Abdul “Duke” Fakir, the last surviving original member of Motown legends the Four Tops, died on Monday at his home in Detroit, his family confirmed to the New York Times. The cause was heart failure; he was 88.
The group’s tough, soulful voices were one of the defining sounds not just of Motown’s golden era, but the 1960s in general. Unlike most other Motown acts — even the big-voiced Temptations — the Four Tops’ sound had a sense of urgency and even danger, rather than the sweeter-voiced Smokey Robinson or Supremes. “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” “Reach Out, I’ll Be There” (both of which reached No. 1), along with other hits like “It’s The Same Old Song,” “Standing in the Shadows of Love,” “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever” and “Bernadette” are just a few of their hits, many of which were penned by the legendary songwriting team of Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier.
After leaving Motown in 1972 — remaining in their hometown of Detroit even though the label and many of its artists moved to Los Angeles — the hits continued with songs lke “Keeper of the Castle” and “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I Got”).
The group — whose original members also included Levi Stubbs, whose deep voice powered many of their songs, Obie Benson and Lawrence Payton — was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
While all of those members remained the the group until the end of their lives, three of them died of cancert btween 1997 and 2005. Fakir kept the group going with new singers until his retirement earlier this year.
Abdul Kareem Fakir was born in 1935 to Nazim Ali Fakir, a Bangladeshi factory worker and Rubyleon Wren, a minister’s daughter from Georgia. He played sports in high school and met Stubbs at a neighborhood football game; before long they had formed a group with Benson and Payton called the Four Aims and signed with the legendary blues/R&B label Chess Records in 1956, changing their name to the Four Tops shortly afterward. However, success eluded the group, even as it released singles through three other labels, until they signed with Motown in 1962.
Two years later, “Baby I Need Your Loving” became the group’s first hit, and from there they fired off a string of smash singles throughout the middle of the decade. While their hits began to slow after Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown, they continued to score into the 1970s and even the ‘80s: The group had a No. 1 R&B hit with “When She Was My Girl” in 1981 and hit the charts with a new song for the last time with “Indestructible” in 1988. They also enjoyed a brief return to Motown that saw them performing on the classic “Motown 25” TV special in 1984 (where Michael Jackson unveiled his version of the “Moonwalk”).
Fakir continued performing with the group and various singers until earlier this year. In 2009, he received a Grammy lifetime achievement award, and published a memoir, “I’ll Be There — My Life With the Four Tops,” in 2022.
