On discovering THE DUKES lp. with its track "MYSTERY GIRL" on ATLANTIC recently,I notice that there is a "thank you" to CHRIS HILL on the sleeve notes..Is this "our" CHRIS HILL? and if so could Mr.Hill or somebody tell us about his involvment with this act.

Well spotted,Dick.A full detailed explanation is forthcomming.

This almost ranks alongside the ROADBLOCK/SAW con that we scammed up a couple of years later.

Dear Old Pete Haigh eh?

SHUURLY SHUM MISHTAKE.........
Pete Haigh....dont you mean Pete Waterman?

it was Pete Haigh that charted "roadblock" in B&S before it had actually been recorded

Haigh claimed in his Blues and Soul playlist that he had an original 7" by Maceo.....

Oh now I get it.A bit like the KANU SUKALAARGWUN con pulled off(oooh nurse!) in the early 80's,by Hilly ,City Sounds and James Hamilton of Record Mirror.

City Sounds...now there was a shop...

Still is

http://www.city-sounds.co.uk/

God bless Johnny Wright.

City-Sounds was always the shop uptill the mid 80's Johnny Richard Kaye & of course the ever smiling Mick Clarke not forgetting Clarkeys replacement Paul Redma (transfered from Disc Empire home of Jazz in a sick bag) and I used to work for the opposition.

Mind you fair props to Dave for carrying on

After speaking to the parties involved,I can now reveal the true story of "THE DUKES" and "MYSTERY GIRL"
Back in around 1981 a music publisher friend of mine ,Stuart Newton, wanted me to meet a couple of songwriters he looked after called Bugatti and Musker(Frank and Dominic).They had had many hits with pop acts like Sheena Easton,Air Supply and many others,but the had recently been working with Arif Mardin and Chaka Khan and thought I might be able to help them establish themselves as more credible writers.Amongst the tracks they played me was a song called"Mystery Girl",I immediatly said it was a smash hit,but that they should give it to Michael Jackson for his next album.Frank and Dominic really wanted to release it themselves,so i suggested that we put it out under a moody name(THE DUKES),make out it was an american black record and keep them a million miles away from it,which they agreed with.In the meantime Stuart did as I suggested and got in touch with Quincy Jones,who was producing the next M.J. record.He loved it,so did michael,and said they would record it,but only if it didn't chart anywhere in the world.Meantime i got on with promoting the DUKES,unfortunately I was a little TOO successful and the record charted in the 30s and Frank and Dominic were booked for TOP OF THE POPS-DISASTER!!!! everybody saw they were two upperclass white boys (I begged them not to do the show)...the record bombed....and MIchael Jackson dropped it from the album "THRILLER" which went on to sell 100 million(probably/whatever).They lost out on milions of dollars.
However they both continued to be big songwritters and amazingly in 1998 STARDUST sampled their CHAKA KHAN track "FATE" on "MUSIC SOUNDS BETTER WITH YOU" which earned them over £500,000 each!!!!!

SORRY.......NEED TO CORRECT................in case of misunderstanding.......

Michael Jackson and Quincy said that they would release their version as long as the DUKES version didn't chart any where in the world.

wooops.

What a fu**ing great story
you see, you don't get stuff like this on any other site.

How many other mysteries are there for me to uncover??

*

More stories like that one please,Mr.Hill and the rest of you.

He's not just a pretty face ya know!

i never knew there was an LP.. i've got the 12" of " mystery girl".. Robbie V caned it on his show at the time,,

very informative.. thanks