Abdul “Duke” Fakir, the last surviving member of the legendary Motown Records group the Four Tops, who scored 17 Top 20 singles from 1964-73, including the chart-topping classics “I Can't Help Myself” and “Reach Out I'll Be There,” died today at his home in Detroit. He was 88.
Abdul 'Duke' Fakir, last of the original Four Tops, dies at 88
Fakir's family said in a statement that he died of heart failure.
After a series of non-charting singles for Chess Records in the 1950s as The Four Aims, the group changed their name and signed with Berry Gordy's hugely successful Motown Records. They sang background vocals on a number of other acts' songs for the label before making their breakthrough in 1964 with the Holland-Dozier-Holland "Baby I Need Your Loving." Over the next decade, they became one of the label's top acts, with more than three dozen songs on the pop charts.
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