Reach Out (But I Won’t Be There)

Or

The Four Topsoil

(Props to Don, better at headlines than predictions)

Obie Benson, the baritone anchor of The Four Tops, has died of lung cancer at the age of 69. One of the longest-runnning acts in music history, the Tops celebrated their 50th anniversary last year. After singing a jazz arrangement of In the Still of the Night on the Tonight Show, the group signed with Motown Records in 1963 and became one of the label’s best commodities. The Tops recorded 24 Top 40 hits, including Baby, I Need Your Lovin’, Standing in the Shadows of Love, Bernadette, Can’t Help Myself, most with Benson’s baritone as the foundation of the group’s harmony. Benson also collaborated on Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going on,” a song intended to capture the aura of the turbulent late 1960s and early 1970s.