doni burdick story

I have faith in you - The Doni Burdick story

The popularity of 'instrumentals' on todays Northern soul scene has without doubt plummeted from their heyday of the 1970's. Despite their general demise, one record has weathered the storm of changing tastes - from the introductory count to the final note it remains the daddy of Northern Soul instrumentals. Highly sought after on it's original label - it is of course Doni Burdicks' Bari Track.

Although this along with his other releases - which include; I have faith in you, open the door to your heart and the 80's discovery Candle are well known on the scene, little has been written about Doni Burdick himself. Like many collectors and Soul fans, I have always been fascinated by stories behind the records and the artists of the 60's who recorded them. Inspired by Bari tracks' permanence in my all time top ten and the lack of articles written about him, I traced Doni Burdick to Arizona . Written in collaboration with the man himself, this is his story.

Born in Detroit in 1943, his interest in music began as a small child when he developed a fascination for record label designs -often finding these more interesting than the recording artist on the record itself. Although his musical talents developed as he learned to play the trumpet, his real ambition was to become a singer and through 50's artists like Fats Domino his interest in the music of black artists began to eclipse those of popular white singers. But, these were the Rock and Roll days and young white kids wanted to be the next Teen sensation - Jerry Lee lewis, Elvis Presley or Frankie Lymon - surrounded by screaming girls. In 1958 filled with the confidence and

attitude of youth and firmly believing he could be that next sensation, Doni decided to take up singing lessons.

Through a small record store located on Wyoming Street in Anne Arbour, Michigan he found a teacher called Dominic Chiravalli who gave lessons to supplement his own 'career' as a singer. Doni remembers him well, because his teaching method was to give his students copies of records he had recorded to sing along with. Chiravalli soon became convinced that his pupil really did have the voice and the looks to become the next 'teener'. Hit by a sudden bout of ill health, he was forced to give up teaching and so introduced Doni to an

associate called Gordon Prince the owner of Detroit based Go-Gee records. (Prince would later move to Motown and spend many years working for Berry Gordy).

In common with most other people in the music industry, Prince had a number of 'irons in the fire. Whilst employed as a promoter for Mercury records he also ran his own label as a sideline, with recording artists including the Seminoles, Tommy Frontera and a white Jackie Wilson sound-alike called Joey Finazzo who became the Seminoles lead singer and later joined the Reflections of Golden world fame.

Prince recorded a couple of local hits with the Seminoles and Tommy Frontera and also enjoyed success promoting Bruce channel who hit the national charts with 'hey baby'. On the back of these successes he offered to audition the young Doni . For the wannabe star, this was a big break although not one without difficulties. He had no material or songs of his own so he sang a Roy Hamilton number 'A Great Romance' on the basis that Roy was black and had a great voice!

The audition went well with a 17 year old Doni "singing his ass off ".Following the audition, Prince's partner at Go-gee - singer/songwriter - Keith O'Mally, gave Doni a song titled "Don't cry for me" . Using a makeshift two track recording studio in a local church, a basic band and four school friends as backing singers, the song was cut onto acetate as an audition demo. The end result according to Doni was that he - " sounded like a wounded pig" Not the greatest start to a singing career, particularly as Go-gee folded when O'Mally was drafted into the army. Whether Prince felt sorry for Doni after the disappointment of the demo recording, or because Go-gee's

untimely demise prevented another recording attempt is unclear, but nevertheless he introduced him to another friend in the industry - the now legendary Ollie McLaughlin who at the time was busy promoting artists including Barbara Lewis and The Capitols.

McLaughin also saw Doni as a potential 'teener' and so arranged an audition session at a local radio station for him and his band. After the failure of 'Don't cry for me' the session was a success. With Doni starting to gain a reputation as the white guy with the black sound, McLaughlin decided he would promote both Doni and his band.

Just as things were looking good, more problems emerged, this time within the band itself. Disagreements between Doni and the bands new drummer, Jerry Plunk - who became the lead singer of the Flaming Embers of Ric Tic fame - escalated. McLoughlin tried to smooth things over but soon tired of the infighting and decided he had no option but to end his association with them.

In contrast to Doni's slow start, a number of his Detroit based friends were emerging into the spotlight - Stuart Avig a member of the Valadiers had 'Greetings, this is uncle sam' released on Gordy and The Darlings - a trio of white Jewish girls, had 'Two time Loser'

released on Kay Ko (later picked up by Mercury). Disillusioned and depressed by his own lack of success, he considered forgetting the whole idea of a music career in favour of a return to college. Still undecided, he met Danny Dallas a sound engineer from Detroit who had his own label - Sound Patterns DXM - which also released records on the Sound impressions label . A friendship developed

between the two and in 1967 Danny offered to help Doni cut a record. He introduced him to Ed 'pops' Wingate, who at the time was one of the big hitters in Detroit and somebody Dallas had worked for at the Golden World studios.

This was the era when black label owners like Wingate and Berry were trying to market a sound that appealed to all - particularly the wider white audience. Edwin Starr had already cut "I have faith in you" which Wingate along with the writers Harris Greer and Hobson owned the rights to.

Although Wingate considered "I have faith in you" to be a monster of a song, he told Dallas that he was unhappy with Edwin Starrs

rendition. Despite being black himself, Wingate thought Starr actually sounded too black for the record to have the necessary mass

appeal. He asked Dallas to find him someone who was white but could sing like they were black, and so enter one Doni Burdick!

Of all his releases "I have faith in you " remains Doni's favourite as the song that totally blew him away from the first time he heard it. Recorded on a Saturday morning, in January 1967 in a small studio in Dearborn by sound engineer Bryan 'funk' Dombrowski, a mere two takes were recorded - the first and completely unrehearsed take was considered so good it became the finished article.

With "I have faith in you " as the 'A' side, a flip side was needed. A number of 'Pops' Wingate's songs were listened to and one stood out from the rest. "I miss my baby" sung by Rose Batiste and released on another of his labels - Revilot

At a meeting between the three - Doni, Wingate and Dallas - Doni suggested that although Rose had outstanding vocals, the backing track was good enough to fly on it's own and deserved a release, hence it was chosen as the 'flip' side filler. Everyone agreed and the flip side was chosen.

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