Abdul 'Duke' Fakir, Last Member Of Four Tops, Dies Aged 88 Due To Heart Failure

Abdul “Duke” Fakir, the last surviving member of the Motown group the Four Tops, died on Monday. According to a family spokesperson, the 88-year-old died of failure, reported by AP. His wife and other loved ones were by his side. Four Tops was known for chartbuster hit tracks, Reach Out, I’ll Be There, Standing in the Shadows of Love and many more.

Who was Abdul “Duke” Fakir?

He was a founding member of the Motown quartet the Four Tops, from 1953 until he died in 2024. The Four Tops were among Motown's most popular and peaked 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 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.

Fakir, lead singer Levi Stubbs, Renaldo “Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton had been together for a decade when Gordy signed them up in 1963. They called themselves the Four Aims when they started, but soon renamed themselves the Four Tops to avoid confusion with the white harmony quartet the Ames Brothers.

The Tops had recorded for several labels, including the famed Chess Records in Chicago, with little commercial success. But Gordy and A&R man Mickey Stevenson paired them with the songwriting-production team of Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland and they quickly caught on, blending tight, haunting harmonies (with Fakir as lead tenor) behind Stubbs’ urgent, sometimes desperate baritone.

What else do we know about Abdul "Duke" Fakir?

He lived in Palmer Park in Detroit with his second wife. He had seven children, one preceding him in death, thirteen grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren as of 2024.

With AP Inputs