"Reach Out I'll Be There" (also formatted as "Reach Out
(I'll Be There)") is a 1966 hit song recorded by the Four Tops
for the Motown label. Written and produced by Motown's main
production team Holland-Dozier-Holland, the song is one of the
most well-known Motown tunes of the 1960s and is today
considered The Tops' signature song. It was the number one song
on the R&B charts for two weeks,. and on the Billboard Hot
100 for two weeks, from September 24, 1966 to October 15. It
replaced "Cherish" by The Association, and was itself replaced
by "96 Tears" by Question Mark & the Mysterians. Rolling
Stone later ranked this version #206 on their list of the 500
Greatest Songs of All Time. This version is also currently
ranked as the 36th best song of all time, as well as the #3
song of 1966, in an aggregation of critics' lists at
acclaimedmusic.net.
Lead singer Levi Stubbs delivers many of the lines in the
song in a tone that straddles the line between singing and
shouting, like he did in 1965's "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie
Honey Bunch)".
This song differs markedly from the Four Tops' earlier
efforts, due to the highly-contrasting shifts between minor and
major, and also major and augmented chords. These contrasting
tonal shades form the hook for which the song is so well known.
The Four Tops would rely on this formula for several subsequent
releases.
The song is featured prominently in the final scene and the
closing credits of the 1975 motion picture
Cooley High, a coming-of-age film starring Glynn Turman
and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs.
PWL remixed the song in 1988. The remix was done by Phil
Harding & Ian Curnow. The 12" Remix runs 6:05 and the Radio
Edit runs 3:10.
Only weeks after the original release, Jamaican soul singer
Derrick Harriott recorded and released a version of this pop
soul hit on his own Crystal label in Kingston, Jamaica
(reissued on
Gaz Mayall's Top Ska Tunes, Trojan 2004).
Petula Clark recorded a version for her 1967 album
Colour My World/Who Am I.
Merrilee Rush recorded what many consider a psychedelic
version of the song in 1968. Titled simply "Reach Out", the
single on the AGP label only made it to #79 on Billboard's Hot
100 in December, 1968.
Diana Ross scored a Top 40 remake of the Four Tops' classic
taking it to number twenty-nine on the Hot 100 in 1971. It was
the second release from Ross' third solo album,
Surrender, in just a year. Ross' version was produced by
Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, and was built around
the same thematic basis that made Ross' 1970 remake of Marvin
Gaye & Tammi Terrell's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" a
success. Ross' cover is the best known and most successful
cover of the song.
Gloria Gaynor performed a disco version in 1975.
Claude François recorded a version in French that was titled
J'attendrai. The song has no relation to the 1939 French son
also named J'attendrai.
Famed drummer/producer/singer Narada Michael Walden
performed a version of the tune on his 1983 album
Looking at You, Looking at Me, and it became a moderate
R&B hit.
Punk rock band Snuff released a version of the song on their
covers album
Flibbidydibbidydob.
Elton John's 1989 single "Healing Hands" was directly
inspired by this song. Its chorus starts with the line "And
reach out/ for her healing hands".
Michael Bolton covered this song from his 1992 compilation
album
Timeless: The Classics.
The song inspired the 2003 film
I'll Be Therefeaturing Charlotte Church.
Michael McDonald also recorded a version for his album,
Motown Two(2004), the follow-up to his album
Motown(2003).
Bill Cosby recorded a humorous version of the song for his
album
Bill Cosby Sings Hooray for the Salvation Army
Band!.
Boyz II Men covered this song during a live medley on UK
reality talent show
The X Factorin October 2007.
Clare Teal also covered this song on her 2007 album
Paradisi Carousel.
Meat Puppets were known to cover this song live in the early
1980s.
The Human League did an instrumental version of this song
which was released on a demo compact cassette.
Serbian 1980s group Oktobar 1864 covered this song in
Serbian and had hit with it.
Efrat Gosh covered this song in 2007 alongside local Israeli
group "Red Band".
Richie Kotzen covered this song from his 1994 studio album
Mother Head's Family Reunion.
The Swedish band Anywhen covered this song on their 1993
studio album As We Know It.
The song's introduction is sampled extensively throughout
The Field's "Action".
Four Tops(1964)
·
Four Tops' Second Album(1965)
·
Four Tops On Top(1966)
·
Reach Out(1967)
·
Yesterday's Dreams(1968)
·
The Four Tops Now(1969)
·
Soul Spin(1969)
·
Still Waters Run Deep(1970)
·
Changing Times(1970)
·
Mac Arthur Park(1971)
·
Nature Planned It(1972)
·
Keeper of the Castle(1972)
·
Main Street People(1973)
·
Meeting the Minds(1974)
·
Night Lights Harmony(1975)
·
Catfish(1976)
·
The Show Must Go On(1977)
·
At The Top(1978)
·
Tonight!(1981)
·
One More Mountain(1982)
·
Back Where I Belong(1983)
·
Magic(1985)
·
Hot Nights(1986)
·
Indestructible(1988)
The Magnificent 7(1970)
·
The Return of the Magnificent 7(1971)
·
Dynamite!(1971)
Four Tops Live!(1966)
·
Live & in Concert(1974)
·
Christmas Here With You(1995)
·
The Ultimate Collection(1997)
·
Lost & Found: Breaking Through(1999)
"I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" (1965)
·"It's the Same
Old Song" (1965)
·"
Reach Out I'll Be There
" (1966)
·"Standing in the
Shadows of Love" (1966)
·"Bernadette"
(1967)
·"If I Were a
Carpenter" (1967)
·"Walk Away Renée"
(1968)
·"Still Water
(Love)" (1970)
·"It's All in the
Game" (1970)
·"River Deep –
Mountain High" (1971)
·"A Simple Game"
(1972)
·"Keeper of the
Castle" (1972)
·"Ain't No Woman
(Like the One I've Got)" (1973)
·"When She Was My
Girl" (1981)
·"Loco in
Acapulco" (1988)
Discography
·Members
·Holland–Dozier–Holland