The Four Tops: The Four Tops - 1965

The Four Tops were most definitely better-known for their veritable stream of corking hit singles. Their albums tended to include a few of these each, a couple of other good Motown numbers and a whole side of covers of Beatles or Monkees songs and/or other easy-listening, poppy standards. Anyway, despite that, I've covered a fair few of them....

The great thing about this impressive debut from The Four Tops is that, unlike many of their subsequent albums, it didn't contain a superb first side before descending into a second side of covers of songs from the musicals or The Beatles. As the saying goes, it is "all killer, no filler". It is full of good material from beginning to end. The sound quality is really good as well, full and warm and in stereo. Of course I'm going to love that.

Baby I Need Your Loving, the group's first single (and first hit), is big, powerful, muscular and catchy as well as introducing us to the magnificent voice of Levi Stubbs. Berry Gordy knew he had something good on his hands here and so did Holland-Dozier-Holland. Incidentally, it was the first time strings had been used on an H-D-H record. The result was special. The Four Tops had arrived - and how. The song was also done by The Supremes, Gladys Knight, Marvin and Kim and Marvin and Tammi. 

Without The One You Love (Life's Not Worthwhile) is a very Northern Soul-ish floor-filler, with that killer beat and impossibly catchy refrain. It is not quite up to the standard of Baby I Need Your Loving, but it ain't half bad. H-D-H continued the "baby I need your sweet lovin'" lyrical theme that they had begun on Baby I Need Your Loving and in doing so they cleverly provided a link with the single that preceded it. The Tops re-recorded the song with The Supremes for their Magnificent 7 album in 1970, by the way.

The sumptuous mid-pace ballad Where Did You Go showcases Stubbs' iconic voice beautifully. Ask The Lonely was, along with Baby I Need Your Loving, a single, and, although it was a slower number, it was a damn good one, with Stubbs' voice again dominating proceedings. It is slightly dated now, however, more so than the other single. Your Love Is Amazing is also a very typical mid-sixties Motown track, with that Northern Soul appeal there as well. It sort of sounds like a speeded up version of Sam Cooke's You Send Me. Shorty Long covered the song in 1967 as the 'b' side of his Chantilly Lace single. 

On the lyrically cynical Sad Souvenirs, co-writer Ivy Jo Hunter used The Beatles as an influence, particularly John Lennon. "That was the way the English boys used to write" he said. That influence started creeping into a lot of Motown songwriting from now onwards. Musically, Sad Souvenirs had a deep, sombre and mournful vibe to it. It puts me in mind a little of The Drifters' On Broadway.

Don't Turn Away returns to that big Motown upbeat, brassy thump. This is good stuff, no throwaway "filler" here. Tea House In China Town is an atmospheric number that tells a good story over a bit of a mysterious bluesy but soulful backing. Marv Johnson's Left With A Broken Heart is a Smokey Robinson-esque number that is very much of its time, a bit more redolent of the early sixties as opposed to the mid-sixties, actually. Love Has Gone is a slow tear-jerker featuring some sublime cymbal work. 

The Strings used so well on Baby I Need Your Loving also embellish the smooth ballad Call On Me (that first single's 'b' side), featuring Lawrence Payton on lead this time. The song is also vaguely reminiscent of Sam Cooke's You Send Me (again1) in places. Shorty Long recorded the song as the 'b' side to his 1966 single Function At The Junction. 

So, there we go - at just over twenty-five minutes, it is a very short album, but that was the way it was then.