Reach Out I'll Be There

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Reach Out I'll Be There is the title of the Four Tops' most successful single from 1966.

History of origin

Another composition for the Four Tops was pressed for time, as they were expected back from a tour in July 1966. The well-known Four Tops were regularly supplied with song material by the Holland-Dozier-Holland team of authors , so that Lamont Dozier began to try out a few changes from minor to major on the piano . Finally he completed the melody and started on the basic text. Where words were still missing, they were temporarily supplemented with placeholders, which Eddie Holland then replaced with the final text. Holland – Dozier – Holland based the planned new composition on the narrative style of Bob Dylan's singing , while lead singer Levi Stubbs was supposed to scream more than sing like in shout blues.

First the rhythm and music track was created a few days later in Studio A of Motown Recording Studios (Detroit) . Eddie Holland then recorded a demo recording so that Levi Stubbs could orientate himself on the desired arrangement. Stubbs was a baritone with a reach in the tenor and had to exhaust his vocal limits. Tenor Duke Fakir had to sing the highest notes with no transition to the falsetto voice. Arranger Paul Riser then overdubbed string parts that used classic chord inversions. Like many other Motown titles, Reach Out I'll Be There consisted of three chords , but was more gospel-oriented.

This time the background choir did not come from the studio's Andantes, but was made up of Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent, who later formed the group Dawn with Tony Orlando . In addition to the haunting, empathic lead voice, the flute and piccolo are particularly distinctive. They play the main melody in the intro and lead the melody throughout the song. The piccolo flute was played by Dayna Hartwick, her very first recording session at the age of 13. James Jamerson's dominant bass lines serve as the counter melody, Norman Whitfield contributed percussion, Benny Benjamin and Richard Allen were the drummers. With the dense and intense sound, a vocal contribution would actually have been superfluous, but Stubbs intensifies himself into haunting singing. As a result, the entire piece of music moves close to the limit of overproduction. Despite the complex instrumentation, Reach Out I'll Be There was recorded in just 2 takes and final mixed on July 27, 1966 .

Lyrically, a variant in a love affair is dealt with in which the partner assures his girlfriend that she can rely on him, especially in bad times. When she doesn't know what to do next, when her hope disappears and her life is mixed up, when happiness becomes an illusion and the world around her crumbles, then she can come to him because his love will offer her protection.

Publication and Success

Four Tops - Reach Out I'll Be There

The Four Tops assumed that Reach Out I'll Be There was planned as an album filler and had forgotten the track again when label owner Berry Gordy was certain during the subsequent quality control that this would be the next hit. The single Reach Out I'll Be There / Until You Love Someone (Motown 1098) was released on August 18, 1966 and reached number one in the US charts for two weeks in both the pop and rhythm & blues charts . It was another massive crossover hit from the Motown group. It also became a number one hit in the British charts, selling 250,000 copies there. The worldwide sales made him a million seller . On July 17, 1967, the Four Tops released an album entitled Reach Out , which presented the hit as the first track and climbed to number 11 in the US LP charts. In Germany, the title could only reach 13th place in the charts. In the list of Songs of the Century published by the RIAA , the title ranks 266.

Cover versions

There are at least 58 cover versions, including PJ Proby (LP Enigma ; December 1966), Chris Farlowe (December 1966), Lee Moses (January 1967), Bill Cosby with a funky parody (January 1968), The Cowsills (LP The Cowsills in Concert ; May 1969), Diana Ross (April 1971). The title was represented three times in the British charts, namely in the disco version by Gloria Gaynor (March 1975; rank 14), Narada Michael Walden (1983), a remix of the original by Stock Aitken Waterman (July 1988; rank 11) and Michael Bolton (March 1993; Rank 37). This was followed by Boyz II Men (October 2007).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ SoundOnSound from February 2008, Classic Tracks, The Four Tops: Reach Out I'll Be There
  2. ↑ In 1969 she was already a soloist in Antonio Vivaldi's Piccolo Concerto in C major (RV 443) with the Detroit Wind Symphony Orchestra under James Arthur Gardner
  3. ^ Fred Bronson, The Billboard Book of Number One Hits , 1985, p. 209
  4. ↑ The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2013, The Motown Hit Inspired by Bob Dylan
  5. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 223.