The LA Times is reporting that Levi Stubbs, lead singer of the Four Tops has died at 72:
Levi Stubbs, lead singer of the Four Tops, dies at 72
Levi Stubbs, the lead singer of the legendary Motown group the Four Tops, whose voice endures in such songs as “I Can’t Help Myself” and “Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” has died. He was 72.
Stubbs died today at his home in Detroit, Billboard.com reported. He had suffered a series of illnesses, including cancer and a stroke, that forced him to stop performing in 2000, Billboard said.
The Four Tops had more than 40 hits on the Billboard pop charts, including 24 that reached the top 40. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the group in 1990.
Of the four “Tops” who first came together in 1953, only one – Abdul “Duke” Fakir – survives. Lawrence Payton died in 1997, and Renaldo “Obie” Benson died in 2005. Fakir now leads a version of the Four Tops that includes Payton’s son, Roquel.
The original foursome “performed for over four decades together without a single change in personnel – a record of constancy that is mind-boggling in the notoriously changeable world of popular music,” the Hall of Fame says in an online profile.
Stubbs, in a 1987 interview with the Washington Post, said the foursome’s bond as teenage friends kept them tight through the joys and demands of stardom.
“We were all born in the same neighborhood, and we really grew up together,” he said. “So we’ve known each other all our lives, and we’re still good friends.”
Here’s Billy Bragg to sing the eulogy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4v8VJ0LRgA