music.wikisort.org - Composition

"7 Rooms of Gloom" is a song recorded by the Motown Records vocal quartet the Four Tops. It was released as a single in 1967 on the Motown label and reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100,[1] and was a Top 10 R&B Hit, charting at #10. It was also a hit in the UK, their seventh, staying for nine weeks in the UK Singles Charts and reaching #12[2] and in the Netherlands where it made #23 in the Dutch Top 40.[3]

"7 Rooms of Gloom"
Single by Four Tops
from the album Reach Out
B-side	"I'll Turn to Stone"
Released	May 2, 1967
Recorded	Hitsville U.S.A. (Studio A); 1967
Genre	Soul, pop
Length	2:46
Label	Motown
Songwriter(s)	Holland–Dozier–Holland
Producer(s)	Brian Holland Lamont Dozier
Four Tops singles chronology
"Bernadette" (1967) "7 Rooms of Gloom" (1967) "You Keep Running Away" (1967)

Described as "throbbing with dread over a racing minor key dominated arrangement"[4] it was written by Holland–Dozier–Holland. The single's B-side was "I'll Turn to Stone"[5] also written by Holland-Dozier-Holland with R Dean Taylor.[6] That song made a separate chart entry, and peaked at #76 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #50 on the R&B Charts.

Cash Box called it a "thumping, fast-moving, blues-oriented rocker" that is a "real powerhouse."[7]

The song begins with Levi Stubb's doing a spoken recitation, which gets repeated twice with alterations.

The Four Tops strongly disliked the song, and they don't perform it live either.

Personnel

• Levi Stubbs – lead vocals
• Abdul "Duke" Fakir – background vocals
• Renaldo "Obie" Benson – background vocals
• Lawrence Payton – background vocals
• Jackie Hicks – background vocals
• Marlene Barrow – background vocals
• Louvain Demps – background vocals
• Funk Brothers – instrumentation

References

---