Abdul “Duke” Fakir (Four Tops)

https://variety.com/2024/music/news/duke-fakir-four-tops-dead-1236080421/

 

The Four Tops couldn’t match the Supremes or the Temptations in terms of hit records, but they wound up topping both in terms of stability, as the original members first joined forces in 1953 and continued recording and performing together until the death of Lawrence Payton in 1997.

 

While they became known for their “tough, soulful voices” and a sound that “had a sense of urgency and even danger,” they started out singing jazz standards before arriving at Motown, and even recorded a jazz album when they first joined the label, although it wasn’t released until nearly 30 years later. The vocal arrangements are wonderful, but it’s completely different from their later recordings, sounding more like the Four Freshmen or the Manhattan Transfer.

 

Favorite tracks (all from their Motown days):

Ask The Lonely

Baby I Need Your Loving

It's The Same Old Song

I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)

7-Rooms of Gloom

Walk Away Renee

Standing In The Shadows Of Love

Reach Out I'll Be There

Bernadette

Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)

 

Bonus non-Motown track: When She Was My Girl – 1981 record that hit #1 on Billboard’s Hot Soul Singles chart and just missed the top 10 on the Hot 100

The outré entrée

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/of-interest/2024/07/26/paris-olympics-opening-ceremony-arson-attack-mascot/

 

This is a brief excerpt from a Dan Zak column that’s well worth reading in its entirety.

 

Pass the torch to a new generation? Or just pass the torch to Snoop Dogg (in French: “Snuup Doug”), who carried the flame Friday morning through the streets of Saint-Denis. He wore white athletic gear and gold-colored sneakers.

 

On a press call this week, a journalist from Billboard asked Snoop how he would field a team to win a gold medal for rapping. (Why not have a gold medal for rapping? NBC needs a new generation of viewers to pay attention. Only 56 percent of Americans are even aware that the games are being held in France, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday [emphasis mine]; over the past 24 Olympiads, there’s been a 27 percent drop in interest among Americans younger than 50. Maybe the Sixth Republic can’t be built out of TikToks.)

 

Anyway. “So this is rap Olympics you’re talking about?” Snoop replied. “I definitely would take Eminem. … Definitely would take Rakim. Then I would go grab a female … Queen Latifah. And naturally I gotta take Snoop Dogg. … I mean, dream team.”