"Obie" Benson (third from left) and The Four Tops, on the cover for the UK single release of their 1967 hit "Bernadette".

Renaldo "Obie" Benson (June 14, 1936 - July 1, 2005) was an African-American soul and R&B singer and songwriter. He was best known as the bass of Motown group The Four Tops, which he joined in 1953 and continued to perform with for over five decades, until April 8, 2005. He also co-wrote "What's Going On" which became a #2 hit for Marvin Gaye in 1971, and which Rolling Stone rated as #4 on their List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time released in 2004. Image File history File links Bernadette by The Four Tops This image is the cover of an album or single. ... Image File history File links Bernadette by The Four Tops This image is the cover of an album or single. ... The Four Tops circa 1966. ... Bernadette is a 1967 hit song recorded by The Four Tops for the Motown label. ... June 14 is the 165th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (166th in leap years), with 200 days remaining. ... 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans, Black Americans, or simply blacks, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to West and sub-Saharan Africa. ... Soul Music is a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, published in 1994. ... Rhythm and blues (or R & B) is a musical marketing term introduced in the United States in the late 1940s by Billboard magazine. ... In music a singer or vocalist is a type of musician who uses his or her voice as an instrument to make music. ... A songwriter is someone who writes, in part or in full, the lyrics to songs, the musical composition to songs, or both. ... A basso (or bass) is a male singer *hey, I sing Bass and Im not male* who sings in the lowest vocal range of the human voice. ... Motown Record Company, L.P., also known as Tamla-Motown outside of the United States, is a record label specializing in the musical genres of R&B, pop, soul music, and hip-hop music. ... The Four Tops circa 1966. ... 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... Whats Going On is a 1971 hit single by Marvin Gaye for the Motown label, and the title track from his groundbreaking 1971 LP Whats Going On. ... Marvin Gaye on the cover of his 1971 classic album Whats Going On. ... 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... Rolling Stone is a music and music industry magazine. ... In 2004, Rolling Stone published an article describing what it considered to be the 500 greatest songs of all time . ...

Biography

Early Career 1954-1964

Benson attended Cass Technical High School with Lawrence Payton. The pair met Levi Stubbs and Abdul "Duke" Fakir while singing at a friends birthday party in 1954 and decided to form a group called the Four Aims. Roquel Billy Davis who was Payton's cousin was a fifth member of the group for a time and a songwriter for the group. Davis played an instrumental role in the group being signed by Chess Records who were mainly interested in Davis' songwriting ability. The group changed their name to the Four Tops to avoid confusion with the Ames Brothers and had one single "Kiss Me Baby" released through Chess which failed to chart. The Four Tops left Chess although Davis stayed with the company. Lawrence Albert Payton (June 2, 1938 - June 20, 1997) was a tenor in the popular Motown quartet, The Four Tops. ... Levi Stubbs (born Levi Stubbles, June 6, 1936 in Detroit, Michigan) is famous as the lead singer from Motown band The Four Tops. ... Abdul Duke Fakir (born December 26, 1935 in Detroit, Michigan) is best known as a member of popular Motown act The Four Tops from 1953 to the present day. ... Roquel Billy Davis, or Billy Davis, (July 11, 1932 - September 2, 2004) was producer of the song Id like to teach the world to sing, from the 1971 Coca-Cola TV advertisement. ... This is an article about the phonograph record label Chess Records. For records in the game of Chess, see World records in Chess. ... The Ames Brothers were a singing quartet from Malden, Massachusetts who were particularly famous in the 1950s for their traditional pop music hits. ...

The group then went to Red Top Records and Riverside Records before signing with Columbia Records where they released "Ain't That Love" in 1960. This record was a supper club style record and the Four Tops would sing at a number of jazz venues in the early 1960s. Benson was responsible for the band's choreography in the early years of the band. Columbia Records is the oldest continually used brand name in recorded sound, dating back to 1888. ...

Career Success 1964-1990

In 1963, they signed with Motown initially recording a track for Motown's Workshop Jazz label. Benson and the other members already knew Barrett Strong, as he had written songs with Davis for Jackie Wilson including "Lonely Teardrops". The Four Tops worked with Holland-Dozier-Holland who wrote and produced a number of soul music hits for them over the next few years, including "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" and "Reach Out I'll Be There" which both topped the US pop charts. Motown Record Company, L.P., also known as Tamla-Motown outside of the United States, is a record label specializing in the musical genres of R&B, pop, soul music, and hip-hop music. ... Barrett Strong (born February 5, 1941 in West Point, Mississippi) is an African-American singer and songwriter. ... Jackie Wilson Jackie Wilson (b. ... Holland-Dozier-Holland was a songwriting and production team consisting of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian Holland and Edward Holland, Jr. ... I Cant Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) is a 1965 hit song recorded by The Four Tops for the Motown label. ... Reach Out Ill Be There (also rendered as Reach Out (Ill Be There)) is a 1966 hit song recorded by The Four Tops for the Motown label. ...

Benson was on tour with the Four Tops when he witnessed a scuffle between protesters and the police over a disused urban lot which the protesters called People's Park. He started writing the first draft of "What's Going On". He worked on the song with lyricist Al Clevland, who was renting the upstairs section of Benson's duplex. Whats Going On is a 1971 hit single by Marvin Gaye for the Motown label, and the title track from his groundbreaking 1971 LP Whats Going On. ... Al Clevland was an African-American songwriter for the Motown label. ...

Benson wanted the Four Tops to record his song, but they refused on the grounds that it was a protest song. He approached Joan Baez to record the song while appearing on a British television show, but was unsuccessful. Finally, he approached Marvin Gaye who liked the song, but wanted The Originals to cut a version of it. Joan Baezs 1975 bestseller Diamonds & Rust. ... Marvin Gaye on the cover of his 1971 classic album Whats Going On. ... The Originals was a successful Motown R&B and soul group during the 1960s and 1970s. ...

Benson eventually persuaded Gaye to record the song by offering him a cut of the royalties. Gaye definitely earned the credit by adding lyrics and other touches to the song. The song was recorded in June 1970, but Motown refused to release it at first, claiming it was uncommercial. Finally, the song was released and reached #2 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart, while topping the R&B chart. "What's Going On" is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest rock or R&B songs of all time, reaching the top 5 of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" as rated by Rolling Stone in 2004 and as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The Billboard Hot 100 is the main U.S. singles popularity chart used by Billboard magazine. ... Rhythm and blues (or R & B) is a musical marketing term introduced in the United States in the late 1940s by Billboard magazine. ... The Rock and Roll Hall of Fames 500 songs (not ranked) that shaped Rock and Roll: Contents: Top - 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A AC/DC...

After Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown in 1967, the hits became less frequent for the Four Tops. When Motown left Detroit for Los Angeles in 1972, the Four Tops signed with ABC-Dunhill, and had Top 10 pop hits with "Keeper of the Castle" and "Ain't No Woman Like the One I've Got", their first Top 10 hits since "Bernadette" in 1967. While the Four Tops enjoyed a number of R&B hits in the next couple of years, the hits dried up again as disco became popular. 1967 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... ABC Dunhill Records starts when ABC Records purchases Dunhill Records They purchase Duke Records and Peacock Records on 23 May 1973. ... Bernadette is a 1967 hit song recorded by The Four Tops for the Motown label. ... Disco is an up-tempo style of dance music (generally between 110 and 136 beats per minute) that originated in the early 1970s, mainly from funk and soul music, popular with audiences in larger cities all over the world, and derives its name from the French word discothèque (meaning...

In 1981, The Four Tops returned to the R&B charts with a #1 hit in "When She Was My Girl" on Casablanca Records. The group returned to Motown for the Motown 25 special in 1983, and recorded a couple of albums before leaving for Arista Records. Benson appeared with the rest of the Four Tops on Aretha Franklin's Through the Storm album, released in 1989. 1981 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Casablanca Records is a record label that was started by Neil Bogart in 1973 after leaving Buddah Records. ... Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever was a 1983 television special produced by Suzanne de Passe for Motown Records, to commemorate Motowns twenty-fifth year of existence. ... 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Arista Records was founded in 1975 by Clive Davis, and named after his secondary school honor society. ... Aretha Franklin Aretha Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an iconic American gospel, soul and R&B singer born in Memphis, Tennessee, but raised in Detroit, Michigan. ...

Hall of Famer 1980-2005

Benson was admitted as a member of the Four Tops to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. The group would be awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997, followed by the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, showing Lake Erie in the background The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum and institution in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, dedicated, as the name suggests, to recording the history of some of the best-known and most influential... 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A small part of the Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood, California, United States, which is embedded with more than 2,000 five-pointed stars featuring the names of celebrities honored by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Vocal Group Hall of Fame was organized to honor what they term the Greatest Vocal Groups in the World. The Hall of Fame is headquartered in Sharon, Pennsylvania, United States. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

Until the death of Lawrence Payton in 1997, the Four Tops had had the same membership for over forty years. Former Temptation Theo Peoples joined the group in 1998. Peoples soon became the lead vocalist, as Levi Stubbs fell ill, and Ronnie McNair took Payton's place. Benson continued to tour extensively as part of the Four Tops, spending a third of the year on tour. The group would often tour with The Temptations as part of a double bill. The Classic 5 lineup of The Temptations, circa 1965. ... Theo Peoples is an African-American R&B and singer. ... 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

Benson died of lung cancer and other illnesses on July 1, 2005. His leg had been amputated earlier in 2005 due to circulation problems. He is survived by two daughters. His last performance as a Four Top was on April 8, 2005 live on Late Night with David Letterman. Roquel Payton, the son of Lawrence Payton, replaced Benson as a member of the Four Tops with Abdul Fakir remaining as the only original member. The incidence of lung cancer is highly correlated with smoking. ... July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... Late Night with David Letterman was the name of NBCs nightly hour long comedy talk show, which premiered in 1982 and went off the air in 1993. ...

References

Career

• Allmusic.com article on Renaldo Benson

• History of Rock article on the Four Tops

• Ben Edmonds, What's Going On?: What's Going On and the Last Days of the Motown Sound Canongate US 2003 ISBN 1841953148 on the recording of "What's Going On?"

• Rolling Stone article on "What's Going On" as part of its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time article

Obituaries

• ABC News America article on Benson's death

• Washington Post article on Benson's death

• Washington Times obituary

• Detroit News Susan Whitall's Rememberance