Biography

Abdul Kareem "Duke" Fakir (December 26, 1935 – July 22, 2024) was an American singer. He co-founded the Motown quartet the Four Tops and performed in an ensemble under that name from 1953 until shortly before his death. He was the group's last surviving original member. Fakir was born on December 26, 1935, in Detroit, Michigan. His father was a factory worker who came from what is now Bangladesh. His mother was an African American from Sparta, Georgia. Fakir attended Detroit's Pershing High School, where he played basketball and football, and ran track. He first met fellow band member Levi Stubbs through neighborhood football games; at that time 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 whom 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-alongs.

With their shared love of singing, they tried working with 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 Ames Brothers was a very popular singing quartet, and it was suggested that they change their own name to avoid confusion. 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 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". 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. In 2022, Fakir's memoir I'll Be There: My Life With The Four Tops was published. A musical based on the book, also titled I'll Be There, premiered the same year in Detroit.

By 2008, the other three Tops had died; Fakir controlled the Four Tops intellectual properties and was responsible for assembling the touring version of the band that would carry on the group's legacy. He had stated an intention never to retire and indeed continued to tour with the group until less than a month before his death. Shortly before his death, he named Michael Brock as his successor.