Here's some nice footage of the Four Tops lip synching in 1965. You tube doesn't seem to have much else original footage.

An awful lot of this cohort has shuffled off this mortal coil recently, actuarial charts being what they are. Sad, but also a great excuse to go search out their music, which I have to think is what they'd want, to a person.

Wow, who's going to help Bristol raise the baby? So sad.

3 was, I'm ashamed to say, my first thought, too.

2: Motown was one of those moments in the history of mass produced art where the commercial and the artistic totally coincided. The 1940s Hollywood studio system is another one.

Here's a clip of "It's the Same Old Song" with some irritating fuzz across the middle.

An awful lot of this cohort has shuffled off this mortal coil recently, actuarial charts being what they are

I think this gets the causation backwards.

The charts are written by racists.

You would.

I used to think the sudden interest in an artist after they died was crass, almost necrophillic. But that was mostly when I was young, and when there was a sudden surge of interest about a dead artist my response was typically "Who?" Really just now I've come around to embrace this as an important and respectful thing to do, even if people who hold old copyrights are anxious for artists to die to increase sales.

Then there's this. Another fine way to enjoy the Four Tops.

The commenters are confused.

Oh, gods, 10 is so awful and yet I laughed.

3: My first thought was: "Who?"

12: You know, he was the guy in that Billy Bragg song.

Try and keep a dry eye.

I had the Little Shop of Horrors soundtrack on cassette when I was a kid.

re: 14

! Is that the heart-string pullingest vid ever?

Also, evidence that Aretha Franklin's voice remains unsurpassed.

16: Yes and yes.

re; 16

A lot of legendary voices either haven't stood the test of time [good once, not good now] or were never really that brilliant in the first place* and the critical orthodoxy is often wrong, but she really is _it_, I think.

* Otis Redding good as he was, wasn't as good as any one of about a dozen 'deep soul' vocalists, for example.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pD8weG83kio

This, for example. When the singing kicks in after his spoken word intro and he really opens up...