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Epicurus.com - The Ultimate Collection
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List Price: $13.98
Our Price: $10.03
Your Save: $ 3.95 ( 28% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Motown
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0731453082526
Label: Motown
Manufacturer: Motown
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Motown
Release Date: 1997-10-07
Studio: Motown
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Editorial Reviews:
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Cramming 25 songs onto a single CD, this set captures the Tops during their peak 1960s years, when they rode the pens of Holland, Dozier, and Holland to the top of the charts. Combining the writers' pop melodies, a gentle Motown groove, and Levi Stubbs' earthy lead vocals, the group landed 11 Top 40 singles by 1967, all of which are included on this compilation. Unfortunately, The Ultimate Collection omits later gems such as "Keeper of the Castle," "Ain't No Woman," and "When She Was My Girl," but that leaves room to delve into the unique partnership between the Tops and their songwriting triumvirate. --Marc Greilsamer
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: MOTOWN DOES IT AGAIN
Comment: I ESPECIALLY LIKED THIS ONE AFTER THE DEATH OF LEVI STUBBS. I REALIZED I DIDN'T HAVE A CD OF THEM ALONE. I STILL HAVE THE LP. THANK YOU
Customer Rating:
Summary: Farewell to One of Music's Monumental Voices
Comment: Introducing a collection of George MacDonald's religious writings, fellow Christian intellectual/author CS Lewis described MacDonald's "Christlike union of tenderness and severity. Nowhere else outside the New Testament have I found terror and comfort so intertwined."
Lewis died a continent away from Detroit's "Hitsville USA" studio, less than six months before the Four Tops recorded their first hit songs joining devotional love's strength and soul with the terror and fear of losing it.
Levi Stubbs, who passed away today, led these soul classics. His powerful voice, atop Motown's legendary Funk Brothers and Holland-Dozier-Holland's songs, created some of the most emotionally wrenching, thrilling music of any area. The songs on this brief collection for many still template Motown's "Sound of Young America."
Motown founder Berry Gordy ordered his songwriters to write in the present tense of a relationship. You wonder if he imagined the frantic energy he got dropping Stubbs and the Tops into that maelstrom. With the other sympathizing backup (only one, "Duke" Fakir, now survives). Stubbs soul shouts his assurance and helplessness ("You know that I love you/I can't help myself") with authority making you believe he was bragging on his weakness all along. Stubbs' voice darts around the tight, roling melody of "It's The Same Old Song." outsinging and outrocking the more famous "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch."
The Tops' 1966-67 series of hits ("Reach Out I'll Be There," "Standing In The Shadows of Love," "Seven Rooms of Gloom" the magisterial "Berndadette") stand outside time. Each frightens and reassures, Stubbs vocally describing a desolate life before shouting, "Just look over your shoulder!" then joining his mates in "I'll be there/to cherish and care for you." Another hit describes his shock in seeing his loyalty wasn't enough ("Didn't I treat you right now baby, didn't I? When you needed me I was always there now wasn't I?") Stubbs voice was commanding, immediate; you felt you were overhearing one side of a telephone argument (with Motown's symphonic soul behind).
"Bernadette"'s climax finds Stubbs pleading the title character to stay with "the peace of mind the world is searching for," then shouting her name over what sounds like an angelic choir and soul orchestra. Soul/pop music rarely came closer not only to opera's grand drama, but Bernard Herrmann's suspenseful mini-symphonies for Alfred Hitchcock.
The Tops never equalled those songs, nor had to. They hit with ornate but classy pop-folk covers ("If I Were a Carpenter," "Walk Away Renee") then slid into several 70s psychedelic, disco, and blaxploitation styles before joining burnished "Big Chill" oldies reviews (with Stubbs' comical role in "Little Shop of Horrors"). A group of Tops performs to this day, occasionally with fellow Motown legends the Temptations.
In Billy Bragg's heartfelt tribute, "Levi Stubbs' Tears," he sings, "When the world falls apart some things stay in place/She takes off the Four Tops tape and puts it back in its case." Many did when seeking the suspense, comfort, and above all, command the Four Tops and Levi Stubbs brought popular music. Stubbs will be missed; his music means too much to too many to have the chance. These songs, whatever form you get them, are as essential as 20th century music gets.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Too Much
Comment: I love the Four Tops, and while this CD has the hits, I felt I had to pay for a lot of stuff I really didn't want. But, I loaded it onto my MP3 and deleted about a third of the songs.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great oldies
Comment: Love this cd! Great songs of the 60s; alot of my favorites. I listen to this cd while on my treadmill each morning. Can't beat the 60s music. This cd is well worth the money and would recommend it highly.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It Motown and One of the Best Groups
Comment: I love great hits LPs. Save you the time looking for all the group great songs. Tis how you buy it. The Tops were one of the top three performamce on Motown.
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