "blessed" to meet Stubbs once during his career and felt that "his voice was so good he was just, like, from another planet. That's what I told him."

In a statement, Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr., called Stubbs "the greatest interpreter of songs I've ever heard." Gordy also revealed that Stubbs was his first choice for the romantic lead in the Diana Ross film vehicle "Lady Sings the Blues" but that he turned down the role "because he thought it would interfere with the group's future success."

Brian and Eddie Holland, who co-wrote many of the Tops' hits with partner Lamont Dozier, said in a statement that "Working with Levi was one of the most inspirational aspects of the time we spent at Motown. Just listening to the way he was able to deliver the HDH songs brought more beauty to them than we could have imagined ... He was an inspiration to us as songwriters and producers."

Smokey Robinson commented that Stubbs "was one of the great voices of all times. He was very near and dear to my heart," while Daryl Hall said that "not only was Levi a nice guy, but he had one of the most distinctive voices of all of the Motown artists. He created a style so unique that it actually was never really imitated. And, the songs that he sang, like all great songs, will remain timeless."
 
Ah, I'm sorry to learn of this. I think I did hear something about the Four Tops sometime this week. I think my favorite song by them is Bernadette.

Thanks for this nice round up!

RIP


troubleman84 said:
Information on Levi Stubbs:
*Born Levi Stubbles, Jr. on June 6, 1936 in a poor Detroit neighborhood.
*First cousin of fellow Detroit music legend Jackie Wilson.
*Started singing as member of the Thrillers.
*Left the group in 1954 to form the Four Aims with high school buddy Lawrence Payton and new friends Abdul "Duke" Fakir and Renaldo "Obie" Benson; group changed their name to the Four Tops in 1956.
*Gained international fame as the lead singer of the Four Tops after 1964's "Baby I Need Your Loving".
*Sung lead or co-lead on 23 top forty hit singles with the Four Tops.
*Was married to longtime wife Clineice since 1960; the couple have five grown children.
*One of the few Motown stars to not leave Detroit; after Motown moved to Los Angeles in 1972, the group left the label and signed with ABC Records.
*Voiced destructive eating plant Audrey II in the movie "Little Shop of Horrors".
*Inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the Four Tops in 1990.
*Suffered a stroke in his Detroit home in 2000 and was diagnosed with cancer and forced to spend the remaining years of his life in a wheelchair.
*Made final appearance with Four Tops in 2004.
*Died today of cancer at 72.
Click to expand...
 
My Heart is heavy with the news.of another great artist leaving our troubled world, however to give Mr. Stubbs a great send off pick up the Four Tops - 50th Anniversary Celebration..The memories were so strong....WOW. Rest In peace, Levi and I thank you for your kind service to my heart..From The Heart.....
 
R.I.P. Mr. Stubbs. :( My condolensces go out to his friends and family. No doubt the Four Tops will live on thru their awesome music. I'm defo a fan.
 
another legend is gone RIP levi thanks for the music
 
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