Tuesday, June 15, 2004 | 8:18 a.m.
Fifty years ago four high school students met at a birthday party in Detroit and harmonized some songs.
They liked the sound, and the next day they got together and practiced.
The quartet of teens clicked and called themselves the Four Aims, later changing it the Four Tops (out of concern they would be confused with the then-popular Ames Brothers).
Reflecting on 50 years as one of the original Four Tops, Abdul (Duke) Fakir, 65, said during a recent telephone interview from his home in Detroit: "We have been able to cross some barriers - including color and age."
While most careers have their ups and downs, Fakir says the path of the Four Tops has been relatively steady from the beginning.
"We've always had work, and once the hits started coming, we had a greater number of jobs, and a greater variety," Fakir said.
Today the classic group performs 100 to 120 dates a year, most of them weekends, at a variety of venues - symphonic halls, corporate events, nightclubs, private parties and casinos.
"The variety is enjoyable," Fakir said. "It doesn't get boring. We're not running around in a circle doing the same type of thing all the time."
The Four Tops, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, will perform a concert at the Stardust from Wednesday through Saturday.
They will share the date with the Temptations, another Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group that was inducted in 1989.
Early hits by the Four Tops include "Ask the Lonely," "Same Old Song," "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Bernadette" "Walk Away Renee," "If I Were a Carpenter" and "River Deep, Mountain High."
They have brought their hits to Vegas countless times through the decades.
"The last time we played Vegas was last September, also at the Stardust," Fakir said. "We sold out every seat for four days. It was a lot of fun. We really enjoy Vegas."
In '59 the Four Tops worked in a lounge at the Dunes.
"And we opened the Hollywood Theatre at the MGM," Fakir said. "We worked there four to six weeks a year for about seven years.
"I'm trying to get my wife to move there. We have a lot of friends in Vegas. I have a lot of golf buddies. I love Vegas, always have. I could easily live there."
The founding members of the Four Tops were Fakir and Renaldo (Obie) Benson, both still with the group, and Lawrence Payton and Levi Stubbs.
Payton died from liver cancer in 1997. Stubbs retired recently after suffering a series of minor strokes. They have been replaced by Theo Peoples, a former member of the Temptations, and Ronnie McNeir.
Fakir and Benson live in Detroit. Peoples lives in St. Louis and McNeir lives in Las Vegas.
"When Lawrence passed, we almost dropped our bags and got off the road," Fakir said. "We sang with just the three of us for about a year, and we didn't get any complaints.
"Out agents wanted us to change the name to just the Tops, but we didn't want to do that. We worked all those years to build the name up."
Fakir says the two new performers has brought young blood to the veteran group.
"There's a new energy," he said.
But for 40 years, the Four Tops had ample energy from the original members.
By the time they had recorded their first single for Chess Records in 1956, the Four Tops (at that time they were still the Four Aims) were performing as an opening act or as backup singers with artists such as Della Reese, Brook Benton, Billy Eckstine, Count Basie, Betty Carter, Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor and Flip Wilson.
Stubb's cousin, Jackie Wilson, was so impressed with the Four Aims that he invited them to perform with him on a regular basis, which they did for several years.
"We started performing right out of high school," Fakir said. "We were built for the road -- we really enjoy people."
That's one of the reasons the group stayed together for so long, when others split (sometimes not without some anger).
Another is compatibility.
"We worked 10 years of hard labor before we had a hit record," Fakir said. "We learned what we had and what it takes to stick together. We all had a love for the music and and for entertaining people.
"All we wanted was to make a good enough living to support our families."
Fakir said the members of the group look at the Four Tops like it's a Mom-and-Pop store.
"It's like a family business," he said. "We decided we've got a good little family store going here, so let's keep the store open and sell the product."
He said that attitude has made all the difference. There has never been any greed, any overshadowing egos among the members.
"We just love entertaining," Fakir said. "That's all we really want to do."
He said no one has thought about running off and starting a competing Four Tops.
"We are blessed with very few problems," he said. "There have been some, we are a team. There has always been two or three guys to pull the one guy up -- and when you have three family members pulling you up, you can survive.
"With the love we have for each other, we have survived a lot of things."
Although none of the Four Tops ever considered forming their own Tops, a fake group was performing in Spain a few years ago.
"We were in England doing a tour," Fakir said. "We were on an early morning breakfast show when a woman called in and said 'Hey, they're not the real Four Tops. I just saw them in Spain.' "
That was how they learned about the phony Four Tops.
"They were four guys from Detroit trying to be us," Fakir said. "They were run out of Spain, and then showed up in Florida. I think they finally broke up, after our lawyers contacted them."
Fakir says the Four Tops are celebrating 50 years of survival with the release of a two-CD album, "Four Tops Anthology: 50th Anniversary," and with a July 28 concert at Detroit's Opera House.
The concert will feature an all-star cast that will include The Temptations, comedian Tim Allen, Aretha Franklin and many others. It will be taped for broadcast at a later date.
When Fakir isn't busy performing and doing something behind the scenes for the Four Tops, he's with his family, his church or golfing.
"I play a lot of golf," he said. "I don't do any business between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m."
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