Duke Fakir of Four Tops, co-founder of the group and keeper of its legacy, dies at the age of 88
Remembering Duke Fakir: A Motown Legend
Duke Fakir, the last surviving member of the Four Tops, died at the age of 88, leaving behind a musical legacy spanning seven decades.
Duke Fakir, the stylish and distinguished singer who nurtured the legacy of the Four Tops for seven decades, died of heart failure at his home in Detroit on Monday morning. He was 88 years old.
Fakir, who lived his entire life in Detroit, was the last surviving member of the popular Motown band. His teenage friends and bandmates Lawrence Payton, Obie Benson and Levi Stubbs had already died before him.
“Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of a trailblazer, icon and music legend who touched the lives of so many during his 70-year music career while touring through the end of 2023 and officially retiring this year,” the Fakir family said in a statement to the Detroit Free Press. “As the last living founding member of the legendary musical group the Four Tops, we find comfort in knowing that Duke’s legacy lives on through his music for generations to come.”
With the Four Tops, Fakir was featured on a long list of hits over the decades, including some of the defining songs of the 1960s, such as the Top 10 hits “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” “It’s the Same Old Song,” “Bernadette,” “Standing in the Shadows of Love” and the group’s 1966 masterpiece, “Reach Out I’ll Be There.” Fakir and the group continued to crank out hits into the 1980s, including the R&B chart hit “When She Was My Girl.”
After the deaths of his bandmates – a subject that still moved him to tears years later – Fakir kept the Four Tops name alive, recruited new members and regularly toured with the group’s sophisticated, high-energy stage show.
He was a familiar sight in Detroit for decades, a charismatic, sharply dressed figure at public events, opening ceremonies and television commercials. In recent years he was one of the last Motown stars still living in the city.
Fakir looked like a star, but was amiable and down-to-earth and enjoyed chatting with fans and signing autographs during his everyday errands at grocery stores, banks and the like.
Berry Gordy said Monday that Fakir and the Four Tops “continued to surprise him with their stage presence, class and artistry.”
“Duke was the first tenor – smooth, articulate and always sharp. For 70 years he preserved the Four Tops’ remarkable legacy and in all those years until recently he never missed a performance,” the Motown founder said in a statement. “I greatly appreciate everything he did for the Four Tops, for Motown and for me.”
Fellow Motown artist Martha Reeves said, “All four Tops were fine, handsome men and sang with masterly voices. Duke had one of the sweetest tenor voices you could hear. You could recognize him by the harmony, by that operatic voice in the background. The Four Tops were the gentlemen of the groups at Motown – and they were the A-list singers of the Motown team.”
In a statement to the Free Press, Smokey Robinson personally addressed his longtime friend and Motown colleague Fakir.
“My brother, I really hate to say goodbye, but Father has called you home to rejoin Lawrence, Obie and Levi and make more of the heavenly music you made here,” Robinson said. “I will miss you, my brother.”
Born Abdul Kareem Fakir, he grew up in a religious family and was fascinated by music from an early age, eventually becoming a tenor in his teens. Tall and slim, Fakir was also a talented athlete, playing football and basketball at Pershing High School.
In 2021, reflecting on his life and career, he told the Detroit Free Press about a pivotal moment in church when he was about 8 years old. The young fakir had run from the choir rostrum after nervously catching his breath during a solo performance when “a lady in white” approached him with a premonition:
“I was wiping my tears when this lady walked by. She stopped and turned around: ‘Boy, you sing, don’t you?’ I said, ‘I’m trying, ma’am.’ She said, ‘Whooo, boy, look at all the angels around you. I see the world is going to love your music. You’re going to sing with four boys. You’re going to be so popular, so good, so blessed.'”
The unnamed woman had one final message for him. He said, “Always remember, keep love in your heart.”
Fakir actually formed this quartet in 1953 in the midst of the thriving doo-wop scene on Detroit’s street corners. An impromptu performance at a neighborhood party had brought it all together.
“We told Levi, ‘You sing the lead vocal. We all know how to sing in the background.’ We started singing in the background, which was led by Lawrence, singing little parts. It felt like we had been rehearsing and singing together for a long time. It was almost genius,” Fakir recalled. “Levi looked back and really got into the song, smiling and singing his heart out. We rocked our asses off.”
Fakir knew they had stumbled upon something good.
“I sang in many small groups around town,” he said decades later. “But this was something special.”
Originally known as the Four Aims, the group became the Four Tops a few years later and established themselves in the city’s nightclubs, but failed to achieve major success during a series of contracts with labels such as Chess and Columbia.
“We all agreed that as long as we stayed together, we would be as good or better than any other group that had ever existed,” Fakir said. “We weren’t arrogant, but we were confident. And little by little, we climbed the ladder.”
Fakir and the Tops initially turned down offers from Motown Records boss Berry Gordy, unsure whether a black-owned label could make an impression in the white-dominated music industry. But the group happened to be there when the company’s first Motortown Revue played at the Apollo Theater in New York and realized the homegrown company was onto something.
The Four Tops signed a contract with Motown in 1963 and within a year had their first hit, “Baby I Need Your Loving,” which was part of a series of successes with the songwriter-producer team Holland-Dozier-Holland.
“When we got there, we were already experienced professionals,” said Fakir.
From then on, life became a whirlwind, as Fakir and his band maintained a hectic schedule of recording, touring and television appearances, mingling with the likes of the Beatles (Fakir famously told a story about getting high with Paul McCartney) and being primetime stars on The Ed Sullivan Show, where Fakir was a recognizable on-screen character.
The Tops left Motown in 1972 and moved to the ABC/Dunhill label – although Fakir and the others continued to live in Detroit – and scored hits such as “Keeper of the Castle”, “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got)”, “Catfish” and others. After a stint with Casablanca Records, the group returned to Motown in the ’80s and experienced a new career boost amid baby boomer nostalgia and films such as The Big Chill. They also made an unforgettable appearance alongside the Temptations in the 1983 TV special “Motown 25”.
Fakir’s most recent projects included an as yet unrealized stage musical based on the story of the Four Tops, which has been in the works since 2021.
He really wanted the show to premiere in the place where it all began.
“Everything I’ve done – my music, my life, my family – comes from Detroit,” he said. “Detroit deserves it. They’ve given me so much. I’d feel like an idiot if I premiered it anywhere but at home. This is where it belongs.”
In Motown history, including concerts and the 1983 anniversary special, the Four Tops and Temptations were often portrayed as rivals. In reality, the groups were close friends.
“I love Duke. He was able to survive and keep his boys together despite the changes he had to go through. He’s a special human being,” Otis Williams of the Temptations told the Free Press in 2021. “I call him Mr. Detroit. The brother knows how to dress. I’m a fashion expert and have always admired the way he puts clothes together. That’s Detroit.”
Turkessa Ferrer-Babich, daughter of late Supremes singer Mary Wilson, said: “Thank you, Duke, for being a true friend to my mother and always a gentleman with the biggest heart. May you rest in peace.”
Detroit PR agent Matt Lee, who worked closely with Fakir for many years, paid tribute to the late singer’s character.
“Of all the people I worked with, Duke was the finest gentleman. You won’t find anyone saying a bad word about him,” Lee said. “He was the keeper of the flame for all things Motown and just a source of information and anecdotes.”
After Payton’s death in 1997, the Four Tops stopped recording but remained regulars on stage, and Fakir remained part of the touring group until the end of 2023, when he officially retired.
In recent years, as he began work on his memoirs, due to be published in 2022, Fakir reflected on a “magical” life that began when “four young gentlemen were brought together out of the blue.”
“There’s a driving force that explains why and how this all happened. And it’s colorful. And it’s all about love – something we all need to see again these days,” Fakir told the Free Press. “It’s the love of music, the love of people working together, the love of looking out into the audience and seeing those smiling faces.”
Fakir is survived by his wife Piper Fakir, his daughter Farah Fakir Cook, his son Nazim Bashir Fakir, his son Abdul Kareem Fakir Jr., his son Myke Fakir, his son Anthony Fakir, his son Malik Robinson, 13 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
Fakir will be buried in a private family ceremony, a spokesman said. A public ceremony is also planned and will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to the Motown Museum.
Contact music writer Brian McCollum of the Detroit Free Press: 313-223-4450 or [email protected].
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