By 1981, the Four Tops were a nostalgia act, although few would refer to them as such.<\/p>\n
Their remarkable Motown recording career lost focus as the label began eyeing warmer climes, eventually moving west from Detroit to Los Angeles. By that time, Motown had essentially transformed the Four Tops into a covers act, so it probably wasn’t difficult for the group to say goodbye and hitch their wagon to a new label.<\/p>\n
Their post-Motown period had a promising start with “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got),” which peaked at #4 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the R&B chart in 1973. It would be a long eight years, however, before they broke the Top Forty again.<\/p>\n
The Four Tops took a break from recording in 1978 after a string of unsuccessful albums with ABC Records, but as the seventies gave way to the eighties, the band signed with Casablanca and scored what would prove to be their last big hit with “When She Was My Girl.”<\/p>\n