Duke Fakir
Fakir at the LBJ Presidential Library in 2019
Fakir at the LBJ Presidential Library in 2019
Background information
Birth nameAbdul Kareem Fakir
Born (1935-12-26) December 26, 1935
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)Singer
Years active1953–present
Member ofFour Tops

Abdul Kareem Fakir (born December 26, 1935), professionally known as Duke Fakir, is an American singer. He is a founding member of the Motown quartet the Four Tops, from 1953 to the present day. A tenor, Fakir is the group's lone surviving original member, performing today with Ronnie McNeir, Lawrence "Roquel" Payton Jr. (son of original member Lawrence Payton), and Alexander Morris.[1][2]

Biography

Fakir was born on December 26, 1935, in Detroit, Michigan. His father was a factory worker who came from what is now Bangladesh.[3]

Fakir attended Detroit's Pershing High School,[4] where he played basketball, football, and ran track.[5]

He first met fellow band member Levi Stubbs through neighborhood football games, even though he was not aware Stubbs was a singer. Later, attending a variety show featuring the Lucky Millinder band, the band announced a talented young singer who Fakir recognized as the boy he played football with. They became closer friends and Stubbs even traveled with Fakir to his sporting events, where they enjoyed singing and engaging teammates in sing-a-longs.[5]

With their shared love of singing, they tried a few other singers then decided to ask Lawrence Payton and Renaldo "Obie" Benson. They invited Payton and Benson to join them at a party hosted by the Shahrazads, a local "it girl" club.[6] When invited by the girls to sing, they decided Stubbs would take the lead and they would back him up. The group and party-goers enjoyed their sound so much, that they decided to begin rehearsing together.[5]

They originally gave themselves the name "The Four Aims", to describe their goals of achieving something great.[5] But at their first recording session with Chess Records in Chicago, they were reminded that the singing quartet, the Ames Brothers, was a very popular group, and it was suggested that they change their name to avoid confusion.[7] After some discussion, their musical director Maurice King suggested the name the Four Tops, to go along with their original goal of shooting for the stars and reaching the top.[5] They became a popular local performing group but recording success eluded them until they signed with the newly established Motown Records in 1963. They soon became one of the biggest recording groups of the 1960s, with 14 charted hits through the early 1980s. They are listed at number 77 in Billboard magazine "Top 100 Artists Of All Time".[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.[6]

In 2022, Fakir was featured in an Associated Press Q&A article[9] and video in which he discusses his memoir called I'll Be There: My Life With The Four Tops,[10] and musical[11] based on his life and the story of The Four Tops.

Awards and achievements

As a member of the Four Tops Fakir was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990,[12] received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997,[13] was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999,[14] the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998,[15] received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009,[16] and was included in the Billboard magazine Top 100 Recording Artists of All Time.[8]

Personal life

Fakir resides in the Palmer Park section of Detroit with his second wife. He has four children, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild as of 2016.[17]

Fakir attributes his upbringing in Detroit as a strong influence in his choice to pursue his music career. Detroit is "full of churches. It's one of those cities in which gospel music has always been prevalent, jazz music had always been prevalent. Back in the day this was a jazz town... And when I was born we went to church, just like a couple of the other guys, so we sang all our lives pretty much... my mother worked at church and my cousins and I, we all went to choir, we grew up there."[18]

Both Benson and Fakir received scholarships to attend the same college and were preparing to enter. 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.[18][19]

Fakir was close friends with fellow Motown artist Mary Wilson of the Supremes until her death in 2021. The two were romantically linked and briefly engaged in 1964; however, their music careers were still developing and they decided it would be best to call it off.[20] 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.[21] At the show they performed "Baby, It's Cold Outside" together.

In January 2023, it was reported the U.S. Department of Treasury is seeking $500,000 in unpaid taxes from Fakir.[22]

References

  1. ↑ Huey, Steve. "Biography: The Four Tops". Allmusic. Retrieved April 5, 2010.
  2. ↑ "Duke Fakir, the remaining member of the Four Tops".
  3. ↑ His mother was an African American named Tessa.Wright, John (October 21, 2018). "Abdul 'Duke' Fakir: 'I lost $30k gambling – but then I won it back'". The Daily Telegraph. p. 14. My father was a factory worker who came from the part of India which is now Bangladesh.
  4. ↑ Maynard, Micheline. "Levi Stubbs, 72, Powerful Voice for Four Tops, Dies." The New York Times. October 17, 2008. Retrieved on November 7, 2012.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "2010 Interview with Dave Lawrence". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-12.
  6. 1 2 "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me". NPR.
  7. ↑ Colin Larkin, ed. (1993). The Guinness Who's Who of Soul Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 91/3. ISBN 0-85112-733-9.
  8. 1 2 Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists list Archived 2015-12-08 at the Wayback Machine. Listal.com (2008-09-12). Retrieved on 2012-11-10.
  9. ↑ "Duke Fakir details The Four Tops musical bond in new book". AP News. March 1, 2022. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  10. ↑ Fakir, Duke. McGhee Anderson, Kathleen (2022). I'll be There: my life with the four tops. [S.l.]: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-913172-59-6. OCLC 1281135768.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ↑ McCollum, Brian. "Four Tops musical 'I'll Be There' will premiere in Detroit ahead of Broadway run". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  12. ↑ The Four Tops Biography | The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Archived 2012-07-13 at the Wayback Machine. Rockhall.com. Retrieved on 2012-11-10.
  13. ↑ The Four Tops | Hollywood Walk of Fame Archived 2013-11-03 at the Wayback Machine. Walkoffame.com. Retrieved on 2012-11-10.
  14. ↑ The Four Tops – Inductees – The Vocal Group Hall of Fame Foundation Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine. Vocalgroup.org. Retrieved on 2012-11-10.
  15. ↑ "GRAMMY Awards: Here Are the 2018 GRAMMY Hall of Fame Inductees". 1077theend.com. 16 January 2018. Archived from the original on 14 February 2018. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  16. ↑ Entertainment | Four Tops to get lifetime Grammy Archived 2008-12-25 at the Wayback Machine. BBC News (2008-12-22). Retrieved on 2012-05-13.
  17. ↑ "Where are they now". Daily Express. September 24, 2016.
  18. 1 2 "The Last Top".
  19. ↑ 2012 Interview with BBC Breakfast.
  20. ↑ "Motown: The Musical, UK. Exclusive Interview with Duke Fakir".
  21. ↑ "Mary Wilson Duke Fakir YouAndMeThisMorning". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-12.
  22. ↑ "US Government Seeks $500k in Unpaid Taxes from Motown Legend". Michigan Live. January 19, 2023.
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