Soul - funk - disco singer - songwriter Born on 06.07.1937 in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. After his stint with The Dukays he went solo. In the early 60's he released the smash hit "The Duke Of Earl", a title that became a regular persona for his act. He appeared as such in "Don't Knock The Twist" movie, starring Chubby Checker. After his solo releases at Vee Jay Records he started recording for Constellation Records , Checker and Brunswick. Often produced by Curtis Mayfield. He dueted with Barbara Acklin on "From The Teacher To The Preacher". Among his 60's hits were his cover of James Brown, "There Was A Time" and "You Threw A Lucky Punch", an answer song to Mary Wells' "You Beat Me To The Punch". In the early 70's he dueted with Jerry Butler for the whole album "One On One". His second biggest hit after "The Duke Of Earl" was the early 70's "Groovy Situation". In the early 1970s, whilst at Mercury, he set up his Mister Chand label, one of many he was involved with over his long career. Between 1978 - 1981 he became executive vice president at Chi Sound Records, where he released four disco funk albums. He spawned the hits "Get Down", "When You're #1", "Does She Have A Friend?" and "Rainbow '80" After these, in 1983, he dueted with Jaime Lynn for "You're The One" at Salsoul Records. In 1985 he recorded a soul boogie album and he recorded again in 1995.
Singer-songwriter-producer.
His first solo recording, "Duke Of Earl" went to #1 on Billboards Hot 100 and sold over 2 million copies.
Many of his hits in the mid-sixties were written by Curtis Mayfield.
Recorded for the Vee-Jay, Constellation, Mercury, Chi-Sound, Salsoul and FastFire labels.
Had his own record label, Mr. Chand in the early seventies.
Most of his hits were produced by Carl Davis.
