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MOJO GOES MOTOWN: The Four Tops’ Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir

5:30 PM GMT 09/01/2009

MOJO GOES MOTOWN: The Four Tops’ Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir

“I KNOW BERNADETTE WELL. She was a gorgeous young woman when the song was written and she’s a prominent figure in Detroit today, but only a few people know who the real Bernadette is and we are all sworn to secrecy by the writer of that song to keep her identity secret and I ain’t tellin’ no-one man! And every time I see her I whisper in her ear, ‘What’s up, Bernadette?’ and then I sing a little of the song to her. One of the writers, he really loved her and he wrote his feelings down in that song and Levi Stubbs (far right; Fakir is second from left) interpreted those feelings so fine.

“When Holland, Dozier, Holland played us that song I thought, ‘Woah, what are you doing here? You guys are coming up with some magical music.’ I mean, it was such a strong song and the production, the lyrics and the way Levi delivered, it was powerful. Holland-Dozier-Holland were so talented, they are the greatest tailors of music for an artist. They didn’t just write songs and then say, ‘Ok, let’s get someone to do this.’ They would look at the artist, talk with them, listen to them, hang with them and then tailor-make them a wonderful song. And this one fit The Four Tops perfectly. It has that wonderful false ending when Levi calls out her name and it makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. He thumped that song good.

“We were all in the studio together, the strings, The Originals, The Andantes, The Funk Brothers, The Four Tops, they played the track, it was really hot, and we all knew we’d got another red carpet to ride on, and we just floated with that track, we stayed in that groove and accentuated it. It was a lot of fun. It took about an hour and a half, a little longer than usual. We’d usually just zip through the backgrounds but we kept changing bits and changing bits and the harmonies, we saw them like strings – violins, violas and cellos – and we tried to sing the soulfulness of the strings and I think we did pretty good.

“We get a lot of credit for delivering the songs but it boils down to the songs themselves. They are just great songs and when Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown we were hurting. It was like losing my best girl.”

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 5:30 PM GMT 09/01/2009

Related MOJO content:

Duke Fakir , Four Tops , Motown

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  • I think you are thinking like sukrat, but I think you should cover the other side of the topic in the post too...

    Posted by Penis Enlargement at 9:16 AM GMT 20/01/2009 Report Abuse

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  • I think you are thinking like sukrat, but I think you should cover the other side of the topic in the post too...

    Posted by Penis Enlargement at 4:31 PM GMT 21/01/2009 Report Abuse

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  • Really enjoyed your Motown-special. Been listening to the 59-71 Box-set non stop for two weeks straight now. Thanks!

    My favourite song: The Tracks Of My Tears - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

    Posted by Ola Claesson at 1:38 PM GMT 26/01/2009 Report Abuse

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