Abdul (Duke) Fakir, the last surviving original member of the beloved Motown group the Four Tops that was known for such hits as I Can't Help Myself , Reach Out I'll Be There and Standing in the Shadows of Love , has died at age 88. Fakir died Monday of heart failure at his home in Detroit, according to a family spokesperson, with his wife and other loved ones by his side. The Four Tops were among Motown's most popular and enduring acts, peaking in the 1960s.
Between 1964 and 1967, they had 11 top 20 hits and two No. 1's: I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) and the operatic classic Reach Out I'll Be There . Other songs, often sagas of romantic pain and bereavement, included Baby I Need Your Loving , Standing in the Shadows of Love , Bernadette and Just Ask the Lonely .
The Four Tops are shown in a Nov. 16, 1966, file photo at Heathrow Airport in London. From left to right: Fakir, Levi Stubbs, Lawrence Payton and Renaldo Benson.
(The Associated Press) Many of Motown's greatest stars, from the Supremes to Stevie Wonder, came of age at the Detroit-based company founded by Berry Gordy in the late 1950s. But Fakir, lead singer Levi Stubbs, Renaldo (Obie) Benson and Lawrence Payton had been together for a decade, including a stint at Chicago's famed Chess Records, when Gordy signed them up in 1963. "A significant secret to our survival as well as our success was our shared belief that the sum was greater than the parts, and that time would be on our side," Fakir wrote in I'.