Greatest Hits – THE FOUR TOPS*****

Reach Out I’ll Be There/Where Did You Go/I Can’t Help Myself/7 Rooms Of Gloom/Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever/Standing In The Shadows Of Love/Something About You/Baby I Need Your Loving/You Keep Running Away/Shake Me Wake Me/Ask The Lonely/Bernadette/Darling I Hum Our Song/Without The One You Love/It’s The Same Old Song/I’ll Turn To Stone (UK release)

Another marvellous Motown hit package released for the Christmas market. Includes all the incredible Four Tops hits from 1964-1967. Definitely a hard to beat compilation. (US:4 UK:1)

"For its day it's truly essential listening, however, be warned this collection came out in 1967 so it naturally misses out a lot of their subsequent hits. Everything you find on here is excellent."

"Though this collection spans only about three years, it was the peak of The Tops output. Though later songs from the early to mid 70s are missing, to these ears they weren't as stunning as those collected here. I think Levi Stubbs was best on the melodramatic material presented on this collection."

"While this album covers only the first three years of The Four Tops' run as Motown stars, it serves a valuable purpose: It provides an aural 'snapshot' of the group at the peak of its hit making powers. The legendary song-writing/production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland created ten of the songs, including the powerful numbers that made The Four Tops' sound perhaps pop/soul music's closest link to grand opera. Propelled by Levi Stubbs' heart-wrenching lead vocals and the Greek chorus-like harmonies of Renaldo Benson, Abdul Fakir and Lawrence Payton."

"While The Tops never achieved the teenybopper popularity of The Temptations or Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, they proved on this first collection of greatest hits that they held the Motown monopoly on mature, heartfelt passion."

"Levi Stubbs has one of the most powerful voices in music history and it carries this superb compilation of their biggest Motown hits. All the well known songs are here and they sound just as good hearing them for the thousandth time as they were the first."

"The Tops never equalled these songs, nor had to. They continued with ornate but classy pop-folk covers then slid into several 70s psychedelic, disco styles before joining oldies reviews."