Don Gardner & Dee Dee Ford - I Need Your Lovin' The Fire Records Sessions - Extended Liner Notes
Don Gardner & Dee Dee Ford - I Need Your Lovin' The Fire Records Sessions
The molten excitement generated nightly by Don Gardner and Dee Dee Ford as they commanded the stage of Harlem’s fabled Smalls Paradise lounge was captured in spectacular fashion by Fire Records boss Bobby Robinson in the studio. The duo’s blistering 1962 smash “I Need Your Loving” (aka “Need Your Lovin’”) conjured up the fire-and-brimstone passion of a revival meeting, Gardner’s roaring lead abetted by organist Ford’s earthy vocal interjections. Yet the record buyers that dispatched the Fire single to #4 R&B and #20 pop on Billboard’s charts that summer never suspected that they were only hearing half of the full-length master.
Thanks to Robinson’s creative editing (he was credited as co-writer with Gardner), the 45 version picked up approximately halfway through the duo’s galvanizing performance. The part folks weren’t privy to had Don emoting over walking rhythm guitar prior to the band leaping in, bringing the proceedings to a full boil. Sunset Boulevard’s sparkling new CD overview of the electrifying pair’s Fire catalog contains both the shortened hit version and the glorious complete master, just for starters. Gardner and Ford didn’t always sing in tandem at Fire, sometimes doing their own respective thing even if the records gave both vocal credit. Their combined output added up to three singles, an album, and a goldmine of sides that laid unissued at the time.
Both Don and Dee Dee accrued considerable recording experience prior to joining musical forces. Gardner was by far the more experienced of the two. Born May 9, 1931 in Philadelphia, he burnished his melismatic pipes in church before pursuing a secular direction at age 16, slipping into local jazz joints to sit in behind the mic and gain invaluable experience.
The liner notes to Don and Dee Dee’s lone Fire album noted that Gardner sang with Harry “Fat Man” Crafton and the Craftones and Bill Hollis and his Hoptones early on. Don made his recording debut in 1949 under the rather formal billing of Donald Gardner on Philly’s Gotham label, exhibiting his rich baritone on Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill’s 1938 standard “September Song” and its B-side “Dearest Darling.” Gotham repressed “September Song” the next year, coupling it with “Heart Throb.”
Along with young pianist Jimmy Smith, Gardner put together the Sonotones, a combo that became a staple on the local jazz circuit. In the liner notes to the 1964 Swedish album The Don Gardner & Dee Dee Ford Quintet in Sweden, Don claimed that he was forced to begin doubling on drums when Smith switched to Hammond organ. He claimed the forceful Smith, who would revolutionize the B-3’s role in the jazz milieu, played too loud for Gardner’s singing to overcome without some rhythmic reinforcement.
Gardner and his Sonotones landed at Monte Bruce’s New York-based Bruce Records in 1954, backing Dickie Smith, formerly one of the Five Keys, before waxing Don’s opulent “How Do You Speak To An Angel” under Morty Craft’s supervision. Its swinging instrumental flip “Sonotone Bounce” featured the combo’s saxist Albert Cass along with Smith’s crashing organ.
Don was back a few months later to croon the after-hours ballad “I’ll Walk Alone,” the young singer demonstrating his versatility by tackling Titus Turner’s jump blues “Going Down To Big Mary’s House” on the B-side. Gardner and the Sonotones closed out their Bruce stint with Don unfurling his buttery pipes on “I Hear A Rhapsody.” The combo took Billy Mayhew’s 1936 chestnut “It’s A Sin To Tell A Lie” at a hard-driving instrumental pace as a flip.
When Smith departed the Sonotones to launch his incredibly successful career as king of the jazz organ, fellow B-3 master Richard “Groove” Holmes took his place behind the rig. Don began recording as a solo act at the beginning of 1957 as one of the initial signings to fledgling Philly-based Cameo Records. Gardner’s stately ballad “Only Love Brings Happiness” was supplied by the label’s owners, prolific songwriters Bernie Lowe and Kal Mann. So was its houserocking opposite side “Sneakin’ In,” which provided the first glimpse of the leonine vocal roar that Gardner would soon memorably unleash at Fire.
DeLuxe Records seems to have strictly regarded Gardner as a buttery balladeer. His first platter that spring for the King label subsidiary paired Lincoln Chase’s “A Dagger In My Chest” and Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s “This Nearly Was Mine.” His encore that autumn twinned lavish readings of Bubber Johnson’s “I Don’t Want To Go Home” and the pop standard “There! I’ve Said It Again.”
Don moved on in 1958 to record for Philly deejay Kae Williams’ Junior label. Kae produced Gardner’s blues-soaked “Crying All Alone,” saxist David McRae leading the backing combo. Its plattermate “High School Baby,” a Gardner original, was a swinger. The Sonotones were back to share credit with Don on his propulsive Junior instrumental encore, “Dark Alley” b/w “Up The Street.” Kae moved Don over to his Kaiser imprint in 1959 for “Ask Anything” b/w “Humility.” There was also a release on the Do Re Mi label, “Baby You’ve Changed.”
Organist Harry “Doc” Bagby’s Val-Ue label claimed Gardner in 1960 for a rousing gospel-soaked revival of Billy Hill’s often-revived “Glory Of Love,” a pop standard harking back to Benny Goodman’s 1936 rendition. Don had shed his sedate balladeer trappings, adopting the husky vocal roar that he would parlay into full-fledged stardom. An easy-gliding treatment of “Deed I Do” sat on the opposite side, displaying shades of Ray Charles’ churchy sway.
Holmes’ departure left Don in serious need of a new organist. The one he located was ahead of her illustrious predecessors in one way: she also owned a sensational set of pipes. Wrecia Mae Ford was born in 1936 in Minden, Louisiana, graduating in 1954 from that town’s Webster High School. She wasn’t that educational institution’s only notable R&B grad—master songwriter and velvet-smooth blues vocalist Percy Mayfield earned his diploma there in 1936.
At some point following her graduation, Ford relocated to Newark, New Jersey, reportedly confining her initial musical activities to playing the organ in her local church. But the tantalizing prospect of a gig at Leon’s Cocktail Lounge in Hackensack was enough to convince Dee Dee to go secular, and it didn’t stop there. She turned up on Newark’s Glow-Hill Records in 1957 with the two-part organ-driven instrumental “D.D.’s Bounce” under the curious handle of D.D. (Foots) Ford, trying her best to follow in Bill Doggett’s footsteps.
Dee Dee, as she was by then billed, soon proved she possessed the pipes to step out from behind her B-3 on a majestic late ‘59 revival of Jimmy Rushing’s Yuletide classic “Good Morning Blues.” Orchestra leader Mort Garson surrounded her with strings, flutes, and a choir, the results issued on Paul Cohen’s Todd logo. A touch of country influence defined its sumptuous plattermate “I Just Can’t Believe,” Garson’s voices and strings anointing the bluesy ballad with an urban veneer complimenting Dee Dee’s soul-soaked vocal delivery. Not long after her Todd single hit the streets, Don and Dee Dee joined forces in March of 1960.
On bustling 125th Street in the heart of Harlem, a few storefronts down from the legendary Apollo Theatre, Bobby Robinson did a brisk business behind the counter of his humble record emporium. The Union, South Carolina native doubled as a very successful label owner himself with his Fury and Fire imprints. The diminutive producer had been on a roll since 1959, scoring huge hits with Wilbert Harrison, Buster Brown, Bobby Marchan, Lee Dorsey, and Gladys Knight and the Pips. He harbored a soft spot for veteran blues artists too, hauling Elmore James, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup onto his label roster. Bobby was also a doo-wop enthusiast, producing numerous street corner R&B vocal aggregations over the years.
Discovering new talent obviously remained a priority. So when Robinson strolled into Smalls Paradise one evening and caught an earful of Don and Dee Dee setting the stage ablaze with “I Need Your Loving”—apparently somewhat jazzier in its original incarnation, with Don’s incendiary rev-up passage saved for the encore—he was sold.
Bobby brought the pair into a studio, laid down their showstopping number in all of its full-length glory, then got busy with his editing blade (promo copies of the single listed Gardner alone as writer). The end result was the indelible crossover smash during the summer of 1962 that ignites Sunset Boulevard’s bountiful retrospective of Gardner and Ford’s considerable Fire legacy. “Tell Me,” its ballad flip side, was a self-penned showcase for Dee Dee, whose yearning vocal was buttressed by her full-bodied organ accompaniment and a low-moaning sax.
KC Records, a small indie that Nat King Cole reportedly had a piece of (thus its name), misleadingly reissued Gardner’s Val-Ue single that July under the duo’s handle, ignoring that Dee Dee audibly had nothing to do with it. That didn’t stop “Glory Of Love” from climbing to #75 on Billboard’s pop charts later that summer in its second incarnation, despite strong competition from Don and Dee Dee’s actual Fire encore.
Gardner again shared authorship credit with producer Robinson on the easy-grooving “Don’t You Worry,” Don unleashing his flammable vocal cords throughout while harmonizing from time to time with Dee Dee. The pair’s fans went for this one in a big way too—it sailed to #7 R&B, though its #66 pop showing was disappointing in comparison to its illustrious predecessor. Ford co-wrote its churchy B-side “I’m Coming Home To Stay,” providing sanctified organ backing but ceding lead vocal duty to her musical partner.
Somehow that commercial magic didn’t translate to the duo’s third Fire offering near year’s end. Both “T.C.B. (Taking Care Of Business)” and “Lead Me On” were authored by veteran Atlanta-born blues shouter Titus Turner, whose prodigious label-hopping brought him to Robinson’s Enjoy logo that year. Both sides were legitimate duets, the two trading verses on the A-side over a choppy, extremely infectious groove spiced by a tough tenor sax break halfway through. Don and Dee Dee proved just as dynamic together on “Lead Me On,” another highly danceable piece that was just as hitworthy as its plattermate even if it didn’t happen.
Robinson’s humble operation only showcased its top acts on long-playing vinyl, so the appearance of a 1962 Fire album by Gardner and Ford, logically titled Need Your Lovin’, testified convincingly as to how many units they were moving in the marketplace. Dee Dee contributed three more original houserockers to the album, sharing writer’s credit with Ruth Elliott in all cases. Ford belted the rollicking, gospel-flavored “You Said” and “What A Thrill,” but “I Need You” was an incendiary duet taken at a breakneck pace. Dee Dee also turned in a delicious revival of Chicago R&B singer Dee Clark’s introductory ‘58 hit “Nobody But You.” The two took the delightful “Honey Sweet” together, while Bobby sprang for a violin section on Ford’s elegant “Now It’s Too Late” and Don’s soaring “Make The Girl Love Me,” a lush throwback to his ballad-crooning days.
Gardner and Ford weren’t even on Fire for a full year despite experiencing major success, leaving many a gem buried in Robinson’s vault that came to light during the CD era and constitute the rest of this compilation. “Everybody Needs Love” was a compact early runthrough of the pair’s mammoth hit, a little rough around the edges. But the rollicking duets “Let’s Go To The Party,” “The Quicker The Better,” “Can’t Get You Out Of My Mind,” and “Didn’t Do Me No Good” glowed with the same volcanic excitement that made Don and Dee Dee’s two hits so thrilling. “Dog Eat Dog,” adorned with screaming lead axe, was another Titus Turner copyright (Turner waxed it himself for Enjoy in 1964).
Mid-‘50s-era Ray Charles played a large role in the vocal approach of both singers, whether Ford was re-gendering the Genius’ “I’ve Got A Woman” as “I Got A Man” or Gardner was dipping deep into his melismatic bag for “Forever In Your Lover’s Arms” and “Bad Luck.” Don could still deliver a pop standard—witness his treatment of Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields’ 1930 chestnut “Exactly Like You”--but now he was adapting them to his own style. Dee Dee was just as powerful tearing into “This Lonely Place,” an emotionally charged “I Left There Crying,” and “Does He Or Doesn’t He?,” the latter sporting her torrid organ solo. The spectacular full-length “I Need Your Loving” closes the disc—all five minutes-and forty-three seconds of it--providing the ultimate climax to the supercharged proceedings.
That’s where this compilation leaves the pair. They wasted no time in finding a new label to showcase their combined talents. First stop was New York producer Luther Dixon’s self-named Ludix label in April of 1963, Don taking the lead on Dixon’s violin-enriched uptown soul ballad “Son My Son” as arranger Bert Keyes reduced Dee Dee’s role to strategically positioned vocal harmonies. Its flip “You Upset My Soul” was right in the pair’s houserocking wheelhouse, Gardner again serving as principal voice. A month later, the duo turned up on Philadelphia’s Red Top imprint for a sizzling “Shake A Leg, Baby” and a rendition of Titus Turner’s often-covered “People Sho’ Act Funny” (Turner had waxed the original the year before for Enjoy).
Ford stepped out on her own in late ‘63 with a solo single on ABC-Paramount, the powerful uptown soul ballad “Just Like A Fool (I Keep Hurtin’),” Mort Garson returning as her arranger. A catchy update of the lighthearted pop novelty “Shoo Fly Pie” (a 1946 hit for both Stan Kenton with vocalist June Christy and Dinah Shore) sat on the other side. Meanwhile, Gardner released a relentless one-off at the beginning of 1964 on tiny G-Clef Records, the Ford-penned “Let’s Get A Thing Goin’,” that was a first cousin to “I Need Your Loving” with the Alteers providing backing vocals (Dee Dee arranged it with saxist Gary Bell).
But the musical partnership between Gardner and Ford wasn’t kaput yet. Venturing over to Sweden for a June 1964 tour, they waxed a Sonet LP while there, Juggy Murray’s Sue label picking it up for U.S. release. The Don Gardner & Dee Dee Ford Quintet in Sweden was likely indicative of what the pair was doing at Smalls Paradise back home minus their hits—hip jazz, recent R&B smashes, a hallowed pop standard, and a couple of Gardner’s own compositions.
The troupe, including the pair’s own horn section, returned to Sweden in August of 1965 for another tour, this time billed as the Don Gardner Quintet featuring Dee Dee Ford and Beverly Glenn. Once again, Sonet recorded an album, Rhythm & Blues Dance Party, this time at Stockholm’s Dans In nightclub. Its set list sported soul covers aplenty. There was also a Sonet 45 twinning “Last Dance” and “Harlem Rock.”
Back stateside, Gardner had released the first of his three 45s for Jubilee Records in June of ‘64. Even if she wasn’t co-billed, it sounds like Ford responding on his rafter-rattling “I Really Love You Baby” (they wrote it together), paired with a revival of Ray Charles’ Atlantic-era “Talking About You.” The majestic soul ballad “Bitter With The Sweet,’ a Bagby creation, was a spine-chilling duet forming half of Gardner’s Jubilee encore only a month later; Ford and Ruth Elliott authored its incessantly grooving opposite side, “I Don’t Know What I’m Gonna Do.” Don closed out his Jubilee stint early the next year with the captivating soul workout “I’m In Such Misery,” “Little Girl Blue” sitting on its flip side.
Ford was winding down her recording career, but her creative energies continued to flow. Under the name of Wrecia Holloway, she penned the impassioned soul ballad “Let Me Down Easy,” a Top 20 R&B hit for Betty Lavette in the spring of ‘65 on Nate McCalla’s Calla logo (its producer was none other than Don Gardner Inc.). Bettye, as she now spells it, had a hand in the song’s creation, although her name was absent from its writers’ credits. “Dee Dee Ford and I wrote it, and she got very, very sick,” explained Lavette. “Because Dee Dee was ill, I said, ‘Well, I’m not a real writer anyway and Dee Dee is, and she’s ill,’ so I didn’t put my name on it.”
That unspecified illness may have factored into Dee Dee’s reported demise in 1972. Further information on her premature death at age 36 remains elusive (pinning down her precise birth name was finally confirmed by her high school yearbook photo, unearthed on the internet while writing this feature). Don still had a long way to go behind the mic. He appeared on Tru-Glo-Town Records out of Englewood, New Jersey with a self-penned “My Baby Likes To Boogaloo,” an extraordinarily funky workout for the summer of ‘66. It contrasted markedly with its resplendent violin-enriched ballad flip “I Wanta Know Where Did Our Love Go,” provided by fellow big-voiced belter (and Tru-Glo-Town co-owner) Ed Townsend.
1967 brought one-offs for Gardner on several small labels. Along with his Tru-Glo-Town encore (a frantic “Ain’t Gonna Let You Get Me Down” b/w the refined ballad “Somebody’s Gonna Get Hurt”), he made platters for the minuscule New Jersey TNT imprint (the joyous screamer “Let’s Party” b/w “There’s Nothing I Want To Do [Unless It’s With You]”) and Chicago’s Sack Records (“Ain’t Gonna Let You Get Me Down” again, this time paired with a lilting “Prove It”).
Tru-Glo-Town managed to interest Verve in Don’s funk-drenched original “You Babe” b/w a similarly sweaty “I’m A Practical Guy” in ‘68, and Gardner made a slickly produced 45 for Mr. G Records the next year coupling the lush “Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy” and a hard-churning “There Ain’t Gonna Be No Loving.” Hooking up with Chicago producer James Vanleer, Don romped through 1970’s brassy “Cheatin Kind” on Sedgrick and earned Windy City airplay in 1971 with the funk-stained “Tighten Up Your Love Bone” for the Cedric imprint, the classy mid-tempo “Is This Really Love” its B-side.
But it took a timely merger with another distaff singing partner in 1973 to propel Gardner back onto the R&B charts after more than a decade away. As usual, Don secured a splendid one: Baby Washington, a proven hitmaker on Juggy Murray’s New York-based Sue Records with “That’s How Heartaches Are Made” (1963) and “Only Those In Love” (1965). For the Master Five label, Don and Baby waxed a #30 R&B hit with “Forever,” a sparkling duet revival of the Marvelettes’ ‘63 charter that was arranged and co-produced by Philly mainstay Bobby Martin.
It wasn’t Don and Baby’s only notable Master Five offering. They’d already wrapped their uplifting vocal cords around “Baby Let Me Get Close To You,” written by Los Angeles blues/soul guitarist Arthur Adams (Sam Dees wrote its devotional ballad flip, “I Just Want To Be Near To You”). Yet to come was the funk-oriented “Lay A Little Lovin’ On Me,” which doubled as title track of the duo’s Master Five LP.
In more recent years, Gardner was closely associated with the Clef Club, a fabled Philly meeting place and venue for the City of Brotherly Love’s veteran jazz musicians. He passed away September 4, 2018 in Philadelphia at age 87 after a tremendously long and prolific career.
Sparks fly from first song to last on Sunset Boulevard’s thrilling Don Gardner and Dee Dee Ford Fire label compilation; they generated soul-soaked musical excitement on an epic scale. “Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa,” indeed!
--Bill Dahl
SOURCES
45cat website: www.45cat.com
Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles 1955-1990, by Joel Whitburn (Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research, Inc., 1991)
Joel Whitburn’s Top R&B Singles 1942-1988, by Joel Whitburn (Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research, Inc., 1988)
Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock ‘n’ Roll Pioneers, by John Broven (Urbana, IL and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009)
Second Hand Songs website: www.secondhandsongs.com
Webster High School website: https://www.jimyejam.com/school-wall-of-fame
Wikipedia website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Gardner
You Tube website: www.youtube.com