You might not have known the name, but you certainly couldn’t miss Levi Stubbs’ voice.
That voice — rough, raw, intense — remains a fixture on the American music landscape, unmistakable on such evergreen Four Tops hits as “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Bernadette,” “Standing in the Shadows of Love” and “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch).” Motown fans and alumni today are mourning the loss of Stubbs, who died Friday morning at home in Detroit. He was 72.
A cause of death has not been determined, but Stubbs had suffered for many years from a series of debilitating illnesses. Diagnosed with cancer in 1995, Stubbs quit touring with the Tops after a stroke in 2000. He was replaced by ex-Temptations singer Theo Peoples.
“You almost expected it — you just didn’t know when it was going to come,” said Motown singer Freda Payne.
Known informally as “the Captain,” a fan of traditional balladeers such as Billy Eckstine and Frank Sinatra, Stubbs was recalled by friends and associates as a deeply private and humble man.
Abdul “Duke” Fakir is now the Four Tops’ only surviving founding member; Tenor Lawrence Payton died in 1997, followed by bass vocalist Obie Benson eight years later.
For many fans, the last glimpse of Stubbs came in 2004, when he sang briefly from a wheelchair during the Four Tops’ 50th anniversary celebration at Music Hall in Detroit. It turned out to be his final on-stage appearance with the group.
Stubbs’ final full concert with the Tops had come in December 2000, when the group played a farewell concert at the White House for President Clinton.
Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. paid homage in a statement: “Levi was the greatest interpreter of songs I’ve ever heard. . . . I remember when we heard their first Motown release, ‘Baby I Need Your Loving.’ Levi’s voice exploded in the room and went straight for our hearts. We all knew it was a hit, hands down.”
Unlike Marvin Gaye, who used his voice to caress, or Smokey Robinson, whose silky croon sparkled, Stubbs headed straight for the guts of his notes, summoning a distinctive grit and fire.
It was a trait that distinguished the group from many of its fellow acts at Motown, where Stubbs and the Tops — already veterans of the music business — were often regarded as older brothers.
Ronnie McNeir, a member of the Tops since 2000, recalled Stubbs’ comment to a passing fan who called him a star: “He said, ‘Ma’am, I ain’t no star. I just love what I do.’ He was truly a gentleman and a very humble guy.”
Chris Rizik of Ann Arbor, Mich., who runs the popular music website SoulTracks and calls Stubbs his all-time favorite vocalist, said Friday’s news prompted an outpouring of tributes and reminiscing from fans around the world.
“The larger population might not even know the name, but to anybody who’s a soul music fan, this is like royalty dying,” Rizik said.
Stubbs’ influence wasn’t limited to R&B. As aspiring musicians in the 1960s, Detroit area rock singers such as Bob Seger and Scott Morgan studied the Tops’ material, trying to incorporate the intensity of Stubbs’ delivery into their own formative voices.
Born in 1936 in Detroit, Stubbs attended Pershing High School with Fakir. The two friends formed the Four Aims with fellow teens Benson and Payton, renaming themselves the Four Tops in 1956 as they embarked on a series of record deals that would eventually lead them to Gordy and Motown in 1963.
Stubbs is survived by his wife, Clineice Stubbs, three sons, two daughters, 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
