- Reach Out I'll Be There
Infobox Single
Name = Reach Out I'll Be There
Artist =Four Tops
Album = Reach Out
Released =August 18 ,1966
B-side = "Until You Love Someone"
Format = 7" single
Recorded =Hitsville USA (Studio A); 1966
Genre = Soul, pop
Length = 3:01
Label = Motown
M 1098
Writer =Holland-Dozier-Holland
Producer =Brian Holland
Lamont Dozier
Last single = "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever"
(1966)
This single = "Reach Out I'll Be There"
(1966)
Next single = "Standing in the Shadows of Love "
(1966)"Reach Out I'll Be There" (also formatted as "Reach Out (I'll Be There)") is a 1966 hit song recorded by
The Four Tops for theMotown label. Written and produced by Motown's main production teamHolland-Dozier-Holland , the song is one of the most well-known Motown tunes of the 1960s and is today considered The Tops' signature song. It was the number one song on theBillboard Hot 100 for two weeks, fromSeptember 24 1966 toOctober 15 . It replaced "Cherish" byThe Association , and was itself replaced by "96 Tears" byQuestion Mark & the Mysterians .Rolling Stone later ranked this version #206 on their list of the500 Greatest Songs of All Time .Lead singer Levi Stubbs delivers many of the lines in the song in a tone that straddles the line between singing and shouting, like he did in 1965's
I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) .This song differs markedly from the Four Tops' earlier efforts, due to the highly-contrasting shifts between minor and major, and also major and augmented chords. These contrasting tonal shades form the hook for which the song is so well known. The Four Tops would rely on this formula for several subsequent releases.
Covers
Only weeks after the original release, Jamaican soul singer
Derrick Harriott recorded and released a fine rocksteady version of this pop soul hit on his own Crystal label in Kingston, Jamaica (reissued on "Gaz Mayall's Top Ska Tunes", Trojan 2004).Diana Ross scored a Top 40 remake of the Four Tops' classic taking it to number twenty-nine on the Hot 100 in 1971. It was the second release from Ross' third solo album, "Surrender", in just a year. Ross' version was produced by Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, and was built around the same thematic basis that made Ross' 1970 remake ofMarvin Gaye &Tammi Terrell 's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough " a success.Gloria Gaynor performed adisco version in 1975.Famed
drummer /producer/singer Narada Michael Walden performed a version of the tune on his 1983 album "Looking at You, Looking at Me ", and it became a moderate R&B hit.Punk rock band Snuff released a version of the song on their covers albumFlibbidydibbidydob .Elton John 's 1989 singleHealing Hands was directly inspired by this song. It's chorus starts with the line "And "reach out" / for her healing hands".Michael Bolton covered this song from his 1992 compilation album "".The song inspired the 2003 film "I'll Be There" featuring
Charlotte Church .Michael McDonald also recorded a version for his album, Motown Two (2004), the follow-up to his album Motown (2003).
Bill Cosby recorded a humorous version of the song for his album "Hooray for the Salvation Army Band "," with sillier lyrics.Boyz II Men covered this song during a live medley on UK reality talent show The X Factor in October 2007.Clare Teal also covered this song on her 2007 albumParadisi Carousel .Meat Puppets were known to cover this song live in the early1980 's.The Human League did an instrumental version of this song which was released on ademo compact cassette .Use in other music
The song's introduction is sampled extensively throughout The Field's 'Action'.
ee also
*
*This Time I Know It's For Real Credits
* Lead vocals by
Levi Stubbs
* Background vocals byAbdul "Duke" Fakir ,Renaldo "Obie" Benson ,Lawrence Payton , andThe Andantes : Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps
* Instrumentation by TheFunk Brothers
* Written byBrian Holland ,Lamont Dozier , andEdward Holland, Jr.
* Produced byBrian Holland andLamont Dozier
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