The Four Tops formed in 1956, it wasn't until 1964, after signing with Motown, that the Four Tops found commercial success. The Four Tops soon became one of Motown's first-string acts, the male version of the Supremes -- like the Supremes, nearly all the Four Tops singles were written and produced by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland. While the Temptations' main attraction was their smooth tenor singers, the Tops' lead singer is rough-voiced bass Levi Stubbs, who recorded many of the label's most impassioned vocals ("Standing In The Shadows Of Love," "Reach Out I'll Be There").
Motown's house band, always excellent, often outdid themselves on Four Tops songs (remember "Bernadette"?). The group left Motown in 1970, a couple of years after Holland-Dozier-Holland did, had a huge hit in 1972 with "Ain't No Woman (Like The One I've Got)," and is now on the oldies circuit: somehow the original lineup has managed to stick together all these years.
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