Stubbs and the other Tops remained a team until Lawrence Payton died in 1997, at which point Theo Peoples took his place. The most popular of their hits (all of which featured Stubbs on lead vocals) include "Ask the Lonely", "Baby I Need Your Loving", "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)", "It's the Same Old Song", "I'll Turn to Stone", "Reach Out I'll Be There", "Standing in the Shadows of Love", "Bernadette", "Still Water (Love)", "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)", as well as the late hit "Loco In Acapulco".Īlthough Stubbs was a natural baritone, most Four Tops' hits were written in a tenor range to give the lead vocals a sense of urgency.ĭespite being the most prominent member of the group, Stubbs refused to have separate billing (in contrast to other Motown acts such as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and Diana Ross and the Supremes), and he also turned down several offers for a solo career, out of loyalty to his bandmates. By the end of the decade, they had over a dozen hits.
The Four Tops began as a supper-club act before signing to Motown Records in 1963. The name change was meant to avoid confusion with the then-popular Ames Brothers. Two years later, after signing with Chess Records, the group changed their name to the Four Tops. His last performance was at the Four Tops' "50th Anniversary Concert" on July 28, 2004, at the Detroit Opera House. He had five children with his wife Clineice Stubbs, to whom he was married for almost 50 years. Stubbs was born and spent much of his life in Detroit, Michigan. Stubbs was admired by his peers for his impressive vocal range, and influenced many later pop and soul artists, such as Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates.
Levi voice actor singing series#
Stubbs was also a voice artist in film and television, and provided the voice of "Audrey II", the alien plant in the 1986 musical horror comedy film Little Shop of Horrors (an adaption of the stage musical of the same name), as well as Mother Brain in the 1989 TV series Captain N: The Game Master. In 1990, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Four Tops.
He has been noted for his powerful, emotional, dramatic style of singing. Levi Stubbs (born Levi Stubbles, J– October 17, 2008) was an American baritone singer, best known as the lead vocalist of the R&B group the Four Tops, who released a variety of Motown hit records during the 1960s and 1970s.
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