Post by Motorcity on Mar 19, 2006 19:37:58 GMT -5
Four Tops' Lawrence Payton Dies
by Marcus Errico
Jun 20, 1997, 12:45 PM PT
And then there were three. Lawrence Payton, a founding member of Motown's longest-lived and possibly most consistent group, the Four Tops, died at his suburban Detroit home Friday. He was 59.
Authorities declined to comment on Payton's illness, only saying he had been a hospice patient. However, fellow Top, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, told a Detroit radio station that his singing partner had been diagnosed with liver cancer and died with his wife and family members at his bedside.
When reached for comment, Levi Stubbs told Reuters he was too distraught to talk about his pal's passing. "This isn't a good time for me now," the Tops' frontman said.
One of the singers's last public appearances came in April, when the soft-spoken Payton ("he was responsible for the harmonies," said Stubbs) and his three harmonizing mates--Stubbs, Fakir and Renaldo "Obie" Benson--received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.
The star was the most recent honor for the sweet-singing vocal quartet, which had been together more than 40 years without a personnel change. "I always thought of them as closer than brothers," Esther Gordy Edwards--former manager of the group and sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy--told the Associated Press.
The four neighborhood friends from Detroit's North End banded together as the Four Aims in 1956. Shortly after signing to Chess Records, they changed their name to the Four Tops to avoid confusion with the era's hit-making Ames Brothers.
But the quartet flopped, bouncing from label to label until they hooked up with old friend Berry Gordy. He signed the foursome to Motown in 1964, pairing them with stellar songsmiths Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland.
The combination proved fertile. Throughout the '60s and '70s the group charted with such hits as "Baby I Need Your Loving," "I Can't Help Myself," "Same Old Song," "Standing in the Shadows of Love," "Reach Out I'll Be There," "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," "Seven Rooms of Gloom" and "Bernadette."
Over their four decades, the Four Tops have tallied album sales of 50 million, toured extensively, influenced countless younger musicians (Billy Bragg scored a U.K. hit with "Levi Stubbs' Tears") and even played Broadway with label-mates the Temptations.
They showed little sign of slowing down in recent years. In 1988, Arista Records issued the aptly titled Indestructible. Two years later, Stevie Wonder inducted them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their final studio effort, Christmas Here With You was released in 1995.
A memorial service was scheduled for Tuesday night and the funeral Wednesday morning in Detroit.
by Marcus Errico
Jun 20, 1997, 12:45 PM PT
And then there were three. Lawrence Payton, a founding member of Motown's longest-lived and possibly most consistent group, the Four Tops, died at his suburban Detroit home Friday. He was 59.
Authorities declined to comment on Payton's illness, only saying he had been a hospice patient. However, fellow Top, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, told a Detroit radio station that his singing partner had been diagnosed with liver cancer and died with his wife and family members at his bedside.
When reached for comment, Levi Stubbs told Reuters he was too distraught to talk about his pal's passing. "This isn't a good time for me now," the Tops' frontman said.
One of the singers's last public appearances came in April, when the soft-spoken Payton ("he was responsible for the harmonies," said Stubbs) and his three harmonizing mates--Stubbs, Fakir and Renaldo "Obie" Benson--received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.
The star was the most recent honor for the sweet-singing vocal quartet, which had been together more than 40 years without a personnel change. "I always thought of them as closer than brothers," Esther Gordy Edwards--former manager of the group and sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy--told the Associated Press.
The four neighborhood friends from Detroit's North End banded together as the Four Aims in 1956. Shortly after signing to Chess Records, they changed their name to the Four Tops to avoid confusion with the era's hit-making Ames Brothers.
But the quartet flopped, bouncing from label to label until they hooked up with old friend Berry Gordy. He signed the foursome to Motown in 1964, pairing them with stellar songsmiths Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland.
The combination proved fertile. Throughout the '60s and '70s the group charted with such hits as "Baby I Need Your Loving," "I Can't Help Myself," "Same Old Song," "Standing in the Shadows of Love," "Reach Out I'll Be There," "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," "Seven Rooms of Gloom" and "Bernadette."
Over their four decades, the Four Tops have tallied album sales of 50 million, toured extensively, influenced countless younger musicians (Billy Bragg scored a U.K. hit with "Levi Stubbs' Tears") and even played Broadway with label-mates the Temptations.
They showed little sign of slowing down in recent years. In 1988, Arista Records issued the aptly titled Indestructible. Two years later, Stevie Wonder inducted them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their final studio effort, Christmas Here With You was released in 1995.
A memorial service was scheduled for Tuesday night and the funeral Wednesday morning in Detroit.