https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/22/arts/music/abdul-duke-fakir-dead.html

Thanks for the memories Duke - RIP 

Gutted to read this. RIP Duke! XxxX

this is a re-post By Chris Rizik, soultracks.

 

very sad...  70 years,  blazing a trail.  RIP old friend. 

Reunited with Levi, Obie and Lawrence Thanks Duke for all the great music you gave us RIP 

The end of one of music's great groups.

I met Abdul twenty years ago when he visited Glasgow with Fred Bridges who was the latter day manager of the Four Tops.

Abdul was a gentleman. RIP.

Here is the group performing on the back lawn of the Roostertail in 1966.

 

Forgotten how good that tune actually is .     wonderful !

Edited July 22, 2024Jul 22 by Ian Parker

R.I.P duke.  Don't know why but the last of the group has upset me the most.  Can see a Tops bonanza tomorrow.  

R.I.P Duke.....

Last Original member of probably the greatest group ever RIP.

Such sad news, The Four Tops are my favourite all time male group all had distinctive voices with Levi having the voice of an angel, always sang with so much emotion.

God Bless Abdul Duke Fakir and Rest in Peace

ML

RIP Duke.

That's a really defined an end of an era for me. The Tops were the first act I saw live. Manchester Odeon early 70's. The memory of it is as fresh today as if it were yesterday. I also memorably saw them when they toured with an empty stool on the stage after Lawrence had died. Levi's voice up front and the Tops harmonies were peerless. Bless them all!

I was blessed that I saw them 4 times live and they always delivered  even after the line up had changed the last two times I seen them they were still at the top of their game, They will always be part of me growing up and their early sounds are Timeless.

ML

R.I.P. Duke & thank you for the music - such a huge part of my teenage years. 💕💕

Here was a group that persevered, at a time when they had been the main benefactors of the supremely talented songwriting team, HDH. When they left Motown, The Tops were left in Limbo...fortunately, as fate would decree, they had material already recorded that would serve the purpose of giving them a brace of hit singles to reignite the spark of their previous success...so it proved in December of 67 and ironically at the forefront and the catalyst of the revival, was Tamla Motown, here in the UK, who summoned up an lp cut from 2 years previous.

 By January 8th, 1968, one month after its first genuine issue on a single, " Walk Away Renee " reached a position of # 3 on the UK charts, giving the group what would turn out to be, their second biggest selling single of all time. 

Gordy, in turn surprised by its success and the enterprise of TMUK, released it in the states...it charted # 14 on Billboard...for the rest of the 60's and early 70's they would continuously chart both here, and in the States.

All the time, the band's format remained constant.

Without doubt, in my mind, they were Motown's greatest vocal group, surpassing the elegant Temps and Spinners, and in Levi Stubbs, they had one of the greatest, most distinctive vocalists...of all time..The Duke, along with Obie and Lawrence, made the group the completists quortet.

They were all stylists of the highest calibre.

 

God bless them all, now reunited, the circle complete..Tops made in heaven.

Just adding my RIP. Probably responsible for guiding a big majority in to the scene. A nice little tribute on Radio 5live on the way home this evening too. Inseparable group members, and inseparable memories of their music in my heart.

There was an article in the Daily Mail (yes i know lol) saying we were lucky that he lived a long life along with the others. Apparently they were recording on Top of the Pops in London and and the session over ran so missed the flight which happened to be Flight 103 the Lockerbie one. 

  On 02/08/2024 at 07:17, Ted Massey said:

There was an article in the Daily Mail (yes i know lol) saying we were lucky that he lived a long life along with the others. Apparently they were recording on Top of the Pops in London and and the session over ran so missed the flight which happened to be Flight 103 the Lockerbie one. 

Yes Ted, heard about this only recently. A very similar thing happened to McFadden & Whitehead, almost 10 years earlier.