Customer Reviews

Four Tops - Greatest Hits

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Don't waste your money on this album! For a dollar more, purchase their collection of hits in "The Ultimate Collection" by the Four Tops. The latter has all the songs of this one, plus many more. I discovered this after purchasing this one.

The Greatest Hits album is a GREAT way to start a Four Tops collecton.If you want an album of their formative years(1964-1967)this is the album for you!Although, confidentially speaking, I prefer mono vinyl to stereo CD.

Though this collection spans only about three years, it was the peak of the Tops output. Though later songs from the early to mid 70's are missing, to these ears they weren't as stunning as those collected here. I think Levi Stubbs was best on the melodramatic material presented on this collection-when he gets subtle, it isn't as effective. My personal favorites are "Bernadette," "Reach Out I'll Be There" and "Ask The Lonely." (which should have been a bigger hit than it was) "Ask The Lonely" is a masterpiece that to my ears doesn't get the credit it deserves. This is the collection that got them into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame.

While this album covers only the first three years of the Four Tops' initial eight-year run as Motown stars, it serves a valuable purpose: It provides an aural "snapshot" of the group at the peak of its hit-making powers. The legendary songwriting/production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland (also responsible for the vast bulk of the Supremes' most enduring hits) created 10 of the songs, including the powerful numbers that made the Four Tops' sound perhaps pop/soul music's closest link to grand opera. Propelled by Levi Stubbs' heart-wrenching lead vocals and the Greek chorus-like harmonies of Renaldo Benson, Abdul Fakir and the late Lawrence Payton (occasionally augmented by backup chorale), the group alternately verges on a nervous breakdown ("Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)," "7 Rooms of Gloom"), uplifts the spirit ("Reach Out I'll Be There") and stirs the soul ("Bernadette," one of the all-time-great songs about a man's love for a woman, e.g., "In you I have/what other men long for/All men need someone/to worship and adore/That's why I treasure you/and place you high above/For the only joy in life/is to be loved"). The non-H-D-H songs are also fine, particularly "Just Ask The Lonely," a melancholy reflection on the elusiveness of everlasting love: "Just ask the lonely/and they'll tell you the pain/of losing a love/you will never regain." All is topped off by sing-along classics "Baby I Need Your Loving," "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" and "It's The Same Old Song." While the Tops never achieved the teenybopper popularity of the Temptations and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, they proved on this first collection of greatest hits that they held the Motown monopoly on mature, heartfelt passion.

I agree with those who say that this album contains everything that was the very best of the Four Tops. I've listened to the later music, and it does not move me the way these songs do. It's all the Four Tops that I need.

Evan Sarzin, Gerard & Sarzin Publishing

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Though fellow Motown label mates The Supremes and The Temptations seem to occupy a higher status in the collective memories of "boomers", the quartet known as The Four Tops had its share of top-selling classic hits, also. With strong vocals by lead Levi Stubbs, the group soared in the mid-60s, releasing a barrage of songs that climbed both the R & B and pop charts.

If one wants to know others responsible for the legend that was Motown, one needs look no further than this marvelous compilation of the best from The Four Tops.

Disappointed because, although the jewel case was correctly labeled, I received a CD by the Temptations rather than the Four Tops. Have tried to contact the seller but had no luck. However, the Temptations CD is quite good, of course.

WHAT CAN ANYONE SAY OTHER THAN FANTASTIC