Gene Chandler: "Duke of Earl"

February 19, 1962 (3 weeks)

"Doo-doo-doo Doosan Bears-bears-bears, Doosan Bears-bears-bears, Doosan Bears-bears-bears, Doosan Bears-bears-bears..."

The above is not the official chant of the Korean baseball club the Doosan Bears. It isn't even an unofficial chant. As far as I know, no one without a connection to me has ever thought to use it at one of their games at Seoul's Jamsil Stadium. I have chanted it on occasion and a handful of my friends have joined in and I once got a dozen elementary school kids into it at a summer English camp at my university but that is, to the best of my knowledge, as far as it has ever gone. I think there are a few crucial reasons why:

1. Gene Chandler's biggest hit never made much of an impact on this side of the Pacific — though the sleeve of the 7" single above would suggest otherwise.
2. Koreans have a practice of performing chants based on songs that they're familiar with which is entirely understandable.
3. I'm admittedly not a Doosan Bears fan, preferring to root for fellow Seoul club and perennial underdogs/hopeless cases the Kiwoom Heroes, so it's not likely to catch on. In addition, I reside down in the southwest sticks of the country which is very much Kia Tigers territory.
4. Humanity is dead inside.

The latter is especially important to consider here. I can't possibly be the first person to think to connect "Duke of Earl" to one of Korea's most popular baseball teams. In fact I know I can't be since it was my buddy Jay who came up with it first. With all due respect to him, could he have been the first person to make this connection? Of course not! Someone else must have tied the two together over the last few decades. Yet, it never managed to catch on.

"Duke of Earl" seems like the sort of pop song which should have been ripe for parody but this has mainly been consigned to TV advertising jingles for shampoos and odd mayo-mustard hybrids. Fair enough but I would've expected more. Affectionate tributes by geeky American public broadcasting entertainers or childish spoofs done in the style of Weird Al Yankovik perhaps. It doesn't even seem to appear on The Residents' grotesque medleys of sixties hits as performed under Nazi Germany The Third Reich 'n Roll, though there's always a chance a snippet of it is hiding in there somewhere.

The cover versions I have managed to find tend to be, if anything, far too respectful. Frank Black's rendition on the now forgotten mail order Hello CD of the Month Club of the mid-nineties is really well done even if it lacks the joie de vivre of both Gene Chandler and The Pixies. (Have these two ever been mentioned in the same sentence?) Black's decision to perform those memorable baritone backing vocals on his acoustic guitar is interesting but at first it smacks of gimmickry. I can give or take it but what he manages to do is provide a welcome reminder that there's far more to Chandler's signature hit than just a catchy, and sometimes mildly irritating, earworm refrain.

Frank Black's cover also helpfully points out that there are lyrics involved and that "Duke of Earl" might even possess a narrative. By the time it had been released, Chandler has managed to portray himself as a vaguely aristocratic man about town. If not quite a genuine article English nobleman than at least one in the tradition of jazz artists such as King Oliver, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Lester "Prez" Young" (a friend of mine once argued that even sax giant Coleman Hawkins ought to be classified alongside these members of the musical gentry class since his nickname of 'Bean' could well have been a contraction of 'Old Bean'). But whereas those titans only had to play their instruments to prove their upper class bone fides, Chandler went out and sang all about his place in the aristocracy as this so-called Duke of Earl, which is not unlike naming yourself the 'Prince of Baron' or the 'Lord of Viceroy'. (I think it's what they call a hat on a hat)

So much drivel to write about a such silly little song but that's the thing about pop: you may wish to chant its lyrics at baseball games or find opportunities for parody or discuss obscure covers or ponder its implied meaning — and, indeed, find meaning where there isn't any. Or you may just wish to enjoy a sweet tune with a fun chorus. With seemingly limitless potential, it's just a shame we don't do more with those precious two or three minutes great pop gives to us. I have wasted my life pondering everything of relevance (and, to be sure, plenty that is irrelevant) surrounding pop and I wouldn't have it any other way.  

Score: 8