Reach Out I'll Be There

"Reach Out I'll Be There" (also rendered 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' signiture song. It was the #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 for one weeks, from September 24 1966 to October 15. It replaced "Cherish" by The Association, and was itself replaced by "96 Tears" by ? & the Mysterians.

Levi Stubbs' ad-libbed "just look over your shoulder" found its way into another song named "I'll Be There" four years later: The Jackson 5's fourth #1 hit.

Ironically, Diana Ross scored a Top 40 remake of the Four Tops' classic taking it to #29 on the Hot 100 in 1971. It was the second release off 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.

Credits

• Lead vocals by Levi Stubbs
• Background Vocals by Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson, Lawrence Payton, and The Andantes: Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps
• Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers

• Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Edward Holland, Jr.
• Produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier