Songoftheday 4/7/16 - We are friends we are brothers always there looking out for each other, in a world where so many dreams are broken apart...

"Indestructible" - Four Tops
from the albums Indestructible and 1988 Summer Olympic Album: One Moment In Time (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #35 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 2

Today's song of the day comes from the Motown vocal group the Four Tops, who started out as schoolkids as The Four Aims in the mid-1950's before renaming themselves the Four Tops. After bouncing from label to label without much success (on Columbia, their doo-wop single "Ain't That Love" slipped into the pop chart at #93 in 1965 after their Motown breakthrough), the quartet, led by powerhouse singer Levi Stubbs, landed on Berry Gordy's label in the beginning of the 60s.

The Tops released their first Motown single "Baby, I Need Your Loving", which just missed the pop top 10 at #11, in 1964 (at that time there was no "R&B chart" in Billboard magazine). The third single from the record, "Ask The Lonely", did reach the top ten on the re-emerged R&B chart, and was one of the best soul records of the entire decade. With Levi straining every drop of emotion from this tale of heartbreak, it set the stage for the group to position themselves as the label act that would be counted on to empathize with a broken heart. It also set them up for their first chart-topping success, as their appropriately-titled Second Album sent the ebullient first single "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" as an emotional pallette cleanser to the #1 spot on both the pop and R&B chart in America in 1965, as well as their first British success at #23. The following year, they did it again with the Spector-esque epic "Reach Out (I'll Be There)", which also climbed to #1 in Britain. With the call and response with backup singer Duke Fakir, Obie Benson, and Lawrence Payton, the song is by some considered Motown's brightest moment (though my heart swings more towards "Bernadette", the third song in a trilogy of singles with "Reach Out" and "Standing In The Shadows Of Love"). They continued their success with the label through the decade, with a smooth doo-wop reading of the easy-listening classic "It's All In The Game" slipping into the adult contemporary radio chart in 1970 at #39. Meanwhile, Benson co-wrote "What's Goin On" with Marvin Gaye for his landmark album.

However, as the label evolved away from the "Detroit Sound" for sunnier California shores, the Four Tops stayed true to their roots and left to stay in the Motor City, signing with ABC/Dunhill for the big chunk of the 70s. Their first single on the imprint, "Keeper Of The Castle", climbed into the pop and R&B top ten in 1972, followed the next year by "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)". But while "black radio" remained faithful to the Tops, rewarding them with seven top ten hits on ABC, mainstream pop stations had eschewed vocal funk music with disco, giving them diminishing returns as the decade progressed. Ironically, just as disco went bust at the start of the 80s, the group signed with genre-fave label Casablanca, home of Donna Summer, and returned to #1 on the R&B chart in 1981 with the soft-pop flashback of "When She Was My Girl" (which also like their debut almost made the pop top ten at #11). After some minor success in the 80s, including a return to Motown for a while, the Tops found themselves at the home of Whitney Houston, Arista Records. One of the benefits of that was landing a track on the label's official "soundtrack" to the 1988 Olympics in South Korea, which had already scored a top-5 pop hit with Whitney's "One Moment In Time". "Indestructible", written by Harvey Price and Bobby Sandstrom, was also in the sci-fi Mandy Patinkin flick Alien Nation. Even Payton got a lead verse in there as well, and gosh darn it, it feels so good to see them together...

"Indestructible" returned the Four Tops into the pop top-40 in America for the final time in October of 1988. The single also climbed to #20 on Billboard's R&B chart, and went to #57 on their R&B chart. In England, the song made it to #30.

They released an album of the same name to capitalize on the success, and the next single was a duet with label-mate and fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Aretha Franklin, as "If Ever A Love There Was" reached #26 on the Adult Contemporary list and #31 on the R&B chart. The third release from Indestructible was also from a movie, this time Phil Collins' train-robber romp Buster, with "Loco In Acapulco" becoming a #7 hit in the UK in 1989. The quartet continued to perform with the same lineup as their start in the 60s up to the death of Payton, Benson, and finally Levi Stubbs in 2008. But their musical legacy has left an imprint on my own self that could never be broken. No other musical act has captured my inner feelings the way this group had channeled the best songwriters in the rock era. There will never be anyone like 'em.

Up tomorrow: a 'fairytale' metal band loses their assets unwittingly.