“I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” (The Four Tops)

Today’s classic Motown song of the day is my favorite Motown tune, period, and I know it’s probably one of yours, too. I’m talking about “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” sung by the inimitable Levi Stubbs and the Four Tops. Released in April of 1965, this tune topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks and Billboard’s R&B chart for nine weeks. It was Billboard’s biggest R&B single of 1965 and one of the biggest hits of the entire decade.

“I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” was written and produced by the same three guys who wrote the bulk of the Tops’ classic hits—Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland, otherwise known as H-D-H. They were a true hitmaking machine back in the day, writing and producing songs for all the big Motown stars, including the Temptations, the Supremes, and, of course, the Four Tops. Lamont Dozier tells the story behind the song:

“I stayed with my grandmother when I was a kid. She owned her own home beauty shop, and when the women would come up the walkway to get their hair done, my grandfather would be piddling around in the garden. He was a bit of a flirt, and would say, ‘How you doin’, sugar pie? Good morning, honey bunch.’ He was one of those types of guys. My grandmother had a big bay window to the front of the house. She’d say, ‘Look at that old codger—he thinks I don’t see. I know what he’s doing.’ He was just flirting with his big smile. I’m sitting there on the porch watching this – I’m probably 11 or 12. I was like a sponge, soaking it up.

“Years later, at Motown, I’m sitting at the piano. I’d take these mind trips back to my childhood, and I’m trying to see what this piano part is telling me. Sure enough, there my grandfather is, piddling in the garden. That memory comes to my mind’s eye, and I know where the song is supposed to go. I hear him saying, ‘Good morning, sugar pie. How you doin’, honey bunch?’ That’s what started it…

“The song was started with a bass figure, with me sitting at the piano. It wasn’t slowed down, like the usual songs. The bass line was the whole song, at that tempo. When I said, ‘Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch,’ it was over with. We went right in and cut it.”

I love everything about this song, from that signature bass line to the driving drums (plus Jack Ashford’s two-and-four tambourine) to Levi Stubbs’ impassioned vocals to the lyrics that describe the depth of the singer’s love:

Sugar pie honey bunch
You know that I love you
I can’t help myself
I love you and nobody else
In and out my life
You come and you go
Leaving just your picture behind
And I kissed it a thousand times

It’s said that lead singer Levi Stubbs initially hated the song, thinking that the lyrics were too sugary, but Brian Holland insisted the group record it. Levi didn’t like his initial take and wanted to recut the vocals but they never got around to rerecording it. Those initial vocals were just fine.

The backing musicians on this track were the cream of Motown’s Funk Brothers studio cats. Those musicians included Mike Terry on bari sax, James Jamerson on bass, Jack Ashford on tambourine, and Benny Benjamin on drums. (Some sources credit Pistol Allen for this track, but it definitely sounds like Benny’s “four on the snare” beat and his version of the famous Motown dotted-eighth, sixteenth note, two eighth-note fill.) The female group the Andantes (Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps) filled out the Tops’ normal background vocals.

The Four Tops were Levi Stubbs, Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Ronaldo “Obie” Benson, and Lawrence Payton. They started singing together when they were in high school back in 1953, calling themselves the Four Aims. They signed to Chess Records in 1956, changed their name to the Four Tops, and subsequently cycled through a bevy of record labels (Red Top, Riverside Records, Columbia Records) without any success. They signed with Motown in 1963, hooked up with H-D-H, and hit after hit followed.

“I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” wasn’t the first hit for the Tops but it was their first #1. They went on to have hits throughout the ’60s and ’70s for Motown and, when they left that label in 1972, for other labels. While at Motown they had the following top 20 hits:

• “Baby I Need Your Loving” (#11, 1964)
• “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” (#1, 1965)
• “It’s the Same Old Song” (#5, 1965)
• “Something About You” (#19, 1965)
• “Shake Me Wake Me (When It’s Over)” (#18, 1965)
• “Reach Out I’ll Be There” (#1, 1966)
• “Standing in the Shadows of Love” (#6, 1966)
• “Bernadette” (#4, 1967)
• “7-Rooms of Gloom” (#14, 1967)
• “You Keep Running Away” (#19, 1967)
• “Walk Away Renee” (#14, 1968)
• “If I Were a Carpenter” (#20, 1968)
• “Still Water (Love)” (#11, 1970)
• “River Deep—Mountain High” (with the Supremes) (#14, 1970)

After Motown, they had several hits for ABC/Dunhill Records, including “Keeper of the Castle” (#10, 1972), “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I Got)” (#4, 1973), and “Are You Man Enough” (#15, 1973). When they left Dunhill in 1981 the Tops signed with Casablanca Records and had another big hit with “When She Was My Girl” (#11, 1981). The Tops left Casablanca in 1983 and rejoined the Motown stable, just in time for a memorable “battle of the bands” with the Temptations on the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, and Forever TV special.

Unlike some other Motown groups, such as the Temptations, who had a revolving rotation of members, the Four Tops continued recording and performing with all four original members until the death of Lawrence Payton in 1997. The other three continued as just “The Tops” until 1998, when they recruited former Temptation Theo Peoples to fill Lawrence’s spot. They suffered a further loss when Obie Benson passed away in 2005. Levi Stubbs carried on as lead singer until his death from cancer in 2008. Duke Fakir is still fronting “The Four Tops” today, however, age 87.

The Four Tops are definitely Motown royalty. They’ve been named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, and the R&B Hall of Fame. They won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and had two of their songs (“I Can’t Help Myself” and “Reach Out I’ll Be There”) named to the Grammy Hall of Fame. The Temptations and the Supremes may have had more hits and more mass market recognition, but the Tops are, in my estimation, truly the top Motown group of them all.

In my household, not a single grandchild gets to grow up without listening to, singing along to, and dancing to “I Can’t Help Myself.” It started with grandkids Collin and Hayley, both now in high school, and has continued through to four year-old Jamie. Sometimes the kids get the lyrics wrong (Jackson, now 8, used to sing “sugar high honey butt”), but that’s okay. They know the song and they love the song. I imagine if and when I ever die they’ll play this one at my funeral—and everybody will be up and dancing along.

And here’s a special treat—the Four Tops doing “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” live in Paris in 1967. They were incredible performers, all of them. Damn, this is something.