The Four Tops were among Motown's most popular acts - hitting their peak between 1964 and 1967 when they scored 11 top 20 hits, including ‘I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) ’ and ‘Reach Out I'll Be There’.
ADVERTISEMENTAbdul “Duke” Fakir, the last surviving original member of the beloved Motown group the Four Tops, known for such hits as 'Reach Out, I’ll Be There' and 'Standing in the Shadows of Love', has died at age 88.
Fakir died Monday (22 July) of heart failure at his home in Detroit, according to a family spokesperson, with his wife and other loved ones by his side.
“Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of a trailblazer, icon and music legend who, through his 70-year music career, touched the lives of so many as he continued to tour until the end of 2023, and officially retired this year,” his family said in a statement.
“As the last living founding member of the iconic The Four Tops music group, we find solace in Duke’s legacy living on through his music for generations to come.”
Motown founder Berry Gordy said in a statement that Fakir helped embody the Tops' “showmanship, class and artistry.”
“Duke was first tenor — smooth, suave, and always sharp,” Gordy said. “For 70 years, he kept the Four Tops’ remarkable legacy intact.”
The four members of the group, Fakir, Lawrence Payton, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Levi Stubbs formed in the late 1950s but did not find success until the early 1960s. They became one of Motwon’s most popular and enduring acts.
Between 1964 and 1967, they had 11 top 20 hits and two No. 1’s: 'I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)' and the operatic classic 'Reach Out I’ll Be There'. Other songs, often sagas of romantic pain and bereavement, included 'Baby I Need Your Loving', 'Standing in the Shadows of Love', 'Bernadette' and 'Just Ask the Lonely'.
They called themselves the Four Aims when they started out, but soon renamed themselves the Four Tops to avoid confusion with the white harmony quartet the Ames Brothers.
The Four Tops continued to play together as a group until Payton's death in 1997. Benson and Stubbs died in 2005 and 2008, respectively.
Besides the Rock Hall of Fame, their honors included being voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 and receiving a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2009. More recently, Fakir had been working on a planned Broadway musical based on their lives and completed the memoir “I’ll Be There,” published in 2022.
Fakir was married twice, for the last 50 years to Piper Gibson, and had seven children. In the mid-1960s, he was briefly engaged to Mary Wilson of the Supremes.
A lifelong Detroit resident who stayed home even after Gordy moved the label to Los Angeles in early 1970s, Fakir was of Ethiopian and Bangladeshi descent and grew up in a rough neighborhood where rival Black and white gangs fought often.
He had early dreams of being a professional athlete, but was also a talented singer whose tenor brought him attention as a performer in his church choir. He was in his teens when he befriended Stubbs, and the two first sang with Benson and Payton at a birthday party thrown by a local “girl group".
He is survived by his wife, six children, 13 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
