The year 1964 is one heavily marked with history.  It was the year of the Kennedy’s, civil rights victories with the signing of the Civil Rights Act, and of musical highlights.  The Beatles were seizing the charts with number one hits and American pop music had come into its own.  Leading the American pop music industry was the unforgettable rhythm and blues icons, the Temptations.

It was quite a heyday.  Young girls screamed at the gates for “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, the Temptations captured national attention with “My Girl” and at the same time, Motown jazz artists, The Four Tops, bumped into the number eleven place on the popular billboard charts with, “Baby, I Need Your Loving.”  Music had set a pace that would last for the next four decades.

The Four Tops have established themselves quite a career in the music industry.  Beside establishing a number of number one hits of their own, they have been paired with such musical greats as Diana Ross and the Supremes, and featured vocals with the Moody Blues, in the single, “A Simple Game”.  Although the song did not do well on American charts, it made number three in Great Britain.  They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997.

The group has never stopped touring and recently joined forces with the magnificent vocal qualities of the Temptations.  The Temptations, listed by Rolling Stone as one of the top fifty bands of all time, recently completed a new CD, a concept album that features their music from its beginnings to present day, bringing the history of the award-winning group into its music.

The combination of the two groups on national tour is bound to please anybody whose tastes run deep in jazz, rhythm and blues, and popular music.  Still carrying the big band sound, along with the pleasing, perfect melody of blues artist voices in harmony, they are not only a nostalgic journey into the past, but a statement of modern day easy listening.

With an opening night at the Wilbur Theater in Boston December 5, the east coast tour winds up June 27, in Vienna, Virginia.  This may be your only chance to hear the two chart breaking groups together, and will certainly be considered history in the making.  Discover the quality that made the Temptations one of the most popular American groups to remain on the top billboard charts and the artistic performance of the Four Tops that put them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 3rd, 2012 at 1:03 am and is filed under Concerts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.