Abdul “Duke” Fakir, the last surviving original member of the Four Tops who sang on all of the group’s timeless hits, including “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Standing in the Shadows of Love,” and “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” died Monday of heart failure. He was 88. A family spokesperson confirmed the singer’s death to the Associated Press, citing the cause as heart failure.
“We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our loving husband of 50 years, beloved father, grandfather, great-grandfather, friend and forever Four Tops, Abdul Kareem Fakir, better known as Duke,” Fakir’s family said in a statement. “Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of a trailblazer, icon and music legend who, through his 70-year music career, touched the lives of so many as he continued to tour until the end of 2023, and officially retired this year. As the last living founding member of the iconic Four Tops music group, we find solace in Duke’s legacy living on through his music for generations to come.”
Fakir formed the quartet that became the Four Tops alongside friends Levi Stubbs, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Lawrence Payton when they were students at Detroit’s Pershing High School in 1953. The original lineup of the Four Tops held together until 1997 when Payton died of liver cancer. Following the death of Benson in 2005 and Stubbs in 2008, the responsibility for keeping the Four Tops name alive fell on Fakir and a new group of vocalists he recruited.
Fakir continued to tour with the group until medical issues sidelined him late last year. “I’m not going to ever retire,” Fakir wrote in his 2022 memoir I’ll Be There: My Life With The Four Tops. “The Lord can retire me, but I’m not going to into the dark night quietly. I know I’m not in the fourth quarter anymore. I’m in overtime.”
The majority of the Four Tops lead vocals were handled by Stubbs, but Fakir’s voice played a critical role in the creation of their harmonies. He also helped keep peace in the band when relations frayed. “We were four totally different guys,” he wrote in his memoir. “But we had a love for the same thing, and that’s basically the whole story. Four guys from Detroit who came together because of our love of music, love of entertaining, and love of each other.”
Those four guys spent a difficult decade on the Chitlin’ Circuit before their commercial breakthrough, playing clubs all across America at a time when Jim Crow still ruled the land. At one point, someone pulled a gun on him because he wandered into the wrong section of a bus station. “I heard, ‘Get the hell outta here [N-word],’” he told the New York Post in 2022. “Terrified, I froze. Scared as hell. A gun against my skull. I didn’t know what to do. A little white lady whispered: ‘Move down the street . . . go . . . GO!’ So frightened I near peed on myself. That cold steel against your head, your whole body goes into shock.”
Fakir encountered racism from a young age since his father was a devout Muslim from East India (now known as Bangladesh), and his mother was a Christian from Georgia. They met in Detroit, and instilled a love of music in Fakir from a young age. He grew up singing in the church choir, an experience that paid off when he formed the Four Tops alongside Stubbs, Benson, and Payton, even if his mother initially called their fusion of soul and R&B “The Devil’s Music.”
After difficult stints at Chess and Columbia Records, the Four Tops signed to Motown in 1963 at the behest of label head Berry Gordy Jr. That gave them access to the hitmaking trio of Holland–Dozier–Holland, who were responsible for their breakthrough smash “Baby I Need Your Loving” in 1964. It was the start of an incredible run of success, culminating in the 1966 masterpiece “Reach Out I’ll Be There.”
“Duke was first tenor — smooth, suave, and always sharp. For 70 years, he kept the Four Tops’ remarkable legacy intact, and in all those years, he never missed a performance, until just recently. I so appreciate all he did for the Four Tops, for Motown and for me,” Gordy said in a statement. “Duke will be greatly missed, and will always be a significant part of the Motown legacy.”
Similar degrees of success caused other Motown groups like the Supremes and the Temptations to break down into warring factions. But the Four Tops managed to remain tight, and frontman Levi Stubbs scoffed at a proposal to redub them Levi Stubbs and the Four Tops. Stubbs even turned down a lead role in Lady Sing the Blues alongside Diana Ross because there weren’t roles for his three bandmates. “He had that kind of loyalty,” Fakir wrote in his book. “Our group came to realize it was one of the things that folks loved about us. We were a group who stayed together.”
They were also very tight with their labelmates. “There was no rivalry with the other groups on the label like the Temptations or the Supremes because we had our own style,” Fakir told the Daily Express in 2016. “We’d have dinner at each other’s houses, play golf with Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye or play cards… It was like a big family.”
The Four Tops reached the zenith 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 out of radios all across America. But they continued to record albums throughout the Seventies, 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, most of their energy moved to touring on the lucrative oldies circuit.
They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 by Stevie Wonder. Fakir stayed quiet that night and let Stubbs speak for the group. “One of the greatest thing to ever happen to Levi Stubbs personally is to be friends with Obie, Duke, and Lawrence,” the singer told the crowd, before hugging his three bandmates.
When Payton died in 1997, the three remaining Four Tops briefly toured as a trio, unable to bear the thought of sharing the stage with anyone else. But in 1998, they recruited former Temptations singer Theo Peoples to fill out the lineup. It was the first of many lineup changes over the next couple of decades, with Fakir eventually standing alone as the last original member. He toured until his health made it impossible, shortly after the launch of their 70th anniversary tour. It was a landmark few acts in history have ever reached with an original member still standing.
“People ask me if I ever get tired singing our hit records,” Fakir wrote in his book. “I say, ‘Fuck naw.’ Every night’s a different audience, every night it’s a different love, a different respect. I look in people’s eyes, and as long as I see that respect, that thank you, I’ll sing that motherfucker until the day I die.”
