CoronaVinyl Day 219 (F): On Top by The Four Tops

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "F," and like "E," there aren't too many "F" options left in my collection, so I'm once again going with a Four Tops record.  Today's selection is 1966's On Top, the group's third studio album.

By the time they released On Top, The Four Tops were already an established Motown act, having five Top 40 Billboard Hot 100 hits (including two Top 10s and one #1) under their belt.  On Top was a bit of a step backwards in terms of hits.  The album itself went to #32 on the Billboard album chart and #3 on the Billboard R&B album chart, and it was the group's first album to chart on the UK album chart, reaching #9.

But Motown's success was really built more on singles sales than album sales, and only two songs from the album charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)" reaching #18 and "Loving You is Sweeter Than Ever" topping (pun intended, motherfuckers!) out at #45.  The former was the group's fifth consecutive Top 10 song on the Billboard R&B singles chart, hitting #5, while the latter went to #12 on that chart.  And Stevie Wonder plays drums on the latter (and co-wrote the song).

Part of the issue with the album's relative lack of success (at least by mid '60s Motown standards) is probably because the second side of the album is all covers, including "Michelle" by The Beatles, "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" from Fiddler on the Roof, a Cole Porter song, and .  Some of the songs are more syrupy and schmaltzy than standard Motown fare, and not really the types of songs that featured the group's talents (or the talents of Motown's amazing in-house songwriters).  The first side is definitely the better side.

Of course, The Four Tops would continue to have success after this album and continued to make music well into the '80s, garnering 18 more Top 40 hits and eventually being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)"

The group's sixth Top 40 hit is a classic Holland-Dozier-Holland Four Tops collaboration.  It's a great example of the "Motown Sound," and it's the type of song that you would expect to hear from The Four Tops in 1966.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Then"
This is the only song on Side 2 that sounds remotely like a Motown or Four Tops song, and that's probably because it was written by Smokey Robinson, Bobby Rogers, and Pete Moore of The Four Tops' Motown label mates The Miracles.