New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The Four Tops headline a Dinner Cabaret season at SOFITEL MELBOURNE ON COLLINS from Wednesday 5th to Saturday 8th December and SOFITEL WENTWORTH SYDNEY from Monday 17th -
Thursday 20th December. The line-up includes original band member Duke Fakir plus Ronnie McNeir, Lawrence Payton Jr. and Harold "Spike" Bonhart.
This is Australia's chance to see why for more than Sixty Years The Four Tops, a vocal quartet from Detroit, Michigan helped define The Legendary Motown sound with a repertoire that included Soul Music, R&B, Adult Contemporary and Jazz. Their first Motown hit, "Baby I Need Your Loving" in 1964, made them stars and their sixties track record on the label is indispensable to any retrospective of that decade. Their songs, soulful and bittersweet, were across-the-board successes. "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie,
Honey Bunch)", a No.1 R&B and Pop smash in 1965, is one of Motown's longest-running chart toppers, followed "It's The Same Old Song"; "Reach Out I'll Be There"; "Standing In The
Shadows Of Love"; "Bernadette"; "It's All In The Game"; "Still Water (Love)"; "You Keep Running Away", and many more. The Four Tops are a one-in-a-million singing group.
For Rolling Stone's 2004 feature "The Immortals - The Greatest Artists Of All Time",
Smokey Robinson remembered: "They were the best in my neighbourhood in
Detroit when I was growing up (and) The Four Tops will always be one of the biggest and the best groups ever. Their music is forever." The Four Tops are headlining a Dinner/Cabaret season at SOFITEL MELBOURNE ON COLLINS and SOFITEL WENTWORTH SYDNEY in December 2018.
The Four Tops first Motown hit, "Baby I Need Your Loving" in 1964, made them stars and their sixties track record on the label is indispensable to any retrospective of that decade. Their songs, soulful and bittersweet, were across-the-board successes. "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie,
Honey Bunch)", a No.1 R&B and Pop smash in 1965, is one of Motown's longest-running chart toppers and was quickly followed by a long-time favourite: "It's The Same Old Song" (No. 2 R&B and No. 5 Pop). Their commercial peak was highlighted by a romantic trilogy: the No.1 "Reach Out I'll Be There"; "Standing In The
Shadows Of Love" (No.2 R&B and No.6 Pop) and "Bernadette" (No.3 R&B and No.4 Pop). Other The Four Tops hits from the decade included "Ask The Lonely"; "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)"; "
Something About You"; "You Keep Running Away"; "7-Rooms Of Gloom" and their covers of "Walk Away Renee" and "If I Were A Carpenter".
When Motown left
Detroit in 1972 to move to Los Angeles, The Four Tops moved to ABC-Dunhill and for the next few years kept up a string of hits: "Ain't No Woman (Like The One I've Got)", a Top 5 hit; the Top 10 "Keeper Of The Castle"; and the R&B Top 10's "Are You Man Enough" (from the movie Shaft); "Sweet Understanding Love"; "One Chain Don't Make No Prison" (later covered by Santana); "Midnight Flower" and the disco perennial "
Catfish".
In 1980 The Four Tops moved to
Casablanca Records. The following year they were at No.1 again, with "When She Was My Girl", making them one of the few groups to have hits in three consecutive decades. They also scored R&B Top 40s with the ballads "Tonight I'm Gonna Love You All Over" and "
I Believe In You And Me", the original version of the 1996 Whitney
Houston smash. The Four Tops were heard in the film Grease 2 with "Back To School Again". By 1983, riding the wave of the company's 25th anniversary celebration, The Four Tops were back with Motown and H-D-H. The reunion resulted in the R&B Top 40 hits "I Just Can't Walk Away" and "Sexy Ways".
They signed with Arista later in the decade, and there they racked up their final solo Top 40 hit, "
Indestructible", which was the theme of the 1988 Summer Olympics. That year they also partnered with Aretha Franklin, a longtime friend from Detroit, for the Top 40 R&B "If Ever A Love There Was". In 1990, with 24 Top 40 pop hits to their credit, The Four Tops were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. The group continued to be a hit in concert, touring incessantly, a towering testament to the enduring legacy of the Motown sound they helped shape and define. The line-up for the Australian tour includes original member Duke Fakir plus Ronnie McNeir, Lawrence Payton Jr. and Harold "Spike" Bonhart.
The Four Tops will always be one of the best groups ever. Their music is forever.
