Abdul “Duke” Fakir of The Four Tops dies at the age of 88

Abdul “Duke” Fakir, the last surviving original member of the Four Tops, who sang many of the group’s timeless hits from the Motown era, including “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Standing in the Shadows of Love” and “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” died of heart failure on Monday. He was 88 years old. A family spokesman confirmed the singer’s death to The Associated Pressand stated that the cause was heart failure.

Fakir, along with friends Levi Stubbs, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Lawrence Payton, formed the quartet that became the Four Tops while attending Pershing High School in Detroit in 1953. The original lineup of the Four Tops continued until 1997, when Peyton died of liver cancer. After the deaths of Benson in 2005 and Stubbs in 2008, the responsibility of keeping the Four Tops name alive fell to Fakir and a new group of singers he recruited.

Fakir continued to tour with the group until health problems sidelined him late last year. “I’ll never retire,” Fakir wrote in his 2022 memoir. I’ll be there: My life with the Four Tops. “The Lord may retire me, but I will not go quietly into the dark night. I know I’m no longer in the fourth quarter. I’m in overtime.”

Stubbs did most of the Four Tops’ lead vocals, but Fakir’s voice played a crucial role in creating their harmonies. He also helped keep the peace in the band when relationships fell apart. “We were four completely different guys,” he wrote in his memoir. “But we loved the same thing, and that’s basically the whole story. Four guys from Detroit who came together because we loved music, loved to entertain, and loved each other.”

They reached the height of their success in the mid-1960s, when songs like “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “It’s the Same Old Song,” and “Bernadette” were blaring from radios across America. But they continued to record albums throughout the 1970s, scoring occasional hits like “MacArthur Park (Part II),” “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got),” and “Keeper of the Castle.” In the years that followed, they focused most of their energy on touring on the lucrative oldies tour.

“People ask me if I ever get tired of singing our hits,” Fakir wrote in his book. “I say, ‘Hell no.’ Every night it’s a different crowd, every night a different love, a different respect. I look people in the eye and as long as I see that respect, that thank you, I’ll sing that shit until the day I die.”

This story develops