Same Old Song: Four Tops 60s Singles Poll

Going with the obvious "Bernadette."

I don't think there's ever been a better stretch of singles than this:

Reach Out I'll Be There
Standing in the Shadows of Love
Bernadette
Seven Rooms of Gloom

Lots of classics to choose from and lots I still need to hear. Gonna go with "Standing in the Shadows of Love" based on what I've heard. I need a good comp of these dudes.

So whatever you do,
burn to death
Keep on loving me

hahaha, never heard the song that way before & will likely never hear it any other way again

Ha. Once I read article about HDH in Mojo and one of them, whichever wrote the lyrics, (Lamont Dozier?) said most of his songs were written about a girl he had a schoolboy crush on. Years later he drove past her pushing a baby carriage and holding another kid's hand. The punchline/finale of the article was "And her name? Bernadette."

My mom's name is Bernadette and god how many times did I sing it to her. She'd never heard it. "You know, it goes like this: BERNADETTE!.......BERNADETTE!" "Nope." "BERNADETTE!"

Maybe that was you in that baby carriage, Abbott.

BERNADETTE!

Lots of GREAT songs in there, but "Reach Out I'll Be There" is still a bit above the rest.

No, Geir - Reach Out is a great song, but Bernadette is amongst the finest singles of the 60's by anyone.

And so is "Reach Out"!

But it's not as good as Bernadette.

I really love "Same old song" ! That and "Can't help myself" are the ones I find myself singing most often. Have to go for the latter I guess.

No, Geir - Reach Out is a great song, but Bernadette is amongst the finest singles of the 60's by anyone.

I reckon "Bernadette" and "Standing In The Shadows Of Love" were both rewrites of "Reach Out". Plus "Reach Out" has that wonderful intro - one of the best ever.

Walk Away Renee.

You Keep Running Away goes nicely next to Police On My Back on a mixtape. It's also my favorite one that wasn't on the greatest hits lp that I grew up with, so it is fresher.

This thread should also be titled James Jamerson's Greatest Hits, Vol 1, even though he didn't play on every one of these tracks.

Not getting the Bernadette worship. It's a good song, nothing more. Reach Out has more immediacy plus that awesome lil Jameson breakdown before each chorus.

Most ILM polls on very popular artists seem to be "which is the best song that my aunt in Deluth probably doesn't know the lyrics to?"

Funnily enough, what Geir just said.

I remember hearing Bernadette for the first time, and waiting to join in with the chorus... which never came.

In "Reach Out" Levi is the one who is going to save you from whatever scariness is being represented by the scary track. "Bernadette" ups the ante and reveals that even he can't save you because he is busy reaping the whirlwind that is "Bernadette."

Your aunt in Deluth is Abbot's mom?

I considered voting for A Simple Game but I guess that's 70s! Voting for Reach Out I'll Be There but many other contenders.

Very good argument for The Four Tops having the most consistently great output of any Motown act. One thing about the Four Tops versus other Motown acts were that they were very close with each other (compare their turnover with Motown's other hit groups), very business savvy, and overall not under Berry Gordy's thumb like some of the other acts were. I imagine that helped them bargain and position themselves to get HDH's top material.

Yeah, same four guys all those years. Interesting to see and hear their earlier pre-Motown stuff as The Four Aims, before HDH started stressing Levi's voice.

Note should be made that bass singer Renaldo "Obie" Benson co-wrote Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On"

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

right on, Four Tops one of the great bands of the 60s obv....wz going to vote Reach Out if only to counteract the puzzling smug element in all the Bernadette love...didn't know that B's inherent superiority wz so obvious, sry...but then I realized I have never heard of this song called Seven Rooms of Gloom!

Plus: Four Tops covered the Left Banke?!!! WTF???!!!

oh waow this is awesome! gotta love james jamerson!!!

Bernadette really is all about the intensity and drama moreso than the hooks, I think that's why "Burn to Death" kinda works - everything is so stirred up and disheveled in this song you can imagine he might wish she'd just burn to death. I never QUITE got it but a couple of my friends were super into this song and the over-the-topness was cited as evidence of why they could relate.

Totally know what you mean about waiting for the chorus to come around, though....

this (song) is pretty damn good too...

Bernadette really is all about the intensity and drama moreso than the hooks

yeah but there's a lot of Four Tops songs (like reach out) that have similar levels of drama & intensity and manage to throw hooks in there too...

besides, the TS: Bernadette v. Reach out format is kinda dumb considering that Can't Help Myself is an option...there's a song that deserves some love...one of HDH's most musical & durable compositions...

(btw after repping for sugarpie (another good one: baby i need yr loving) i am voting for seven rooms, mainly for the way it artfully blends reach out's buildup & payoff w/ bernadette's circular structure...see guys we CAN work it out :)....)

Bernadette really is all about the intensity and drama moreso than the hooks, I think that's why "Burn to Death" kinda works
This reminds of something I once heard on the subway: one guy telling another guy about a woman named Brenda (which name is an anagram of first half of Bernadette) "Brenda's one of those burning bed types- you lay down beside her, you wake up in the morning, you barbecued."

Thus I would like to claim that Bernadette is some kind of relation to the Brenda in the Jon Spenser song and the one who worked at Red Lobster in the LL Cool J song.

"Baby I Need Your Loving" through "Seven Rooms of Gloom" is a consistent set of thematically and sonically related songs that I had on a Hits lp when I was a child.

The obsession and the heartbreak build from the beginning, infecting even the seeming love tunes to the point of transcendent rescue dashed by by complete despair.

7 stages of grief stuff in those 12 songs.

Also, part of the problem about "Bernadette" is that it felt irrelevant when released. "Reach Out I'll Be There" was at the top of the trends, adding strings and all and just as adventurous as pop music at its best (like The Beatles).

By the time of "Bernadette", The Beatles had just released "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" and Motown suddenly felt very irrelevant for a couple of years while psychedelic pop was changing the world.

anybody?

I voted If I Were a Carpenter

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Justic was served in the end. :)

And those are probably their three best songs. Maybe along with "A Simple Game", but that one wasn't a 60s single of course.

:(

absolutely unconscionable results

I missed this poll. I would have voted "Bernadette"

Always shaking my head re Geir's perspective