Four Tops – "Reach Out I'll Be There" (1966)

I’ll be there, with a love that will shelter you

I’ll be there, with a love that will see you through

The Four Aces, Four Coins, Four Esquires, Four Freshmen, Four Jacks and a Jill, Four Lads, Four Preps, Four Seasons, Four Tops, and Four Voices all records that cracked the Billboard top 40.

For some reason, vocal quartets tend to be all-male aggregations.  (The sole exception to that in the list in the previous paragraph?  Four Jacks and a Jill, of course.)

There are plenty of well-known female vocal trios – the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, the Three Degrees, the Pointer Sisters, TLC, and Destiny’s Child – but relatively few quartets of the distaff persuasion.

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The Four Seasons were the most successful of the “Four” groups, with five #1 hit singles and 10 additional top-10 records.

The Four Tops were the next most successful, with two #1 records – including today’s featured song – and four more top-10 singles.

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Several of the “Four” groups consist of high school friends (Four Lads, Four Preps) or college classmates (Four Esquires, Four Freshmen).  

The Four Tops met when they were Detroit high school students, but two of the group’s members went to Pershing High, while the other two attended Northern High. 

The foursome signed their first recording contract with Chess Records way back in 1956, but couldn’t produce a hit for that label.  Over the next several years, the group inked deals with three other record companies but had nary a hit to show for their efforts.

The Four Tops in 1964

Motown signed the Four Tops to a contract in 1963.  At first, Berry Gordy had them record jazz standards for his short-lived Workshop Jazz label.  But one day he had the bright idea of giving them the Holland-Dozier-Holland song, “Baby I Need Your Loving,” which made it all the way to #11 on the Billboard “Hot 100.”  The Four Tops were off and running.

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“Reach Out I’ll Be There” was the Four Tops’ biggest hit, and probably their best record.  (Their next single, “Standing in the Shadows of Love,” is a close second.) 

Click here to listen to “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” the newest member of the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.

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