Abdul “Duke” Fakir, who has died aged 88 of heart failure, was the last surviving original member of the Four Tops. The hugely successful American vocal quartet helped popularise soul music in the 1960s with such classic hits as I Can’t Help Myself, Walk Away Renee and above all Reach Out I’ll Be There.
The group was founded in Detroit, Michigan, in 1953 by Fakir and his friend Levi Stubbs. Initially singing at sports events and parties, the duo soon developed into a quartet, with Lawrence Payton and Renaldo “Obie” Benson.
By 1963, Berry Gordy Jr was doing remarkably well in both the R&B and pop charts with Motown, his Detroit record label. The Four Tops signed up, having rejected an initial offer in 1959. Gordy planned to keep them singing standards and providing backing vocals, but the Motown songwriting/production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland – Lamont Dozier and the brothers Eddie and Brian Holland – insisted they sing uptempo numbers that highlighted Stubbs’s gravelly tenor.
With Baby I Need Your Loving (a No 11 in the US pop chart in 1964) the Tops began a run of hits. Without the One You Love (also 1964) and Ask the Lonely (1965) did not quite match this success, but I Can’t Help Myself (also 1965) topped the R&B charts for nine weeks and the pop charts for two. In the UK it reached No 23, an inauspicious start for what would soon be a large and loyal audience. Reach Out I’ll Be There (1966) again topped the US pop and R&B charts and, this time, the UK charts.
That year Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles, brought the Tops to the UK, initially presenting them at the Saville theatre, London.
Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown acrimoniously in 1967 and that had the effect of stifling the Tops’ initial run of hits. They scored a Top 10 US and UK hit in 1970 with Still Water (Peace) and recorded two albums with the Supremes (after Diana Ross’s departure).
In 1972 the Tops left Motown, signing to ABC-Dunhill, and with their sound updated, scored their first big US hits in six years, including the million-selling Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got). By 1983 they were back on Motown, releasing two albums while teaming up with the Temptations for regular US and international tours. In 1985 the Tops performed at Live Aid’s US concert. Their last major hit came with Loco in Acapulco, produced and co-written by Phil Collins, reaching No 7 in the UK charts in December 1988. That was their last Top 40 single in the UK; they had 31 in all.
The quartet never stopped working, continuing to tour internationally with Fakir finding replacements for each of his fellow Tops as they became ill. Payton died in 1997, Benson in 2005 and Stubbs in 2008, leaving Fakir, who alongside singing tenor harmonies had always looked after the group’s affairs, as the last surviving member.
He continued leading the Tops until late 2022 when, after publishing his autobiography I’ll Be There and undertaking UK arena dates, he announced an intention to retire; he stopped touring late last year.
Born in Detroit, where he lived all his life, Abdul Kareem Fakir was the son of Nazim Ali Fakir, a factory worker who had left what is now Bangladesh for Britain, then worked his passage to Canada before entering the US without a visa, and his wife, Rubyleon (nee Wren), a maid. Fakir was the fourth of six children with his mother bestowing upon him the nickname of “Dukie”, soon shortened to “Duke”.
Nazim and Rubyleon separated due to religious differences. She raised her children in the Baptist church and it was there that Duke joined the gospel choir. At Pershing high school Fakir’s prowess at basketball led him to apply for a college scholarship. By then he had joined a local gang and experienced street violence, something he wanted to escape.
It was singing that gave Fakir a route out: he and Stubbs started picking up work as backing vocalists and, invited to appear at a party, recruited Payton and Benson. The response from partygoers was so strong the quartet named themselves the Four Aims and began working in black clubs, diners, juke joints and theatres across the Midwest, singing hits and standards.
When the Four Aims signed to Chess Records in Chicago – then a powerhouse for blues and R&B – in 1956 their producer suggested they change the group’s name owing to its similarity to another outfit. Thus they became the Four Tops. A series of singles did little business so they concentrated on working in clubs and cabarets.
“We were friends who worked things out democratically,” Fakir told the Guardian in 2022 of the Tops’ unity. “Each of us had his role in the group and we all worked together. We’re only human so we did have disagreements but we were a loving unit.”
Fakir’s first marriage ended in divorce in 1959. In 1974 he married Piper Gibson, and she survives him, along with five sons, a daughter and his sister Elena. Another daughter predeceased him.
• Duke (Abdul Kareem) Fakir, singer, born 26 December 1935; died 22 July 2024
