The Four Tops - 50th Anniversary The Singles Collection 1964-1972 (3 Cd's 2013) @320

 

Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir, last surviving member of Four Tops, dies aged 88

Abdul Kareem "Duke" Fakir (December 26, 1935 – July 22, 2024) was an American singer.

He was a founding member of Motown quartet the Four Tops from 1953 until shortly before his death in 2024. 

Biography

Fakir was born on December 26, 1935, in Detroit, Michigan. His father was a factory worker who came from what is now Bangladesh. His mother was African American. Fakir attended Detroit's Pershing High School, where he played basketball and football, and ran track. He first met fellow band member Levi Stubbs through neighborhood football games; at that time he was not aware Stubbs was a singer. Later, attending a variety show featuring the Lucky Millinder band, the band announced a talented young singer whom Fakir recognized as the boy he played football with. They became closer friends and Stubbs even traveled with Fakir to his sporting events, where they enjoyed singing and engaging teammates in sing-alongs. 

With their shared love of singing, they tried working with a few other singers, then decided to ask Lawrence Payton and Renaldo "Obie" Benson. They invited Payton and Benson to join them at a party hosted by the Shahrazads, a local "it girl" club. When invited by the girls to sing, they decided Stubbs would take the lead and they would back him up. The group and party-goers enjoyed their sound so much, that they decided to begin rehearsing together. They originally gave themselves the name "The Four Aims", to describe their goals of achieving something great. But at their first recording session with Chess Records in Chicago, they were reminded that the Ames Brothers was a very popular singing quartet, and it was suggested that they change their own name to avoid confusion. After some discussion, their musical director Maurice King suggested the name the Four Tops, to go along with their original goal of shooting for the stars and reaching the top. 

They became a popular local performing group, but recording success eluded them until they signed with the newly established Motown Records in 1963. They soon became one of the biggest recording groups of the 1960s, with 14 charted hits through the early 1980s. They are listed at number 77 in Billboard magazine "Top 100 Artists Of All Time". Fakir was a guest on the "Not My Job" segment of the NPR radio show Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me broadcast on January 21, 2012. In 2022, Fakir was featured in an Associated Press Q&A article and video in which he discusses his memoir called I'll Be There: My Life With The Four Tops, and musical based on his life and the story of The Four Tops. 

By 2008, the other three Tops had died; Fakir controlled the Four Tops intellectual properties and was responsible for assembling the touring version of the band that would carry on the group's legacy. He had stated an intention never to retire and indeed continued to tour with the group until less than a month before his death. Shortly before his death, he named Michael Brock as his successor. 

Personal life

Fakir lived in the Palmer Park section of Detroit with his second wife. As of 2024, he had seven children (one of these having preceding him in death), thirteen grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. 

Fakir attributed his upbringing in Detroit as a strong influence in his choice to pursue his music career. Detroit is "full of churches. It's one of those cities in which gospel music has always been prevalent, jazz music had always been prevalent. Back in the day this was a jazz town... And when I was born we went to church, just like a couple of the other guys, so we sang all our lives pretty much... my mother worked at church and my cousins and I, we all went to choir, we grew up there." Both Reinaldo Benson and Fakir received scholarships to attend the same college and were preparing to enter. However, the group received their first professional singing engagement during the summer of 1954 in Flint, Michigan, took a gamble, and decided to pursue their music career instead. 

Fakir was close friends with fellow Motown artist Mary Wilson of the Supremes until her death in 2021. The two were romantically linked and briefly engaged in 1964; however, their music careers were still developing and they decided it would be best to call it off. They appeared on Chicago's You and Me This Morning in 2013 to promote the Mary Wilson Holiday Spectacular With Special Guests The Four Tops. At the show they performed "Baby, It's Cold Outside" together. In January 2023, it was reported that the U.S. Treasury Department is seeking $500,000 in unpaid taxes from Fakir. 

Fakir died of heart failure at his Detroit home, on July 22, 2024, at the age of 88.

Tracks;

Cd.1

01 - Four Tops - Baby I Need Your Loving (Single Version Mono).mp3

02 - Four Tops - Call On Me (Single Version Mono).mp3

03 - Four Tops - Without The One You Love (Life's Not Worthwhile) (Single Version Mono).mp3

04 - Four Tops - Love Has Gone (Single Version Mono).mp3

05 - Four Tops - Ask The Lonely (Extended Single Version Mono).mp3

06 - Four Tops - Where Did You Go (Single Version Mono).mp3

07 - Four Tops - I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie_ Honey Bunch) (Single Version Mono).mp3

08 - Four Tops - Sad Souvenirs (Single Version _ Mono).mp3

09 - Four Tops - I Can't Help Myself (Second Version Mono).mp3

10 - Four Tops - It's The Same Old Song (Single Version _ Mono).mp3

11 - Four Tops - Your Love Is Amazing (Single Version Mono).mp3

12 - Four Tops - It's The Same Old Song (Second Version Mono).mp3

13 - Four Tops - Something About You.mp3

14 - Four Tops - Darling_ I Hum Our Song (Single Version Mono).mp3

15 - Four Tops - Shake Me_ Wake Me (When It's Over).mp3

16 - Four Tops - Just As Long As You Need Me (Single Version Mono).mp3

17 - Four Tops - Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever (Single Version Mono).mp3

18 - Four Tops - I Like Everything About You (Single Version Mono).mp3

19 - Four Tops - Reach Out_ I'll Be There.mp3

20 - Four Tops - Until You Love Someone (Single Version Mono).mp3

21 - Four Tops - Standing In The Shadows Of Love (Single Version Mono).mp3

22 - Four Tops - Since You've Been Gone (Single Version Mono).mp3

23 - Four Tops - Bernadette.mp3

24 - Four Tops - I Got A Feeling.mp3

25 - Four Tops - 7-Rooms Of Gloom (Single Version Mono).mp3

26 - Four Tops - I'll Turn To Stone (Single Version Mono).mp3

27 - Four Tops - You Keep Running Away (Single Version Mono).mp3

28 - Four Tops - If You Don't Want My Love (Single Version Mono).mp3

Cd.2

29 - Four Tops - Walk Away Renee (Single Version Mono).mp3

30 - Four Tops - Your Love Is Wonderful (Single Version Mono).mp3

31 - Four Tops - If I Were A Carpenter (Single Version Mono).mp3

32 - Four Tops - Wonderful Baby (Single Version Mono).mp3

33 - Four Tops - Yesterday's Dreams.mp3

34 - Four Tops - For Once In My Life (Single Version Mono).mp3

35 - Four Tops - I'm In A Different World (Extended Single Version Mono).mp3

36 - Four Tops - Remember When (Single Version Mono).mp3

37 - Four Tops - What Is A Man (Single Version Mono).mp3

38 - Four Tops - Don't Bring Back Memories (Single Version Mono).mp3

39 - Four Tops - Don't Let Him Take Your Love From Me (Single Version Mono).mp3

40 - Four Tops - The Key (Single Version Mono).mp3

41 - Four Tops - It's All In The Game (Single Version Mono).mp3

42 - Four Tops - Love (Is The Answer) (Single Version Mono).mp3

43 - Four Tops - Still Water (Love) (Single Version Mono).mp3

44 - Four Tops - Still Water (Peace) (Single Version Mono).mp3

45 - Four Tops - River Deep_ Mountain High (Single Version Mono).mp3

46 - The Supremes - Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music (Single Version _ Mono).mp3

47 - Four Tops - Just Seven Numbers (Can Straighten Out My Life) (Single Version Mono).mp3

48 - Four Tops - I Wish I Were Your Mirror (Single Version Mono).mp3

49 - The Supremes - You Gotta Have Love In Your Heart (Single Version Mono).mp3

50 - The Supremes - I'm Glad About It.mp3

51 - The Supremes - You Gotta Have Love In Your Heart (Stereo Promo Version).mp3

52 - Four Tops - In These Changing Times (Single Version Mono).mp3

53 - Four Tops - Right Before My Eyes (Single Version Mono).mp3

54 - Four Tops - Macarthur Park (Part 2 Mono).mp3

55 - Four Tops - MacArthur Park (Part 1 Mono).mp3

Cd.3

56 - Four Tops - A Simple Game (Single Version Mono).mp3

57 - Four Tops - L.A. (My Town) (Single Version Mono).mp3

58 - Four Tops - I Can't Quit Your Love (Single Version Mono).mp3

59 - Four Tops - Happy (Is A Bumpy Raod) (Single Version _ Stereo).mp3

60 - Four Tops - (It's The Way) Nature Planned It (Single Version).mp3

61 - Four Tops - I'll Never Change (Single Version).mp3

62 - Four Tops - Mame.mp3

63 - Four Tops - Do What You Gotta Do.mp3

64 - Four Tops - Can't Seem To Get You Out Of My Mind (Single Version).mp3

65 - Four Tops - Simple Game (UK Single Mix).mp3

66 - Four Tops - You Stole My Love (Single Version Mono).mp3

67 - The Supremes - It's Got To Be A Miracle (This Thing Called Love) (Single Version Mono).mp3

68 - The Supremes - Without The One You Love.mp3

69 - The Supremes - Let's Make Love Now.mp3

70 - Four Tops - Walk With Me_ Talk With Me Darling.mp3

71 - Four Tops - Love Feels Like Fire (Single Version Mono).mp3

72 - The Supremes - Reach Out And Touch (Somebody's Hand).mp3

73 - The Supremes - Where Would I Be Without You_ Baby.mp3

74 - Four Tops - So Deep Within You.mp3

75 - Four Tops - I Am Your Man (Single Version).mp3

76 - Four Tops - Piangono Gli Uomini (I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie_ Honey Bunch)) (Italian Version).mp3

77 - Four Tops - Gira_ Gira (Reach Out I'll Be There) (Italian Version).mp3

78 - Four Tops - L'Arcobaleno (Walk Away Renee) (Italian Version).mp3

With covers.

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