The Four Tops

Just guess who I met at one time in my life.."Obie" (aka: Renaldo Benson). The Four Tops Quartet use to seranade many times at 1000 Yuma Street, Manhattan, Kansas in summer of 1960.

I became acquainted with "Obie" and his wife Val while my husband was serving at the Big Red One/Fort Riley. The Four Tops all signed together with the U.S. military and went on many weekend trips while stationed at Ft. Riley.

Levi Stubbs and Abdul "Duke" Fakir sang together in a group while at Pershing High School, later joined with Renaldo Benson and Lawrence Payton (who attended Northern High School, all in Detroit, MI). They began singing at a friends birthday party in 1954 and began calling themselves the Four Aims.

In 1964, they signed with Berry Gordy's Motown records and the rest is history. I did not know that "Obie" was a co-writer of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" that is still widely sung today....even the quoted saying of "what's goin' on". Blog for more info on these guys...they were super.