Rolling Stone ranked this version number 206 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". This version is also currently ranked as the 56th best song of all time (as well as the number four song of 1966) in an aggregation of critics' lists at Acclaimed Music.
Lead singer Levi Stubbs delivers many of the lines in the song in a tone that some consider straddles the line between singing and shouting, as he did in 1965's "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)". AllMusic critic Ed Hogan praises Stubb's vocal, as well as the song's "rock-solid groove" and "dramatic, semi-operatic tension and release." Critic Martin Charles Strong calls the song "a soul symphony of epic proportions that remains [the Four Tops'] signature tune."
In 2014, interviewed by The Guardian, Four Tops singer Duke Fakir said:
"Eddie realised that when Levi hit the top of his vocal range, it sounded like someone hurting, so he made him sing right up there. Levi complained, but we knew he loved it. Every time they thought he was at the top, he would reach a little further until you could hear the tears in his voice. The line "Just look over your shoulder" was something he threw in spontaneously. Levi was very creative like that, always adding something extra from the heart."
Rolling Stone ranked this version number 206 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". This version is also currently ranked as the 56th best song of all time (as well as the number four song of 1966) in an aggregation of critics' lists at Acclaimed Music.
Lead singer Levi Stubbs delivers many of the lines in the song in a tone that some consider straddles the line between singing and shouting, as he did in 1965's "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)". AllMusic critic Ed Hogan praises Stubb's vocal, as well as the song's "rock-solid groove" and "dramatic, semi-operatic tension and release." Critic Martin Charles Strong calls the song "a soul symphony of epic proportions that remains [the Four Tops'] signature tune."
In 2014, interviewed by The Guardian, Four Tops singer Duke Fakir said:
"Eddie realised that when Levi hit the top of his vocal range, it sounded like someone hurting, so he made him sing right up there. Levi complained, but we knew he loved it. Every time they thought he was at the top, he would reach a little further until you could hear the tears in his voice. The line "Just look over your shoulder" was something he threw in spontaneously. Levi was very creative like that, always adding something extra from the heart."
Rolling Stone ranked this version number 206 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". This version is also currently ranked as the 56th best song of all time (as well as the number four song of 1966) in an aggregation of critics' lists at Acclaimed Music.
Lead singer Levi Stubbs delivers many of the lines in the song in a tone that some consider straddles the line between singing and shouting, as he did in 1965's "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)". AllMusic critic Ed Hogan praises Stubb's vocal, as well as the song's "rock-solid groove" and "dramatic, semi-operatic tension and release." Critic Martin Charles Strong calls the song "a soul symphony of epic proportions that remains [the Four Tops'] signature tune."
In 2014, interviewed by The Guardian, Four Tops singer Duke Fakir said: "Eddie realised that when Levi hit the top of his vocal range, it sounded like someone hurting, so he made him sing right up there. Levi complained, but we knew he loved it. Every time they thought he was at the top, he would reach a little further until you could hear the tears in his voice. The line "Just look over your shoulder" was something he threw in spontaneously. Levi was very creative like that, always adding something extra from the heart."