Carol Douglas
Carol Douglas (born April 7, 1948) is an American singer whose hit
"Doctor's Orders" (1974) was a pioneer track in the disco genre.
Carol Douglas - aka Carolyn Strickland and Carolyn Cooke - was
born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York. She is the daughter
of Minnie Newsome, a jazz performer who has been cited as the
inspiration for the Cab Calloway classic "Minnie the Moocher";
Douglas' father was a mortician. Sam Cooke was Douglas' cousin. At
the age of 10 Douglas was a contestant and winner on the game show
Name That Tune and says "Ebony followed my career for the next three
years".
Douglas attended the Willard May School for
professional children and afterwards the Quintanos High School for
young professionals alongside Gregory Hines, Bernadette Peters,
Carol Lynley and Patty Duke. While in high school Douglas sang in a
female trio named April May & June who were signed as a management
client by Little Anthony and the Imperials.
Douglas made a
one-off recording in 1963 for RCA Victor cutting the single "I Don't
Mind (Being Your Fool)" under the name Carolyn Cooke: becoming
pregnant with her first son at age 15 ended RCA's interest in
promoting her.
Douglas also cut several jingles for TV
commercials - " used to do voiceovers for Ideal Toys and General
Mills with Bernadette Peters" - but recalls: "I never thought I
would be a singer", and for most of the 60s Douglas pursued an
acting career, appearing in an episode of her classmate's The Patty
Duke Show but mostly acting in theatrical productions beginning with
One Tuesday Morning starring Clarice Taylor. Later Douglas
understudied Jonelle Allen in the off-Broadway production of The
Life of Mary McCloud Bethune and co-starred with James Earl Jones
and Cicely Tyson in the play Moon on a Rainbow Shawl.
Carol
Douglas married "high school sweetheart" Ken Douglas in the mid-60s
- resumed her musical career in the early 1970s touring nationally
on the oldies circuit in a lineup of the Chantels featuring original
frontwoman Arlene Smith: with these Chantels, Douglas cut the single
"Some Tears Fall Dry" for Capitol.
In 1974, Douglas was
recruited by Midland International Records via an ad in Showbiz
magazine: label vice president/record producer Eddie O'Loughlin had
heard the UK hit single "Doctor's Orders" by Sunny and was seeking a
female vocalist to cut the track for the U.S. market.
Douglas' audition led to a five year contract and her version of
"Doctor's Orders", became a hit reached #2 on Billboard magazine's
Disco chart, #9 R&B and #11 on the Billboard Hot 100: the single
also reached #4 in France.
Although O'Loughlin was credited
as "Doctor's Orders" producer the production had in fact been by
Meco Monardo who was also responsible for Gloria Gaynor's "Never Can
Say Goodbye" which had ascended the Pop charts at around the same
time as "Doctor's Orders": claims have been made for each single to
be the hit that broke disco into the Top 40.
Douglas made her
album debut in 1975 with The Carol Douglas Album followed in 1976 by
Midnight Love Affair and in 1977 by Full Bloom. Monardo's especial
expertise was missing in the production of Douglas' post-"Doctor's
Orders" tracks which maintained her as a popular club presence with
negligible mainstream popularity: the follow-up single to "Doctor's
Orders": "A Hurricane is Coming Tonite", became Douglas' only other
Hot 100 entry peaking at #81 in April of 1975.
Douglas hit #1
on the Disco charts with her "Midnight Love Affair" single: the song
did appear on the Top 100 chart in Cash Box magazine but only via a
cover by Tony Orlando and Dawn which reached #94. (In France
Douglas' version reached #82.)
Douglas' other recordings
included "Headline News" - a minor Edwin Starr hit from 1966 written
by "Doctor's Orders" co-writer Roger Greenaway remade by the latter
track's originator Sunny - , and in the tradition of "Doctor's
Orders" Douglas cut discofied covers of several songs which were
current or recent hits in the UK including ABBA's "Dancing Queen",
"I Wanna Stay With You" by Gallagher and Lyle and "So You Win Again"
by Hot Chocolate. In 1977 she recorded the single "You Make Me Feel
The Music" for the soundtrack to the film "Haunted".
Douglas
would recall: "I always wanted to do a funky black album, but the
label wouldn’t allow it. This is how I lost out on R&B/Disco hits
like: “Shame” (Evelyn King), “I'm Caught Up (In A One Night Love
Affair)” (Jocelyn Brown [of Inner City]) and “I Specialize in Love”
(Sharon Brown)."
"So You Win Again" was arranged by Michael
Zager whose presence on Douglas' 1978 album release Burnin resulted
in a critical (if not commercial) upswing. Burnin also featured
Douglas' version of the Bee Gees' "Night Fever" - not a Zager
arrangement - which became Douglas' only UK chart entry at #66.
Douglas' 1979 album Come Into My Life was an obvious bid to
re-charge her club popularity: only six tracks long with production
by Greg Carmichael who'd enjoyed several disco hits with studio
groups, but the single "I Got the Answer" was only a mild club
success.
In 1981, Douglas' cover of the Three Degrees' "My
Simple Heart" was released on 20th Century Records as by then the
Midland International (aka Midsong) was defunct. "My Simple Heart"
was also Douglas' debut on Carrere Records based in Paris where
Douglas lived for a time: in the early 80s Carrčre handled Douglas'
European releases while in the US Douglas was signed to O'Loughlin's
Next Plateau label. Her last album to date "I Got Your Body",
re-named Love Zone (1) in the US and Canada, was released in 1983
including her latest four 12" singles from 1981 to 1983: "My Simple
Heart", "You're Not So Hot", "I got your body" and "Got ya where I
want ya". The cut "You're Not So Hot" reached #71 in France (1982).
The retro-boom of the 1990s put Douglas back on the road touring
and making personal appearances at a number of special events
including the Martin Luther King Concert Series, Beatstock '97,
Saturday Night Fever 20th Anniversary Reunion and the Dance Music
Hall of Fame ceremony. In 2003, she returned to the recording studio
when she was invited to sing backing vocals on Wanda Dee's Goddess
Is Here! CD. During this period, she also re-recorded a number of
her hits, which were also released.
Douglas made an
appearance on The People's Court (with Judge Marilyn Milian) in 2003
as the plaintiff in a case involving her and fellow disco diva
Sharon Brown. After the ruling, Brown stated that Douglas decision
to take her to court was a publicity stunt, to get some free TV air
time. In addition to awarding Douglas some (not all) of the money
she was requesting, Milian had Douglas sing a brief snippet of
"Doctor's Orders", as well as having Brown sing a snippet of her
1982 song "I Specialize in Love".
Douglas is not to be
confused with (and is no relation to) Carl Douglas, a fellow pop
one-hit wonder whose famous single "Kung Fu Fighting" was in the
Billboard Hot 100 at about the same time as Carol Douglas's
"Doctor's Orders".
Notes:
1. It's actually more complicated. The 2
releases contain different mixes and timings. The Love Zone LP is
very hard to find and a much sought album selling over 100$ : Five
of the eight songs on this album (love zone) are mixes that are
unique to this release. "I Got Your Body" appears in two versions -
a US only mix and an extended version of the European 12" / album
mix. "Rescue Me / Sending Out An S.O.S." is extended by two and a
half minutes compared to the edit used in other territories. "My
Simple Heart (Remix)" is a more traditionally structured version of
Mark Berry's "New York Dancin' Mix". "You're Not So Hot" is almost a
minute shorter than the 12" version.
Any contributions to this item will be
gratefully accepted
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