Profile of Levi Stubbs on Famous Like Me

Levi Stubbs (born Levi Stubbles on June 6, 1936 in Detroit, Michigan) is most famous as the lead singer of Motown group The Four Tops from 1953 until 2000.

Biography

The Four Tops began as a supper-club act before finally signing to Motown in 1963; by the end of the decade, The Four Tops had over a dozen hits to their name. The most popular of the Four Tops hits, all of which featured Stubbs on lead vocals, include "Baby I Need Your Loving", "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)", "It's the Same Old Song", "Reach Out I'll Be There", "Standing in the Shadows of Love", "Bernadette", "Still Water (Love)", and "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)". Although Stubbs is a natural baritone, most of the Four Tops' hits were written in a tenor range to give the lead vocals a sense of urgency. Stubbs and the other Tops remained a team until Lawrence Payton died in 1997, at which point Theo Peoples took his place. The Four Tops were elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

As an actor, credited as Levi Stubbs, Jr., he played the voice of the carnivorous plant in the filmed musical remake of Little Shop Of Horrors (1986) and the voice of Mother Brain in the animated TV series Captain N: The Game Master (1991). He has also guested in a number of TV shows as himself.

British singer Billy Bragg had a 1986 hit single, "Levi Stubbs' Tears", from Bragg's album Talking with the Taxman about Poetry.

Levi Stubbs and his wife Clineice have been married since 1960 and have had five children. In 1995, Stubbs was diagnosed with cancer, and therefore does not tour as frequently. Since 2000, Theo Peoples has taken Stubbs' place as the lead singer of The Four Tops, with Ronnie McNair taking the place that Lawrence Payton originally held.

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