Four Tops singer Duke Fakir, the last surviving member of the legendary Motown vocal quartet, has died, reports Detroit Free Press. Fakir co-founded Four Tops in 1953 when he was just 18 years old and performed live with the group for his entire life. Following the death of his bandmates over the years, Fakir assembled a touring lineup and continued to sing under the Four Tops name on through 2023. Fakir died at home earlier today from heart failure. He was 88.
“Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of a trailblazer, icon, and music legend who, through his 70-year music career, touched the lives of so many as he continued to tour until the end of 2023, and officially retired this year,” the Fakir family said in a statement to Detroit Free Press. “As the last living founding member of the iconic Four Tops music group, we find solace in Duke’s legacy living on through his music for generations to come.”
Born and raised in Detroit, Abdul Kareem “Duke” Fakir was a committed athlete in high school, which ultimately led him to cross paths with Levi Stubbs, his future bandmate, at a neighborhood football game. The two became friends, bonding over their shared love of singing, and sought out fellow singers to form a group together. Once Lawrence Payton and Obie Benson joined, they nominated Stubbs to lead the group with his baritone vocals, named themselves the Four Aims, and booked a recording session with Chess Records in Chicago. To avoid confusion with the Ames Brothers, however, they quickly changed their name to Four Tops at the suggestion of their musical director Maurice King – a nod to their goal to reach the top of the charts.
Four Tops struggled with an unlucky streak at Chess and the next labels they swung to afterwards: Red Top, Riverside, and Columbia. The group toured extensively anyway, showcasing their stacked vocals and suave charm. Come 1963, they caught the attention of Berry Gordy Jr., who urged them to join his record company Motown and record a handful of jazz standards. After singing backup on other Motown singles like the Supremes’ “Run, Run, Run” and “When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes,” Four Tops partnered with the songwriting team Holland–Dozier–Holland and churned out “Baby I Need Your Loving.” It became their first big hit, charting at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
From the mid-1960s onwards, Four Tops began dominating the charts with a long run of successful singles that fused pop song structure with the vocal urgency of a gospel preacher: “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” “Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” “Standing in the Shadows of Love,” “It’s the Same Old Song,” “Something About You,” “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever.” Four Tops released 27 studio albums with their original quartet lineup, including 1967’s Reach Out and a handful of collaborative LPs with the Supremes.
The original Four Tops roster stayed together for a whopping 43 years. “We loved each other as men, as friends,” Fakir once told The Quietus. “We loved singing together, we knew we blended really well together. We loved entertaining – we all had the same passion for entertaining people and we loved the way we thought about each other. No one had any higher praise for any of us than each another. I think I had more fun with those men than with any other friends I’ve ever had, I mean real fun, we had fun! We’d go home together, hang out together, play cards together – we had fun! It was the greatest thing, working with those guys, and it was the hardest thing when they left.”
As a member of Four Tops, Fakir was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009, and has been honored as one of the Top 100 Recording Artists of All Time by Billboard. In 2022, Fakir published a memoir about his life, I’ll Be There: My Life with the Four Tops, with Omnibus Press.
Several artists have taken to social media to share tributes in honor of the late Duke Fakir, such as Billy Bragg and Public Enemy’s Chuck D. “My brother, I really hate to have to say goodbye but you’ve been called home by the Father to once again join Lawrence, Obie and Levi and make more of the heavenly music you guys made while here. I’m gonna miss you, my brother,” Smokey Robinson wrote on Instagram.