When the music of classical composers Beethoven, Bach and Mozart was gaining popularity 250 years ago, it\u2019s likely that listeners had no reason to believe it would have the impact it did or that it would still be revered these so many years later.<\/p>\n
Similarly, when R&B vocal groups were helping propel the popularity of Motown Records more than 60 years ago, audiences likely didn\u2019t think about the impact it would have or that it still would be around already one quarter as many years as those classical composers\u2019 music.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 2, Wednesday, on the opening night of the Service Electric Grandstand Stage at The Great Allentown Fair, the two musical genres combined in a concert by The Four Tops, one of the most commercially successful pop music groups of the 1960s, and the Allentown Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n
In a one-hour-and-20-minute concert of 19 songs and an additional medley, the Allentown Symphony showed how classical music evolved into popular formats, and The Four Tops proved how easily great music meshes, and why they still are powerful after all these years.<\/p>\n
The concert started with 15 minutes of Allentown Symphony Orchestra Music Director and Conductor Diane Wittry leading the more-than-30-member orchestra through four decidedly not Motown songs: Gershwin\u2019s \u201cStrike Up the Band,\u201d the standard \u201cTurkey in the Straw\u201d (which got hearty cheers from the audience), Duke Ellington\u2019s \u201cIt Don\u2019t Mean a Thing (If It Ain\u2019t Got That Swing)\u201d and W.C. Handy\u2019s \u201cSt. Louis Blues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wittry called it \u201ca tribute to all of the music that led up to the music of The Four Tops.\u201d<\/p>\n
The orchestra then was joined by the six-member Four Tops Orchestra, which played a four-minute medley of Four Tops hits with the symphony before the group joined the show.<\/p>\n
The vocal group opened with lead singer Theo Peoples largely singing alone on a six-minute cover of Jimmy Webb\u2019s \u201cMacArthur\u2019s Park,\u201d a grand composition that sort of bridged the transition from classical to pop-R&B.<\/p>\n
Then Peoples told the audience of what looked like less than 2,000, \u201cWe came to bring you some old Motown memories,\u201d and the group began that trek with the group\u2019s 1964 breakthrough hit \u201cBaby I Need Your Loving.\u201d<\/p>\n
The song demonstrated that The Four Tops\u2019 hits still have the heart-touching feel that made them so relatable and popular.<\/p>\n
A quick note: Just as Beethoven, Bach and Mozart are no longer performing their music, The Four Tops no longer has any original members. The group\u2019s last original member, Abdul \u201cDuke\u201d Fakir, died in 2024. Iconic lead singer Levi Stubbs died in 2008.<\/p>\n
A voiceover at the start dedicated the concert to the original lineup.<\/p>\n
Stubbs\u2019 defining vocals definitely were missed, and the orchestral treatments in some cases diluted some of the intensity and urgency of songs such as the 1967 Top 5 hit \u201cBernadette.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it also helped enhance other big hits: 1965\u2019s Top 5 \u201cIt\u2019s the Same Old Song,\u201d for instance (disappointingly cut to just two minutes), and helped rejuvenate lesser hits such as 1966\u2019s \u201cShake Me Wake Me (When It\u2019s Over)\u201d and, especially, the 1981 R&B chart-topper \u201cWhen She Was My Girl,\u201d which had the original feel.<\/p>\n
That song and others helped remind that The Four Tops had hits, especially on the R&B chart, well into the 1970s, \u201880s and even \u201890s.<\/p>\n
\u201cStill Water (Love),\u201d which just missed the Top 10 in 1970, and 1973\u2019s Top 15 \u201cAre You Man Enough\u201d incorporated the funky edge of hits of that decade. The group also offered \u201cMain Street People,\u201d a 1973 R&B Top 10 hit.<\/p>\n
Of all the songs, only a cover of Bobby Darin\u2019s \u201cMack the Knife\u201d from 1959 seemed an ill fit, but the crowd cheered it hardily.<\/p>\n
Of course, the biggest hits got the biggest response, and rightfully so.<\/p>\n
The 1973 Top 5 hit \u201cAin\u2019t No Woman (Like the One I Got)\u201d was very good, and the group brought Kevin Wartell, cantor emeritus at Allentown\u2019s Temple Beth El, onstage to sing with them. The song got a huge cheer from the audience.<\/p>\n
The night\u2019s best was the group\u2019s biggest, the 1966 No. 1 hit \u201cReach Out I\u2019ll Be There,\u201d which was the strongest evidence for how good The Four Tops\u2019 songs were.<\/p>\n
They had the crowd stand up for the set-closing 1966 Top 10 \u201cStanding In the Shadows of Love,\u201d which was similarly fine, then stayed on stage before regrouping for the \u201cencore\u201d of the 1965 No. hit \u201cI Can\u2019t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch).\u201d<\/p>\n
There were a few disappointments.<\/p>\n
The Four Tops were on stage for 57 minutes, and while they played all their biggest hits, their catalog is deep enough to have offered more.<\/p>\n
It also was disappointing that The Four Tops often leaned on \u201coldies\u201d jokes and traps, talking about using Ben Gay muscle cream, about needing to sit down before \u201cWhen She Was My Girl,\u201d shouting that they were \u201cremembering memories\u201d and having the audience participate.<\/p>\n
The concert didn\u2019t need this. It was enough that the music is still powerful after all these years, and equal to classical music.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTO BY SHERI BAYNEThe Four Tops, left to right: Lawrence Payton Jr, Theo Peoples, Ronnie McNeir, Michael Brock, with Allentown Symphony, Allentown Fair, Sept. 2.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTO BY SHERI BAYNEAllentown Symphony Orchestra Music Director Diane Wittry conducts Allentown Symphony in concert with The Four Tops, Allentown Fair, Sept. 2.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTO BY SHERI BAYNEAllentown Symphony Orchestra Music Director and Conductor Diane Wittry with Allentown Symphony in concert with The Four Tops, Allentown Fair, Sept. 2.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTO BY SHERI BAYNEThe Four Tops\u2019 Lawrence Payton Jr. with Allentown Symphony in concert, Allentown Fair, Sept. 2.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTO BY SHERI BAYNEThe Four Tops\u2019 Michael Brock with Allentown Symphony in concert, Allentown Fair, Sept. 2.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTO BY SHERI BAYNEThe Four Tops\u2019 Theo Peoples with Allentown Symphony in concert, Allentown Fair, Sept. 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the music of classical composers Beethoven, Bach and Mozart was gaining popularity 250 years ago, it\u2019s likely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-280138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}