(July 14, 2026) One of the great live soul albums of all time is coming back — and in an expanded edition to boot.
Originally released in 1966, Four Tops Live! captures one of Motown’s greatest vocal groups performing at the peak of their powers during the label’s legendary Monday night showcases at Detroit’s Roostertail club. Featuring Levi Stubbs, Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Lawrence Payton, and Renaldo “Obie” Benson, the album delivers explosive live versions of Motown classics alongside soul standards and pop favorites of the day.
This special 60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, issued by Elemental Music, expands the original release into a deluxe 2LP gatefold set, newly mixed and mastered from the original tapes. It includes previously unreleased performances, rare photographs never before seen, alternate cover artwork, and extensive new liner notes by Scott Regen, the very same broadcaster who served as emcee on those 1966 nights and who now returns to tell the full story behind the record.
According to the producer’s notes included with this edition, Motown Mondays was born in the late summer and early fall of 1966 as a new live event series from the ascendant Motown Records, building on the success of the label’s Christmas shows at the Fox Theater and its grinding Motortown Revue tours. The Roostertail, Detroit’s premier nightclub, was the next step in that strategy: presenting Motown’s big acts to a boisterous, loving hometown crowd, up close. The Four Tops kicked off this seven-week run, and their recordings, alongside those of The Temptations and Jr. Walker & The All Stars, became Motown’s best-selling live albums to date.
The original shows were recorded over two nights, August 22 and September 11, 1966, with Motown’s house band — Earl Van Dyke on organ, Robert White on guitar, James Jamerson on bass, Uriel Jones on drums, and the Detroit Horns — backing the Four Tops onstage. The set list combined the group’s own hits (“Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch),” “Baby I Need Your Loving”) with covers of standards and other artists’ songs, including “The Girl from Ipanema,” The Beatles’ “Michelle,” and The Supremes’ chart-topping “You Can’t Hurry Love.”
Going through the original reels, the production team uncovered far more material than made it onto the 1966 LP. That album was already unusually long for its era, 26 minutes a side, when normal LPs maxed out at 18–20, leaving alternate takes, group introductions, and Scott Regen’s stage patter on the cutting room floor. This edition spreads the show across four sides for improved fidelity and removes the fake applause that had been dubbed onto the original release, letting the room’s true acoustics and communal artistry come through.
Highlights among the new additions include previously unreleased performances of “Fascinating Rhythm,” “I’m Falling for You,” “Something About You,” and “Michelle,” along with alternate takes of songs that did make the original LP but were captured on the other night of the run, such as “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” and “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” Also restored is Scott Regen’s onstage patter introducing fellow Motown artists, including mentions of Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Supremes, and Kim Weston, a newly discovered snapshot of backstage life at Motown in 1966.
The original Four Tops Live! LP was released in early 1967 and reached #17 on the Billboard Top 200, while topping the magazine’s R&B LPs Chart — the third of four consecutive Motown albums to reach the chart summit between late October 1966 and mid-March 1967. In the U.K., the album was a top 5 smash, its release coinciding with the group’s first-ever dates there at London’s Saville Theatre, which helped establish the Four Tops’ international fame.
This is an incredible updating of a classic, and we’re excited that it is now available again on vinyl!
