Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir, the Final Member of The Four Tops and Motown Legends, Dies at Age 88
Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir, the last member of the original Motown legends, the Four Tops, passed away of heart failure at age 88 on Monday, July 22, at his home in Detroit, his family confirmed to the New York Times.
I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch), Reach Out, I’ll Be There, It’s The Same Old Song, Standing in the Shadows of Love, Baby I Need Your Loving, and Bernadette are a few tracks that best define not only Fakir’s but the Four Tops’ musical legacy. The former two on the list, for the record, reached the No. 1 spot on the music charts.
The group collaborated with legendary songwriters Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier to pen most of their hits. More on Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir and the Four Tops is below!
Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir and the Four Tops: A seven-decade legacy
“Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of a trailblazer, icon, and music legend who, through his 70-year music career, touched the lives of so many as he continued to tour until the end of 2023 and officially retired this year,” Fakir’s family said of the singer in a media statement. “As the last living founding member of the iconic The Four Tops music group, we find solace in Duke’s legacy living on through his music for generations to come,” the statement further noted.
The four members of the group, Fakir, Levi Stubbs, Renaldo ‘Obie’ Benson, and Lawrence Payton, joined forces in the 1950s but did not find success until the early 1960s. The quartet continued to play together until Payton’s demise in 1997, and Benson and Stubbs died in 2005 and 2008, respectively.
The Four Tops were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir: Personal Life
Fakir was born in 1935 to Nazim Ali Fakir, a Bangladeshi factory worker, and Ruby Eckridge, a minister’s daughter from Georgia. The singer, as a child, grew up in a tense neighborhood where rival black and white gangs were at constant war. Fakir’s earliest dream was to be an athlete. He played football in high school before meeting Stubbs and the rest of his group members.
Fakir married twice in his life. He is survived by his wife Piper Gibson, his six children, 13 grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.
In 2022, the singer released a memoir, I’ll Be There: My Life With the Four Tops.