By MEL&THEN SOME (217.14.178.7) on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 - 08:29 am:

A great fave of mine
who isnt mentioned as much as she should be(in my opinion)is the superb
Doris Duke.

Doris actually had
3 surnames
Willingham
Logan and Duke.

She has backed up Jackie Wilson,Nina Simone,Aretha Franklin and amongst others even
Sammy Davis Jnr and Dean Martin.

Recorded for a small New York label called
Hy Monty Records.

Anyway
unfortunatly for Doris she was forever having people trying to rip her off.

When she was with the Canyon record Label she cut 2 superb soulful tracks called
"Im a Loser"
and "to the other woman".

After a while
Doris left the label
and also her producer left as well the brilliant
Jerry Williams.

Jerry formed hisown label
Mankind Records.

They cut an album together
Doris Duke
A Legend in her own Time.

Here comes yet another philly connection.

Richard Rome and the
Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra
amongst others are all involved.

Jerry wrote 6 of the songs
and as usual dosent fail in any.

Its the A side that really hits the spot.
With Doris at her best.

Unfortunatly the otherside are all various remahkes of known tracks,
but still done superbly.

Doris also had material
written for her by
Ed Townsend(now,theres a name)
worked alongside
Bobby Shad and Don French
and with
Al Greene,
Luther Ingram and Gladys Shelley.

Does anybody know anything about her today?
as all the above was around 1970.

the track "Im a Loser'
wasnt recorded in philly,
it was somewhere close to Muscle Shoals.

Anyway a superbly voiced Lady
and oh so soulful(andthensome).

Doris Duke
Thank You.

Mel(andthensome)

any errors
apologies.

By steve w (212.159.41.133) on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 - 05:09 pm:

mel. just want to acknowledge two of the greatest soul albums of all time, would really love to know if she's still with us. I am now going to dig them out and give 'em a spin

By David Meikle (81.109.33.165) on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 - 05:36 pm:

Mel
Thanks for reminding us all of Doris Duke.

By Eli (141.151.85.235) on Wednesday, June 18, 2003 - 01:25 am:

We did some work for Doris in Philly.
Canyon was run by Wally Roker(Heartbeats)

By Mark Speck (199.183.75.191) on Wednesday, June 25, 2003 - 01:17 am:

A couple of other great singles by this lady: "Feet Start Walking" and "The Feeling is Right" (both on Canyon) and "You Can't Do That" (under the name Doris Willingham on Jay Boy).

Duke was Doris's husband's nickname, and she adapted that for her stage name.

Best,

Mark

By MEL&THEN SOME (217.14.178.123) on Wednesday, June 25, 2003 - 09:05 am:

Many thanks one and all
mel.

By MEL&THEN SOME (217.14.178.20) on Wednesday, June 25, 2003 - 12:46 pm:

Hey Mark
where ya been mate,
buying more sounds?
mel.

By imnokid (68.37.243.11) on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 04:31 pm:

A bit late here, but my bass player and another friend of mine used to play weddings with her in new jersey in the late 70s/early 80s. She was living in Newark at the time.
KK

By MEL&THEN SOME (81.174.192.204) on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 04:57 pm:

imnokid
many thanks for that
a great artist
with a magical voice.
mel.

By Handsome (170.118.157.134) on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 05:09 pm:

Mankind...hmmm that was a green & yellow label Freddie North was on when he recorded the song :She's all I got".

By MEL&THEN SOME (217.14.178.102) on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 05:24 pm:

Handsome
cheers for that
another fine artist
Freddie North
currently has a huge sound on the uk rare soul scene with
"the hurt"
on Rik records
also done by BB King.

I still have a few 45s by freddie from the 60's.
many thanks
mel.

By jan (80.50.229.99) on Tuesday, August 05, 2003 - 07:16 am:

got the two doris lps on vinyl - they really were acknowledged classics in the uk , feet start walking was even a small hit - but why oh why haven't they been made available digitally ?

i'm a loser belongs to the finest soul music ever made

By JSmith (212.39.231.20) on Tuesday, August 05, 2003 - 08:25 am:

The Freddie North & Z Z Hill Mankind albums were released on CD in the UK (by Ace / Kent) a couple of years back.
The Z Z Hill includes a great uptempo version of a Sam Dees song (that sounds like he was trying for a mix of both the Motown & Stax sound of the time).
The Freddie North album on it's CD release includes a couple of extra tracks that weren't included on the original vinyl. One of these is a great Motown cover (of a David Ruffin original).
Well worth getting the CD JUST for this.