7 Rooms of Gloom

"7 Rooms of Gloom" is a song originally 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, 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 and in the Netherlands where it made #23 in the Dutch Top 40.

Described as "throbbing with dread over a racing minor key dominated arrangement" it was written by Holland–Dozier–Holland. The single's B-side was "I'll Turn to Stone" also written by Holland-Dozier-Holland with R Dean Taylor. 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." Record World called it "Top notch wailing from the Detroit group."

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

In 1985, Pat Benatar covered the song on her album, Seven the Hard Way. Bruce Springsteen covered the song in his 2022 studio album, Only the Strong Survive.

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