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UMe is making it a soulful summer thanks to the release of a newly remixed and expanded edition of one of Motown’s prime single-artist concert albums: Four Tops Live!

Pressed on vinyl by the Elemental Music label with a July 24 release date (with a digital edition dropping on the same date), this 60th anniversary edition of Four Tops Live! offers even more from the two dates at Detroit’s Roostertail club which comprised the original LP. Now expanded to four sides of vinyl with 10 tracks not featured on the original album, the concert features all of the quartet’s most scintillating hits for the label (“Baby I Need Your Loving,” “I Can’t Help Myself,” “It’s the Same Old Song,” “Ask the Lonely,” “Reach Out I’ll Be There”) plus a selection of popular favorites (Tony Bennett’s “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” The Sound of Music‘s “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” The Beatles’ “Michelle,” folk standard “If I Had a Hammer” and Getz/Gilberto/Jobim masterpiece “The Girl from Ipanema”) and even a take on The Supremes’ then-new “You Can’t Hurry Love.” (The single topped the Billboard Hot 100 for its first of two weeks on a chart dated the day before the Tops’ second Roostertail gig that made the album.)

Produced by UMe’s vice-president of A&R and all-around Motown master Harry Weinger, the expanded Four Tops Live! gets a special assist from Drew Schultz, a former drummer and music director for the Tops in recent years who now works as a curator at the Motown Museum in Detroit. Schultz has remixed and remastered the project from the original tapes, removing overdubbed applause and replacing it with the original in-the-room reactions as well as reinstating crowd work by both lead singer Levi Stubbs and the show’s emcee, Detroit disc jockey Scott Regen. (Regen’s original notes appear in the gatefold package, along with newly-written ones and producer’s notes from Weinger.) As a further treat, the vinyl closes with “You Name It,” an unissued instrumental from bandleader Earl Van Dyke and the musicians who backed up the Tops on this set and most of Motown’s sterling discography. (Years later, the group would be more formally known as The Funk Brothers.)

Motown’s “sound of young America” was just as impactful on stage as it was in the Hitsville studio. As the label’s influence expanded throughout the ’60s, it was a rite of passage for top hitmakers to get their own live discs; The Miracles, Marvin Gaye, The Marvelettes, The Supremes and Mary Wells all had ones before the Four Tops. But Four Tops Live! is special, coming in the midst of a special promotion spearheaded by Regen for local station WKNR: “Motown Monday,” a series of live broadcasts from The Roostertail and featuring the company’s top talent. (The Tops were the first Motown Monday headliner, and a set from The Temptations was also released in 1967 for their first live record.)

It’s an electrifying document of a classic Motown act almost underrated among the other giants, and certainly notable for their incredible consistency: members Levi Stubbs, Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Lawrence Payton co-founded the group in 1953, before Motown even existed – and the line-up remained unchanged until Payton’s passing in 1997. (The group continues to tour, now featuring Payton’s son Lawrence Jr., who joined in 2005 after Benson died in 2005; Payton’s replacement Theo Peoples, who rejoined the group last year after a 15-year absence; Ronnie McNeir, who stepped in when Stubbs retired in 2000; and first tenor Michael Brock, who succeeded Duke Fakir shortly before his passing in 2024.)

Fittingly, the current iteration of the group – who recently detailed additional potential catalogue plans for the future in a Billboard feature – will promote this newly expanded live release with a July 24 performance at the venue where the album was recorded. In the meantime, you can pre-order your copy of the set below. (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)

Four Tops Live! Special 60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Elemental Music 620957 (LP)/Motown/UMe, 2026) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

LP 1

Side 1

1. Introduction by Scott Regen
2. Fascinating Rhythm *
3. It’s the Same Old Song
4. It’s Not Unusual
5. Baby I Need Your Loving
6. Ask the Lonely *

Side 2

1. Shake Me, Wake Me (When It’s Over) *
2. The Girl from Ipanema
3. Climb Ev’ry Mountain
4. Something About You *
5. Michelle *

LP 2

Side 3

1. If I Had a Hammer
2. I’m Falling for You *
3. Group Introductions by Levi Stubbs & Scott Regen *
4. Reach Out I’ll Be There
5. I Left My Heart in San Francisco

Side 4

1. I’ll Turn to Stone
2. You Can’t Hurry Love
3. Interlude by Levi Stubbs *
4. I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)
5. I Like Everything About You
6. Outro by Scott Regen *
7. You Name It (Bonus Funk Brothers Instrumental) *

All Tracks except Side 4, Track 7 recorded live from the upper deck of The Roostertail, Detroit, MI – 8/22 and 9/11/1966
* not included on original release. All other tracks first released on Motown M/MS-654, 1966