7-Rooms of Gloom

"7-Rooms of Gloom"
Single by Four Tops
from the album Reach Out
B-side	"I'll Turn to Stone"
Released	May 2, 1967
Format	7" single
Recorded	Hitsville U.S.A. (Studio A); 1967
Genre	Soul, pop
Length	2:46
Label	Motown
Writer(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)

"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]

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.

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

1. "Four Tops – Awards". Allmusic. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
2. "Official Charts – Four Tops". www.officialcharts.com. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
3. "The Four Tops – 7 Rooms Of Gloom". www.top40.nl. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
4. Dahl, Bill. Motown The Golden Years. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
5. "Four Tops – 7-Rooms Of Gloom / I'll Turn To Stone". Discogs. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
6. "I'll Turn to Stone". Allmusic. Retrieved 14 July 2013.