Post 10/31/10

Another GHS graduate contacted me about the availability of some recordings. Among other projects I have going on I've sent digital versions of Do It Now and I Don't Love You Anymore to Dukes fans from my 45s and hope to make copies of Baby, Please Come On Home and Walkin' The Dog which I have on a 15 IPS 1/4" tape. Also, I have .m4a files of First Time I Saw Her and Take Your Love, the last recordings made in Chicago at Signett Records. (The sound quality of those two is very bad and I'm trying to "tweak" them.

We loved playing the Hullabaloo club in Ft. Wayne among other venues nearby like Cold Springs resort and theTom and Jerry dances in Van Wert, Ohio.

My brother, Gary (who founded the Dukes), made VHS videos of the two reunion jams held in Goshen in the late '80s and I'm sure there are others floating around.

Some Early (Indiana '60's Bands) Dukes History

The Dukes cut "Dave's Jam" at Midwest Records in Osceola, Indiana in around 1963-64. It was an instrumental featuring Dave Workman on saxophone. It was never distributed or sold and I have the original vinyl "master".

Gene Jones' Do It Now/I Don't Love You Anymore (written sometime between 1964 and 1965) along with Baby, Please Come On Home (Jones) and a cover of Walkin' The Dog and were recorded the week of January 31, 1966 at RCA Studios in Chicago. Do It Now and I Don't Love You Anymore were released on Fujimo Records but never had any real distribution. 1,000 45's were pressed and most were sold at local record and music stores in northern Indiana. It got airplay on local radio stations and also on ...CKLW (Windsor/Detroit). With the right "push" it could have done quite well nationally. There are a few copies out there — I ended up with only two.

There is a compilation of songs floating around that has the Dukes, Tempests (Elkhart) and other '60s "Michiana" bands on it. I don't know who put it together but think it's in CD format. A fellow musician had it on his iPod ...and I know that several songs are incorrectly credited to the Dukes.

DUKES

Yes, and The Dukes did A Taste of Honey cover by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass