Search - Four Tops :: 20th Century Masters (Jewl)

These Millenium Releases Are Just Teasers

Curtis Harris | 08/14/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I would love to have been a fly on the wall in the offices of Universal/Motown when they began putting the various releases in this series together eight or nine years ago. If only to hear explanations as to why some were to contain 11 tracks and others 12, and how they arrived at a consensus as to what constituted the "best" of the various artists.



To be sure, by any standards applied, tracks 1, 3 to 6 and 10 and 11 have to be considered among the best of this R&B voocal group from Detroit who, from 1964 to 1988, put 45 songs into the Billboard Pop Hot 100, 52 onto the R&B charts, and seven on the Adult Contemporary (AC) listings.



But when it comes to tracks 2 and 7 to 9 there were four that were as good, or better, such as It's The Same Old Song [# 2 R&B/# 5 Hot 100 in August 1965], 7 Rooms Of Gloom [# 10 R&B/# 14 Hot 100 in June 1967], Keeper Of The Castle [# 7 R&B/# 10 Hot 100 late in 1972], and Are You Man Enough? [# 2 R&B/# 15 Hot 100 in late 1973].



So, who decided that the fans had it wrong at the outset and that those hits should be omitted in favour of Ask The Lonely [# 9 R&B/# 24 Hot 100 in March 1965], Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over) [# 5 R&B/# 18 Hot 100 in March 1966], and If I Were A Carpenter [# 17 R&B/# 20 Hot 100 in June 1968]?



Not that there's anything wrong with those four. But if I'm deciding to present just 11 of their best, I would see to it that the contents at least reflected that claim.



I would not go so far as to reduce the evaluation to one, as one reviewer did, but I certainly cannot go higher than two, in spite of the excellent sound quality, nice group photos, and the three pages of liner notes by Stu Hackel. For such a seminal 1960/1970s group as The Four Tops, a R&R Hall Of Fame inductee in 1990, an 11-track CD is merely a teaser. My advice it so spend a little bit more and get something with some substance."