Bringing The World Home To You

© 2024 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount 91.1 Welcome 91.9 Fayetteville 90.5 Buxton 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines 89.9 Chadbourn
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Motown Comes Through Durham With The Four Tops

The Four Tops are one of the many successful Motown bands. Duke Fakir is the second from the right.
Nationaal Archief
/
Wikimedia Commons
The Four Tops are one of the many successful Motown bands. Duke Fakir is the second from the right.

The Four Tops is one of Motown's legendary doo-wop groups. The quartet's hits include "I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" and "Reach Out (I'll Be There).” But those hits are only a sample of the Four Tops’ successful career. Between 1964 and 1988, the Four Tops made Billboard's Hot 100 chart 45 times and its R&B chart 52 times.

In 1990, the group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. For more than 40 years, the group performed with all of its original members. Now, only Abdul "Duke" Fakir remains, but at almost 80 years old, Fakir is still touring with a new lineup under the same name.

Host Frank Stasio talks with Fakir about the Four Tops' success and the legacy of Motown.

The Four Tops will be performing with The Temptations at the Durham Performing Arts Center thisSaturday, August 29 at 8 p.m

Below are songs featured in the conversation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z59EVHU8MjI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnDm3qr1Knk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhpqA28lxKc

Stay Connected
Charlie Shelton-Ormond is a podcast producer for WUNC.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
Related Content