Abdul Fakir

Abdul "Duke" Fakir
Abdul "Duke" Fakir circa 1967
Born	(1935-12-26) December 26, 1935 (age 81) Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Occupation	Singer
Years active	1953–present

Abdul "Duke" Fakir (born December 26, 1935) is an American singer. He is a founding member of the Motown act the Four Tops, from 1953 to the present day. A first tenor, Fakir is the group's lone original member, performing today with Ronnie McNeir, Lawrence "Roquel" Payton, Jr. (son of original member Lawrence Payton), and Harold Bonhart.

Fakir was born in 1935 in Detroit, Michigan. He is of Ethiopian and Bangladeshi ancestry.

Fakir attended the Motor City's Pershing High School, where he played basketball, football, and ran track.

He first met fellow 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.

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. 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.

They originally gave themselves the name "The Four Aims", to describe their goals of achieving something great. 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. 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. They became a popular local performing group but recording success eluded them until they signed with the newly established Tamla Motown Records in 1963. They soon became one of the biggest recording groups of the sixties, with 14 charted hits through till the early eighties. They are listed in Billboard Magazines "Top 100 Artists Of All Time".