Abdul Duke Fakir on the Four Tops and Motown Moments
Abdul 'Duke' Fakir on the Four Tops and Motown Moments Music
Now 83, Abdul “Duke” Fakir still calls Detroit home — when he’s not on the road. His group, the Four Tops, was a professional, polished club and cabaret act for a decade before they signed with Motown. Three of the originals — Renaldo “Obie” Benson, Levi Stubbs and Larry Payton — have passed away. Fakir has trained and performed with replacement singers over the years. Today’s Tops sometimes share a double bill with the latter-day Temptations. The following are edited excerpts from his conversation with AARP about .
Berry called us and he said, “Duke, why didn’t you call me before you signed with them?” I said, “Berry, I was so mad I didn’t want to talk to nobody. All we wanted to do was move along in our career. We were hurt.” He said, “I’m sorry, you should have called me, I would not have let that happen, you’re welcome to come home anytime you want.” Eventually, we did.
Abdul ' Duke' Fakir Late-Night Hits and Life-Long Friendships
One of the original Four Tops explains the magic of late night recording sessions
Gems/Getty Images; Andrew Benge/Getty Images Left: Abdul "Duke" Fakir (pictured at top left) in the original Four Tops lineup. Right: performing with the Tops in Leeds, England, in 2014.Now 83, Abdul “Duke” Fakir still calls Detroit home — when he’s not on the road. His group, the Four Tops, was a professional, polished club and cabaret act for a decade before they signed with Motown. Three of the originals — Renaldo “Obie” Benson, Levi Stubbs and Larry Payton — have passed away. Fakir has trained and performed with replacement singers over the years. Today’s Tops sometimes share a double bill with the latter-day Temptations. The following are edited excerpts from his conversation with AARP about .
On recording their smash Baby I Need Your Loving — at 3 a m
We were working in a nightclub, still waiting on our first hit, and [songwriter] Brian Holland came to the club. We got offstage and he said, ‘I got something for you guys, I got this hit.’ He played a raw version on the piano, kinda singing it. We weren’t overly excited. We were just glad we had something that we could work at. He said, ‘Well, I would like you to come to the studio now because your voices are wide awake and trimmed and ready to roll.’ We were night folks anyway. Even if we were not working, we were out seeing people at clubs or whatever, we would stop by Motown at 2, 3 in the morning. Sometimes we’d stay there ‘til sunup, listening to recordings or people working in the studio. It really was 24/7. It was amazing because it was really nonstop.On the Tops soulful collaboration with legendary Motown songwriters Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier
What they did was so unique, I think. Before they started writing songs for us, they really wanted to get to know us, as people and as performers. They felt they could really write some songs if they tuned in on our values, our best delivery. They took their time. We played golf together. Myself and Lamont, we used to go out at night, he’d call me to go and watch other acts. We’d all play cards together and knock around. They enjoyed our company and they respected our approach. Then when they started writing for us, they really got the best out of the Four Tops commercially.On the soulful methods of lead singer Levi Stubbs who fronted hits including Baby I Need Your Loving Reach Out I ll Be There and Bernadette
Levi would always take a sheet of paper and a pencil and write the lyrics down for himself. He would feel each word with his hands. He would feel those lyrics and after he did that he was pretty much ready to go down there and sing. Eddie Holland worked with Levi so intensely. He knew how to get the sound out of him so that he was almost wailing but still singing wonderfully. Levi would complain and complain and then he’d go in there and hit that note, like “I got it, man, I got it.” Eddie would bring out that wonderful cry in his voice, a plea. It was great, it was dramatic.On getting fired
The one thing that really upset us was when Motown let us go. We came in to negotiate a new contract in 1972. [They met with another company executive; Motown founder Berry Gordy had moved to Los Angeles and was less involved by then.] As soon as we sat down he said, “You’re here to talk about a new contract. Well, I think it's time to let you go. You had a good run.” We looked at each other, we were astonished. I wanted to hit him. But we held back. I said, “You mean you want to terminate us?” He said, “Yeah. You’ll probably find a deal someplace.” We were so mad. It hurt. We wanted to cry and we wanted to jump on him as well. We got up, said okay — I’m not gonna tell you the words we used — we walk out talking to each other, saying this is crazy. What are we gonna do? [The Tops did sign with another label, very quickly.] We got more than what we were asking from Motown. It was a good contract. That lasted maybe 4 or 5 years. We loved the writers. So we had a couple of hits.Berry called us and he said, “Duke, why didn’t you call me before you signed with them?” I said, “Berry, I was so mad I didn’t want to talk to nobody. All we wanted to do was move along in our career. We were hurt.” He said, “I’m sorry, you should have called me, I would not have let that happen, you’re welcome to come home anytime you want.” Eventually, we did.