DETROIT - You may not have known the name. But you certainly couldn't miss Levi Stubbs' voice.

That voice -- rough, raw, intense -- remains a fixture on the American music landscape, unmistakable on such Four Tops hits as "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Bernadette," "Standing in the Shadows of Love" and "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)."

Stubbs, 72, died Friday at his home in Detroit. He had suffered for many years from a series of debilitating illnesses.

Unlike Marvin Gaye, who used his voice to caress, or Smokey Robinson, whose silky croon sparkled, Stubbs headed straight for the guts of his notes, summoning a distinctive grit and fire. For most vocalists, the perky melody in the lines "sugar pie, honey bunch" was an invitation to go sunny and sweet. For Stubbs, it was a chance to insist -- to plead, cajole, declare, demand.

Hugely popular in Europe and other continents as well as in the United States, the Four Tops became a linchpin of Motown Records, second only to the Temptations, with whom they were often compared, in popularity among its male artists. The group had more than 40 hits on the Billboard pop charts and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.