Artist Name: Four Tops

Year Inducted: 2023

Details

Category: Legendary Songs

"Standing In The Shadows Of Love" (Holland-Dozier-Holland) - Four Tops; Motown label, # 6 Billboard Hot 100, # 2 Billboard R&B - 1966. Induicted 2023.

“Standing In The Shadows Of Love” was written and produced by Motown’s main production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, and the song is one of the most well-known Motown tunes of the 1960s. It was a direct follow-up to the Four Tops’ previous hit, “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” and it featured a similar musical arrangement. 

Author Peter Benjaminson wrote that “Standing In The Shadows Of Love” was a reworked version of “Standing At The Crossroads Of Love,” the Supremes’ B-side from their 1963 hit single, “When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes.”

Levi Stubbs’ intense lead vocal helped drive the song to # 6 on Billboard’s Hot 100, and # 2 on Billboard’s R&B chart. It also reached # 6 in the UK. Interest in the song was rekindled in 2002 when the song’s title was borrowed for Standing In The Shadows Of Motown, the hit documentary film about the Funk Brothers, the unheralded and largely uncredited Motown studio musicians.

YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r80i5rqJoU8