Legendary Motown group, The Four Tops, will perform live at Hoosier Park Saturday, February 16, 2013. These four historic voices, with their distinctive harmonies, performed together for more than 40 years, topping the charts again and again with hits like “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)”, “Baby I Need Your Loving”, “Without the One You Love (Life’s Not Worth While)”, and “It’s the Same Old Song”.
What started as a friendship among four teenagers, Levi Stubbs, Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Lawrence Payton, blossomed into a wildly successful music career that lasted from 1953 until 1997 without a single change in personnel.
It all started one night at a high school party in Detroit, Michigan in 1954, when guests talked Stubbs, Fakir, Benson and Payton into an impromptu performance. It was obvious they had something special. They formed a band called the The Four Aims and began to perform at small clubs in Detroit, singing covers of old jazz standards. To avoid being confused with the Ames Brothers, they changed their name to the Four Tops and proceeded to record their first single, “Kiss Me Baby,” with Chess Records in 1956.
A series of unfortunate events forced a change of line-up, starting with the death of Lawrence Payton on June 20, 1997. The group continued as a three-piece under the name, The Tops, before finally recruiting Theo Peoples, formerly of The Temptations, as the new fourth member. When Levi Stubbs suffered a stroke in 2000 Peoples assumed his role as lead singer, and Ronnie McNeir took over the role that Payton originally held. When Renaldo Benson died of lung cancer on July 1, 2005 and Lawrence Payton’s son, Roquel Payton, replaced him. Harold “Spike” Bonhart replaced Peoples in 2011. Abdul “Duke” Fakir is now the only surviving member of the original band.
Event Info:
- The Four Tops in Concert at Hoosier Park.
- Location: Hoosier Park, 4500 Dan Patch Circle, Anderson, Madison County.
- Saturday, February 16, 2013, 7:30 PM.
- Two shows at 7:30 and 10 PM.
- Tel. 800-526-7223
- Website
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