The Ultimate Collection

Introducing a collection of George MacDonald's religious writings, fellow Christian intellectual/author CS Lewis described MacDonald's "Christlike union of tenderness and severity. Nowhere else outside the New Testament have I found terror and comfort so intertwined."

Lewis died a continent away from Detroit's "Hitsville USA" studio, less than six months before the Four Tops recorded their first hit songs joining devotional love's strength and soul with the terror and fear of losing it.

Levi Stubbs, who passed away today, led these soul classics. His powerful voice, atop Motown's legendary Funk Brothers and Holland-Dozier-Holland's songs, created some of the most emotionally wrenching, thrilling music of any area. The songs on this brief collection for many still template Motown's "Sound of Young America."

Motown founder Berry Gordy ordered his songwriters to write in the present tense of a relationship. You wonder if he imagined the frantic energy he got dropping Stubbs and the Tops into that maelstrom. With the other sympathizing backup (only one, "Duke" Fakir, now survives). Stubbs soul shouts his assurance and helplessness ("You know that I love you/I can't help myself") with authority making you believe he was bragging on his weakness all along. Stubbs' voice darts around the tight, roling melody of "It's The Same Old Song." outsinging and outrocking the more famous "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch."

The Tops' 1966-67 series of hits ("Reach Out I'll Be There," "Standing In The Shadows of Love," "Seven Rooms of Gloom" the magisterial "Berndadette") stand outside time. Each frightens and reassures, Stubbs vocally describing a desolate life before shouting, "Just look over your shoulder!" then joining his mates in "I'll be there/to cherish and care for you." Another hit describes his shock in seeing his loyalty wasn't enough ("Didn't I treat you right now baby, didn't I? When you needed me I was always there now wasn't I?") Stubbs voice was commanding, immediate; you felt you were overhearing one side of a telephone argument (with Motown's symphonic soul behind).

"Bernadette"'s climax finds Stubbs pleading the title character to stay with "the peace of mind the world is searching for," then shouting her name over what sounds like an angelic choir and soul orchestra. Soul/pop music rarely came closer not only to opera's grand drama, but Bernard Herrmann's suspenseful mini-symphonies for Alfred Hitchcock.

The Tops never equalled those songs, nor had to. They hit with ornate but classy pop-folk covers ("If I Were a Carpenter," "Walk Away Renee") then slid into several 70s psychedelic, disco, and blaxploitation styles before joining burnished "Big Chill" oldies reviews (with Stubbs' comical role in "Little Shop of Horrors"). A group of Tops performs to this day, occasionally with fellow Motown legends the Temptations.

In Billy Bragg's heartfelt tribute, "Levi Stubbs' Tears," he sings, "When the world falls apart some things stay in place/She takes off the Four Tops tape and puts it back in its case." Many did when seeking the suspense, comfort, and above all, command the Four Tops and Levi Stubbs brought popular music. Stubbs will be missed; his music means too much to too many to have the chance. These songs, whatever form you get them, are as essential as 20th century music gets.

I love the Four Tops, and while this CD has the hits, I felt I had to pay for a lot of stuff I really didn't want. But, I loaded it onto my MP3 and deleted about a third of the songs.

Love this cd! Great songs of the 60s; alot of my favorites. I listen to this cd while on my treadmill each morning. Can't beat the 60s music. This cd is well worth the money and would recommend it highly.

I love great hits LPs. Save you the time looking for all the group great songs. Tis how you buy it. The Tops were one of the top three performamce on Motown.

A search in Music under the heading Ultimate Collection will garner you thousands of hits, and even searching in Album Title will result in quite a few, ranging from Benny Hill and George Formby to 10cc and The Who, and just about everyone in between. Even Motown uses Ultimate Collection on a number of their CDs, but the best of the lot where they are concerned is this series, each with 25 tracks and similar cover art by David Irvin, and involving Diana Ross & The Supremes, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Marvelettes, Martha (Reeves) & The Vandellas, Jr. Walker & The All Stars, Gladys Knight & The Pips, and Mary Wells.

From 1964 to 1988 The Four Tops put 52 selections onto the Billboard R&B charts, had 29 cross over to the Billboard Pop Hot 100, and another seven register on the Adult Contemporary charts. In this collection you get 22 of those hits plus the B-sides Sad Souvenirs [b/o I Can't Help Myself], I Got A Feeling [b/o Bernadette], and If You Don't Want My Love [b/o You Keep Running Away].

Unless there's to be a volume 2, like another reviewer I too would have preferred to see the inclusion of If I Were A Carpenter [# 17 R&B/# 20 Hot 100 in 1968], Don't Let Him Take Your Love From Me [# 25 R&B/# 45 Hot 100 in 1969], and Just Seven Numbers (Can Straighten Out My Life], which hit # 9 R&B/# 40 Hot 100 in early 1971, as opposed to those B-sides.

If there is to be a volume 2 hopefully they will include those along with the following: River Deep-Mountain High [# 7 R&B/# 14 Hot 100 in 1970 with The Supremes]; You Gotta Have Love In Your Heart [# 41 R&B/# 55 Hot 100 in 1971, again with The Supremes]; In These Changing Times [# 28 R&B/# 70 Hot 100 in 1971]; MacArthur Park (Part II) [# 27 R&B/# 38 Hot 100 in 1971]; and from 1983 when they returned to Motown [after recording for Dunhill/ABC, ABC, Casablanca, and RSO], I Just Can't Walk Away which made it to # 18 AC/# 36 R&B/# 71 Hot 100 that November.

Two other singles they might wish to include [assuming they can get permission] are Ain't That Love and Indestructible. The former had been recorded originally for Columbia way back in 1960 without success, but re-released by that label in 1965 to take advantage of their rising Motown popularity. It could only manage a # 93 Hot 100 around the same time as It's The Same Old Song was climbing to # 2 R&B/# 5 Hot 100 for Motown. Indestructible was released on Arista in 1988 and reached # 20 Adult Contemporary/# 35 Hot 100, and # 57 R&B, and was used by NBC-TV for the 1988 Summer Olympics.

In the meantime, this is as good as any Four Tops compilations you are ever going to find, including five pages of comprehensive liner notes by Stu Hackel, a NYC-based writer for The Village Voice, New York Times, and Sports Illustrated. There is also a complete discography of the contents and some nice photographs of the group