Four Tops – "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)" (1966)

Shake me

Wake me 

When it’s over

If you watch TV during the day, you’ve no doubt seen a lot of commercials for Medicare Advantage health insurance plans recently.

Those commercials usually feature celebrity spokesmen that the French would describe as being  d’un certain âge – “of a certain age” – which means they are as old as Methusaleh.

That’s because the people watching daytime TV are as old as Methusaleh.  

(According to Genesis, Methusaleh died at age 969.)

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Here’s how I would rank the four Medicare Advantage plan celebrity spokesmen that I see the most often.

#4 – Jimmie “J. J.” Walker 

Walker starred in the CBS series Good Times, which aired in 1970s.  Walker’s character on the show was a goofball – the only thing I remember about him is his catchphrase, which was “Dyn-o-mite!”  Why in the world would anyone think he was a suitable pitchman for a health insurance plan?

#3 – William Shatner

Shatner, who is best-known for portraying Captain James Kirk on the legendary Star Trek TV series,  has made some legendarily bad record albums.  Click here to listen to his appalling cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”  That recording alone is enough to drop him to the next-to-last spot in these rankings – but his career is based on more than a dopey catchphrase, so I put him above Walker.

#2 – Joe Namath

Based on his statistics, Joe Namath may be the least distinguished quarterback in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  But he was the author of the most shocking upset in pro football history, and he was a legendary ladies man as well – so I’m putting him at #2 on this list, despite the fact that my cat probably knows as much about health insurance as he does.

#1 – William Devane

Devane, who starred on the popular primetime soap opera Knots Landing for ten years, has a certain gravitas as an actor.  He’s portrayed the President of the United States in several different movies and TV series, and has also done turns as the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense.

That gravitas has helped Devane land a bunch of commercial deals.  He not only is a Medicare Advantage plan spokesman, but also shills for a precious metals asset management firm.

William Devane

I ranked Devane #1 on this list not because he has any more expertise or credibility than any of the other celebrity spokesmen, but because he looks a lot like my father did when he was alive.  

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The lyrics to “Shake Me, Wake Me (When It’s Over)” are a little clunky, but no matter.  After a mere two measures of introduction, the Four Tops and the Funk Brothers hit the ground running and never let up – this record is relentless.

As the Motown Junkies website correctly notes, “Shake Me, Wake Me” marries “a driving, fully danceable upbeat tune, and . . . the most anguished and depressing lyrics you could come up with”:  

This is a song about a guy who is losing his mind, paranoid and permanently on edge, plagued by fears his partner is about to walk out on him, stoked by (possibly imaginary) rumors, fueled by insomnia.  And it sounds like a party, like the narrator’s pain would make a great ringtone. That, right there, is the magic of Holland-Dozier-Holland, and this is as good an example as you’ll ever find in their catalogue.

I’m not sure why this song was given to the Four Tops instead of the Supremes.  The Supremes covered  it on their The Supremes A’ Go-Go album – which was the first album by an all-female group to top the Billboard album chart – and that cover is underwhelming.  Instead of going full speed ahead – like the Four Tops – or throwing in a heapin’ helpin’ of schmaltz, the Supremes sort of played it safe and hit a hybrid off the tee.  Click here to listen to the Supremes’ cover of “Shake Me, Wake Me.”

Click here to listen to the vastly superior Four Tops recording of the song.  

Click here to order the record from Amazon.

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.

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Four Tops – "Standing in the Shadows of Love" (1967)

Didn't I treat you right, now baby, didn't I?

Didn't I do the best I could now, didn't I?

Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland wrote and produced more great Motown records than you can shake a stick at, including “Standing in the Shadows of Love.”  (Altogether, Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote thirteen #1 hits – most of them for the Supremes – and an amazing 35 top ten singles.)

“Standing in the Shadows of Love,” which reached #6 on the Billboard “Hot 100” in February 1967, is my favorite of the Four Tops’ many hits.

Unlike most Motown songs, there’s no instrumental introduction – ready or not, here come the song’s bleak lyrics:

Standing in the shadows of love

I'm getting ready for the heartaches to come

Levi Stubbs

Other male vocal groups (like the Temptations) usually gave the lead vocal to a tenor or falsetto singer.  The Four Tops’ lead singer, Levi Stubbs, was a baritone.  His voice wasn’t as pretty as David Ruffin’s or Smokey Robinson’s, but it had an urgency and strength that made songs like “Standing in the Shadows of Love” very compelling.

Here’s “Standing in the Shadows of Love”:



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