Four Tops Looking For a Summer of Soul Reboot With Deluxe Edition of ‘Four Tops Live!’ Album and Possible Doc, Stage Musical
Categoria: Musica
The classic Motown vocal group also has some dates in Europe, the U.K. and U.S. planned for this summer.
Por Billboard | 27/05/2026
The Four Tops will be giving fans plenty of new projects — and possibly even new music — to reach out for in the near future. The venerable troupe was formed during 1953 in Detroit and, starting 10 years later, became one of Motown’s most prolific hitmakers, with hits such as “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “It’s the Same Old Song,” “Bernadette” and more. It’s been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. The last of its original members, Abdul “Duke” Fakir, passed away during July of 2024, and since then the Four Tops front has been quiet save for continuing live performances by the current incarnation of the quartet — which includes founder’s son Lawrence Roquel Payton Jr. and longtime frontman Theo Peoples, a former Temptation. That starts changing this summer, however. A deluxe July 27 reissue of the 1966 concert album Four Tops Live! will begin an extensive campaign that will see more releases from the vault, a documentary, a stage musical and other endeavors tied to the group’s enormous heritage. “It’s really exciting,” Keith Hagan of Skylark Artist Management, who’s now working with the group, tells Billboard . “It was Duke’s wish for the Tops to continue; it was the wish of ALL of the original four for this to continue. There’s been some new organization, new restructuring as far as how do we honor the legacy of the original Tops but carry forward to what the current group is doing. “We’re at the precipice of starting to do things. The live record is like the opening gun for us. You’re going to be hearing a lot more about the legacy and the future of the Four Tops. We’re looking at this as the first of many actionable items we’re hoping to take.” Payton Jr. adds that, “I feel like we’re on the verge of taking the legacy to a whole other level. I really do. There’s a sense of renewal. We’ll always work in the spirit of what the Four Tops were, but we have talented people in the group — everybody writes, sings, plays a little bit. So what can we do to take this legacy into the future?” Not The Same Old Song Four Tops Live! , which was recorded during three 1966 performances on the Upper Deck of Detroit’s legendary Roostertail, hit No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B chart and No. 17 on the Billboard 200. The reissue was instigated by a discussion between Hagen and Universal Music Group, which owns the Motown catalog. The group was planning a special summer date (July 27) back at the venue — which hosted Motown Mondays performances back in the day — and thought it would be an appropriate time to revisit the album, which turns 60 in November. “We discovered that Motown had recorded two and a ha