R.I.P. Levi Stubbs

Tonight I discovered that Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops has died. However you feel about his lengthy list of Motown hits, he would be worth memorializing, and celebrating, for his role in creating one of the great pop songs of all time -- the Holland-Dozier-Holland hit It's the Same Old Song. Some of the obituaries I've read suggest that, as his songwriters pushed his natural baritone up to a tenor register, his voice gained its characteristic "urgent and pleading" quality. You should listen to it, anyway:

The Four Tops: It's the Same Old Song

And here is a wonderful cover by Iron & Wine: Same Old Song

A funny aside: after his Motown heyday, Levi Stubbs took jobs recording video game voiceovers and starred as the plant in the film version of Little Shop of Horrors. I imagine the conversation about that job going something like this:

Agent: Ever hear of Little Shop of Horrors?
Levi: Uh . . . the movie or the shop?
Agent: The brand-new multimillion-dollar musical. And you are starring . . . as the horror.
Levi: It's the part I was born to play, baby!