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http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw1 ... 050701.htm - Obie Benson, member of Motown greats the Four Tops, dies at 69'

July 1, 2005, 8:18 PM


DETROIT (AP) -- Renaldo "Obie" Benson, a member of the legendary Motown singing group the Four Tops, has died, the group's road manager said Friday. He was 69.

Benson died at 10 a.m. at Harper Hospital in Detroit, Fred L. Bridges said. Benson's death also was confirmed by Craig Hankenson, president of Producers Inc., one of the agencies that books dates for the Four Tops.

"It was not unexpected. He has been ill," Hankenson said.

Benson's death leaves two surviving members of the original group: Levi Stubbs and Abdul "Duke" Fakir. The fourth original Top, Lawrence Payton, died of liver cancer in 1997.

The Four Tops sold more than 50 million records and recorded hit songs such as "Baby I Need Your Loving," "Reach Out (I'll be There)," "I Can't Help Myself" and "Standing in the Shadows of Love."

The Four Tops began singing together in the 1950s under the group name the Four Aims and signed a deal with Chess Records. They later changed their names to the Four Tops.

They signed with Motown Records in 1963 and produced a string of hits over the next decade, making music history with the other acts in Berry Gordy's Motown stable.

The Four Tops are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and were honored last year on the floor of the Michigan Senate with a resolution marking the group's 50th anniversary.

JTF,
A sad day for soul music.......

JTF,
I remember listening to the song..Don't Walk Away, Renee.......I always liked the forlorn sound of that song...I always liked funky ole soul or some ole time rock n roll......when a man was a man......and a woman was a woman.....hell you can't even tell by pictures today....you can give it the ole test that Crocodile Dundee did....but now you better find some old pics of them when they were young....an just hope she want a boy then....

astonamous,

BRIAN McCOLLUM
FREE PRESS POP MUSIC WRITER


Obie Benson had a personality as big and distinctive as his voice.

Life in a music group, any veteran player will tell you, can be an exercise in long frustration and quick tempers. The outfits that survive are the ones with a handy way to deflate tensions. For the Four Tops, that role belonged to Mr. Benson, a natural cut-up with a comic touch.

Clearly, he excelled at the task: Last year, the Detroit group celebrated its 50th anniversary, heralded as one of the longest-running acts in the history of popular music.

With Mr. Benson's death Friday morning, Detroit lost more than a Motown vocalist. Succumbing at Harper Hospital to what had been an abrupt and overwhelming series of medical problems, Mr. Benson left behind not just a venerable body of songs, but a reputation as one of the most affable folks to pass through Hitsville's halls.

Mr. Benson was in the hospital when he turned 69 last month. He'd been admitted to address a circulation problem in his leg, but all went shockingly bad from there: The leg was amputated, Mr. Benson suffered a heart attack, and within days he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Last week he began intense, stage-four chemotherapy.

His family was nearby -- ex-wife Valaida Benson and adult daughters Eboni and Tobi Benson. His other family was there, too. At his side this past month was Four Tops mate Abdul (Duke) Fakir. Lead singer Levi Stubbs, his mobility severely limited because of a 2002 stroke, insisted that he be on hand.

Fakir was too shaken Friday to speak publicly, relaying through a spokesman: "He enjoyed every moment of his life, and put a smile on everyone's face, including my own."

Fakir and Stubbs are now the sole surviving Tops, the only original members of a quartet that was launched in 1954 when all were high schoolers on Detroit's northeast side. Mr. Benson's boyhood best friend, singer Lawrence Payton, died in 1997.

After signing with Motown Records in 1963, when the group of twentysomethings became instant elder statesmen at Detroit's biggest label, the hits poured out, two dozen of them making it to pop's top 40. While history suggests that the Tops cut just one song with Mr. Benson on lead -- an obscure '64 track called "What You Gonna Do With Me Baby" -- he was no mere backup singer, his rich baritone the foundation of the group's harmonies.

Mr. Benson's light spirit didn't overshadow his serious side. In 1970, he labored with writer Al Cleveland on a song to capture the aura of the turbulent times. The result was "What's Going On," recorded later that year by Marvin Gaye to become one of the most venerated works in American popular music -- and a lasting statement from the versatile Four Tops vocalist who knew better than most how to absorb, and to celebrate, life.

Funeral arrangements are expected to be announced Tuesday.

Copyright © 2005 Detroit Free Press Inc.

JTF,
wow "What's Going On?".......