"four Rooms"

Solid and steady hitmakers for Motown in the late 1960s, the Four Tops, led by the deep, soulful voice of Levi Stubbs and blessed with A-line songs from the Holland-Dozier-Holland writing team, were one of the finest singing groups the label ever produced. Singles like "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Standing in the Shadows of Love," "Bernadette," "I Can't Help Myself," and the wise-beyond-its-era "It's the Same Old Song" were radio staples in their time, and actually still continue to be staples on 21st century oldies stations. That's staying power, and it's no accident. The songs, at least the singles, were good and the Tops' sound was a hair rougher and edgier than a lot of Motown's issues at the time.

The last of the major Motown groups to receive proper box-set treatment, the Four Tops in a sense got the best of the bunch, since this tells a ripping history while providing a cornucopia of rarities.

No, here's the ultimate Four Tops singles collection. Like Motown Select's 50th anniversary releases for the Temptations, Diana Ross & the Supremes, and Martha & the Vandellas, this is a three-disc anthology packaged like a hardcover book. It features nearly 60 pages of images, sleeve scans, detailed track information, and in-depth liner notes - much of which is sensibly repurposed from those like-shaped Complete Motown Singles volumes. The A-sides and B-sides appear chronologically - a terminally impressive sequence that includes the Top Five R&B singles "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," "It's the Same Old Song," "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)," "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Standing in the Shadows of Love," and "Bernadette."

50th Anniversary: The Singles Collection 1964-1972 Review by Andy Kellman
No, here's the ultimate Four Tops singles collection. Like Motown Select's 50th anniversary releases for the Temptations, Diana Ross & the Supremes, and Martha & the Vandellas, this is a three-disc anthology packaged like a hardcover book. It features nearly 60 pages of images, sleeve scans, detailed track information, and in-depth liner notes – much of which is sensibly repurposed from those like-shaped Complete Motown Singles volumes. The A-sides and B-sides appear chronologically – a terminally impressive sequence that includes the Top Five R&B singles "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," "It's the Same Old Song," "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)," "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Standing in the Shadows of Love," and "Bernadette." The singles are shared with the Supremes on disc two, while the third disc is heavy on the "bonus tracks": 14 sides from the U.K.-only singles, as well as Italian versions of "I Can't Help Myself," "Reach Out I'll Be There," and "Walk Away Renee." For most fans, this is overkill and then some. For voracious newcomers and collectors – perhaps even those who shelled out for all the Complete Motown Singles volumes – this is an essential release, if somewhat frustratingly so.

A massive collection of drums captured in the four different rooms of the Hansa Tonstudio. The Rooms of Hansa SDX features drums produced by Grammy Award-winning recording/mixing engineer Michael Ilbert in one of the most iconic studios currently in existence: the Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin, Germany.

‘The five pieces featured on this recording are the result of an extended fascination and confrontation with Shakespeare’s Hamlet’, writes Brett Dean in his introductory text, going on to explain that the intention of this programme is to be ‘a sonic exploration of the spaces, atmospheres and archetypes of emotion and character in which, and through which, the tragedy of Hamlet unfolds’. These works derive, each in its own way, from an opera, Dean’s take on the topic of Hamlet, premièred in 2017.

Solid and steady hitmakers for Motown in the late 1960s, the Four Tops, led by the deep, soulful voice of Levi Stubbs and blessed with A-line songs from the Holland-Dozier-Holland writing team, were one of the finest singing groups the label ever produced. Singles like "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Standing in the Shadows of Love," "Bernadette," "I Can't Help Myself," and the wise-beyond-its-era "It's the Same Old Song" were radio staples in their time, and actually still continue to be staples on 21st century oldies stations.