Gene
"The Duke of Earl" Chandler
From
1962 to 1970, Gene, The DUKE of EARL Chandler put nineteen songs
in the top forty, but he will always be know all over the world
as the DUKE OF EARL, his first hit that topped the pop and /R
& B charts in 1962 and launched his career. The Duke of Earl
was released and sold a million copies in a little over a month.
It was a huge hit - number 2 for three weeks in 1962. It dethroned
The twist from its Number 1 position. Gene began to dress like
the... the Duke of Earl. We wore a monocle, cape, top hat and
cane. Gene usually ended his concerts with the Duke in full dress,
leaving the audience totally wanting more and for the most part
he would go back and sing Rainbow, a very successful R&B tune
that was again his signature style. Rainbow is the only tune Gene
recorded three times, once in 1963 again, in Rainbow Live 1965
with Constellation Records and then finally, Rainbow 80 with ChiSound
Records. Simply, all his recordings of Rainbow were a tremendous
smash. Rainbow was one of the songs that Curtis Mayfield of the
Impressions wrote for Gene. In addition to Rainbow, Curtis wrote
a Man's Temptation, which Gene recorded around the same time while
under contract with VeeJay. Gene's collaboration with Curtis Mayfield
proved to be a match made in heaven. Mayfield's songs made Gene
a first-rate ballad singer. These soft, tender, sexy love songs
went over well in concert with Gene's falsetto slides sending
ripples of excitement through the ladies in his audience.
Gene then signed with Constellation Records in 1964 and ended
his tenure at Constellation when they closed in 1966 and Chess
Records purchased Gene's songs. Gene's manager, Carl Davis signed
him with Brunswick Records at the same time. The two record companies
ended up altering Gene's record releases, one new single then
a re-release of an older recording. Finally, tired of the road
and no viable new hits Gene turned his attention to the business
end of the industry. After all his successes, Gene decided to
put his energy into producing, arraigning and hyping other acts.
Gene formed two music-publishing companies, a production company,
and was President of Bamboo Records. Gene's biggest hit at Bamboo
was Backfield in Motion by Mel and Tim in 1969. Gene selected
this song, cut it and sold a million copies. In 1970 Gene signed
with Mercury Records and recorded Groovy Situation. The strength
of both of these tunes got him nominated for "Producer of
the Year" Award for the National Association of Television
and Radio Announcers (NATRA). Gene won the NATRA award in Houston,
Texas in August of 1970. He beat Norman Whittfield, producer of
the Temptations and Gambel and Huff of the Philadelphia sound
for the award, an astounding accomplishment considering the popularity
of the Detroit and Philly revolution in that time period. Groovy
Situation was a top hit that summer, selling another million.
Gene's disco hits were extremely popular in the UK in the 70s
and 80s and Gene collaborated with Reggae star Johnny Nash in
London. Get Down, another million-seller absolutely rocked the
disco revolution. Gene was with ChiSound Records as Executive
Vice-President under the direction of Carl Davis at the same time
Get Down was recorded. Back in high demand, Gene ended up back
on the road to perform on the concert circuit, with notable Wolfman
Jack's Oldies Tour and extensively performing solo in the Northeast,
Las Vegas and in California, and of course in Chicago. Today,
Gene still lives in Chicago and attributes his success to his
faith in God. His romantic performance style along with his superbly
rich voice still makes him a hot number and fabulous performer
to contend with. He still packs them in decades later ---- Nothing
can stop The Duke of Earl, Nothing...and he's doing just fine.
|
