Four Tops' Benson Dies

Renaldo "Obie" Benson, a founding member of the Four Tops, died Friday after a brief battle with Cheap Rosetta Stone cancer; he was sixty-nine. Doctors discovered the cancer several weeks ago during a surgery to amputate one of his legs. He also sustained a heart attack during that surgery. Born in Detroit in 1936, bass vocalist Benson teamed with Levi Stubbs, Abdul (Duke) Fakir and Lawrence Payton in 1954 to form the Four Tops. The lineup remained intact for forty-three years, until Paytons death in 1997. Stubbs left the group in 2000 after suffering some health problems, but Benson, Fakir and two replacement Tops celebrated the groups fiftieth anniversary last year. "We knew from the beginning that we were in this for life," Fakir told Rosetta Stone last year. "We made a pact, This is what were going to do as long as we can sing." Motown Records founder Berry Gordy signed the Four Tops to a record deal in 1963 after seeing them perform on Cheap Rosetta Stone Software The Tonight Show. A parade of hits began the next year when "Baby I Need Your Loving" went Number One. The momentum continued with "I Cant Help Myself," topping the charts in 1965, and "Reach Out Ill Be There" doing the same in 1966. The Four Tops left Motown in 1972, after Gordy moved the label to Los Angeles. The Four Tops last reached the charts in 1988 with "Indestructible" topping out at Number Thirty-five. "The Four Tops are a one-in-a-million singing group," fellow Motown legend Smokey Robinson told Rosetta Stone earlier this year. "They were the best in my neighborhood in Detroit when I was growing up. They could sing like a gospel group but then do R B like no one else. The combination of Levi, Obie Benson, Duke Fakir and Lawrence Payton was truly awesome." Benson made an impact outside of the Four Tops as well, writing the lyrics to Marvin Gayes classic protest song "Whats Goin On." Benson is survived by his daugthers Ebony and Toby. "But I never listen to our stuff any of that." When Universal first suggested the Exile reissue, Richards says Rosetta Stone language, his reaction was, " thinsp;I dunno, puttin out an old record? And then they sort of made the point that Hey, its a very interesting album, it has a sort of aura about it. thinsp;" (Its hard to fool those record executives.) And now that hes revisited it, he seems more affectionate than reverent.

Posted in: Cheap Rosetta Stone,rosetta stone language,Rosetta Stone Spanish,Rosetta Stone V3