The Foote Files: Don Gardner & Dee Dee Ford
THE FOOTE FILES (CBSDFW.COM) — Don Gardner (1931-2018) and Dee Dee Ford (1936-1972) were an R&B vocal duo from Philadelphia. Gardner, a native Philadelphian, was also a songwriter and drummer. He was actually known more for his work as a jazz musician. Ford had been living in Newark, New Jersey and sang and played the organ in church.
As an R&B duo of the 60s, Gardner and Ford released three songs and hit the Billboard Top 20 with "I Need Your Loving" in the summer of 1962. It also was #4 on the Billboard R&B chart.
Written by Gardner and Bobby Robinson, and produced by Robinson, it was a bit unusual for 1962 as it was a five minute and 45 second long, two-part composition — however, the radio disc jockeys only played part two, which is what you hear in this blog.
Other artists that recorded this song included Otis Redding and Tom Jones. Notice that this song has a false ending at about 1:50. It runs two minutes and 53 seconds on the Fire Records label. When you hear the song, you can hear the gospel influence throughout.
You can hear this song on KLUV-FM HD2 in Dallas and SIRIUS XM 60S ON 6.
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!
