[2][3] Fakir attended Detroit's Pershing High School,[4] where he played basketball and football, and ran track.

They became closer friends and Stubbs even traveled with Fakir to his sporting events, where they enjoyed singing and engaging teammates in sing-alongs.

[5] With their shared love of singing, they tried working with a few other singers, then decided to ask Lawrence Payton and Renaldo "Obie" Benson.

[8] Fakir was a guest on the "Not My Job" segment of the NPR radio show Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me broadcast on January 21, 2012.

[12] Fakir lived in the Palmer Park section of Detroit with his second wife Piper Gibson, who he was married to for 50 years.

However, the group received their first professional singing engagement during the summer of 1954 in Flint, Michigan, took a gamble, and decided to pursue their music career instead.

[15][16] After the group had completed their tour of Europe in December 1988, Fakir and the other Tops were originally scheduled to return to the U.S. from London via the Pan Am Flight 103, which crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland, after a terrorist bomb was detonated on the plane, killing all on board.

[17] They eventually missed the flight due to a prolonged filming of their performance on the British television show Top of the Pops.

[19] They appeared on Chicago's You and Me This Morning in 2013 to promote the Mary Wilson Holiday Spectacular With Special Guests The Four Tops.