“4 Tops vs Temptations”
Dr. Rox Remember When?
Article #180 February 2026
By: RLSchwinden aka: MrZerr0
As it is “Black History” month I thought I would cover what is probably the greatest most successful R&B group in music history “The Temptations” and how I came to that conclusion through my love of “The 4 Tops”.
-The 4 Tops-
When I was a little kid growing up on the Westside of Sioux City, Iowa 1 of my very favorite songs was “Reach Out (and I’ll be there)” buy The 4 Tops, as well as “I Can’t Help Myself (sugar pie honey bunch)” “Standing In The Shadows Of Love” “Bernadette” as well as they recorded 2 Monkees’ covers “Last Train To Clarksville” and “I’m A Believer” later on David Johansen covered “Reach Out” I was thrilled. With 28 songs on the BillBoard Charts and releasing 36 Singles and 32 Albums signed to 8 record labels including Chess and Columbia, it would be hard not to hear their music on the radio. Formed in Detroit, Michigan at Pershing High School in 1953 as the Four Aims by Levi Stubbs (Stubbles, 6 June 1936 – 17 October 2008) and “Duke” Abdul Kareem Fakir (26 December 1935 – 22 July 2024) and “Obie” Renaldo Benson (14 June 1936 – 1 July 2005) and finally Lawrence Albert Payton Sr. (2 March 2, 1938 – 20 June 20, 1997) the same 4 members for a whopping 44 years. I created a “PsychoGello Show” on The 4 Tops in May 2018.
Episode #41:
Without The One You Love: Dec 1964 (#43)
There’s Something About You: Dec 1965 (#19)
Reach Out (and I’ll be there): Oct 1966 (#1)
Standing In The Shadow Of Love: Jan 1967 (#6)
If I Were A Carpenter: June 1968 (#20)
Can’t Seem To Get You Out Of My Mind: 1969
Reflections: Mar 1970
In These Changing Times: July 1971 (#70)
-The Temptations-
Now who on earth hasn’t heard The Temptations music, I mean really, songs like “My Girl” “The Way You Do The Things You Do” “Papa Was A Rollin Stone” “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep” “I Wish It Would Rain”. The Temptations being a staple of the Motown Record Label. Maybe it was because I had heard so many of the same songs by The Temptations over and over that I grew tired of them. And then …. I watched the TV film in November 1998, well that changed everything. The story of The Temptations was like watching a fiction novel, I could not believe it. Now I had known the story of The Beach Boys was turbulent and almost unbelievable, turns out the story of The Temptations was too. However I did learn that there was a whole era of The Temps I wasn’t all that familiar with and turns out to be my favorite period of their music. While the “Classic 5” period is the most famous from 1964 to 1968, with David Ruffin: (18 January 1941; Whynott, Miss. – June 1, 1991) and Eddie Kendricks: (17 December 1939; Union Springs, Alabama – 5 October 1992) my personal favorite period was with Kendricks and Dennis Edwards Jr.( 3 February 1943; Fairfield, Alabama – 1 February 2018) and Damon Harris Jr. (17 July 1950; Baltimore, MD. – 18 February 2013) from 1968 to 1972 which was the Norman Whitfield (12 May 1940; Harlem, NY – 16 September 2008) and Barret Strong ( 5 February 1941; West Point, Miss. – 28 January 2023) psychedelic and funk years, this is by far my favorite time for the band. And so MrZerr0 created a PsychoGello Show on The Temptations:
Episode #55 August 2018
Get Ready: Apr 1966 (#29)
I Know I’m Losing You Dec 1966 (#1)
I Wish It Would Rain: Dec 1967 (#1)
Cloud Nine: Jan 1969 (#6)
Ball Of Confusion: June 1969 (#3)
Psychedelic Shack: May 1970 (#9)
Papa Was A Rollin Stone: Dec 1972 (#1)
Shockingly, on this particular day of this show I decided to dedicate a song to my Father who I had not heard from in 10 years, only to find out a few hours after the broadcast, that he had died just a few hours prior to this broadcast.
Due to the film “Big Chill” (Sep 1983) and it’s 2 soundtrack releases and the “Murphy Brown” TV Show (CBS: Nov 1988 – May 1998) The main character once said on the show “I only listen to Motown” I feel gave the general public the wrong idea that “Motown” was a Music Genre instead of the reality of a record label for R&B artists, I can remember customers coming into RecordShop #67 asking “Where’s your Motown Section” I could help but laugh thinking about “Over here is our “Columbia” and here is our “RCA” section over there is the “MCA” section and finally down there is our “WB” section. I do remember one worse, here at Mr. Zer0’s a young lady was upset because our Vinyl Records were not in Alphabetical Order by the “Album Title” …..
-The Battle of the the Bands-
While working at RecordShop #67 Valley West my old boss Matt M. was a huge fan of The Temptations and myself a huge fan of The 4 Tops, I remember Matt singing and doing some dance moves like The Temptations, when we had the battle of the bands at work, he would play The Temptations on Cassette over our in-store P.A. and then in turn I would play The 4 Tops (Cassettes as vinyl Ended in Dec 1987), it was then I slowly started to realize, that maybe The Temptations might just have better songs, as I started to realize the The 4 Tops did a lot of cover songs, although The Temptations used mostly outside writers. Another group you should check into The Supremes with Diana Ross and Mary Wilson the only group 2nd the The Beatles for “Most #1 Hits”.
You know I say this all the time to my customers, “I tell you these things to plant the seed of an idea, now it’s up to you to go investigate for yourself, then you decide what you like”
Until the next time …. MrZerr0
Catch Mr. Zer0’s PsychoGello Show 2026 (Since 2017) 8am Sundays on Radi0 WDGY: AM740, Streaming, FM: 92.1, 103.7, 107.1. You can hear the last 90 Episodes @ www. MrZeroS.Com -Podcast. Also look into Mr. Zer0’s past Shows on MixCloud.Com under MrZeros: Evolation for 32 programs and Rick Burnette’s Hits And History.
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