Tony Drake

Born Samuel Garner, smooth-voiced Tony Drake attained prominence as a songwriter more than ten years after issuing his first single, “Let’s Play House,” on the modest New York independent label Musicor. Although he recorded infrequently, his compositions during the 1970s acquired independent momentum. Intended originally for Barbara Acklin, the song “Living in the Footsteps of Another Man” instead reached the Chi-Lites, who placed it on their million-selling 1972 album A Lonely Man. More than two dozen artists eventually recorded the number, among them Jamaican reggae singer Delroy Wilson and British dance band the Pasadenas.

Drake secured a second success when “Let’s Play House” appeared on the 1984 multi-artist collection Soul of a Man, assembled by East Coast promoter/DJ Mike Boone. The track became an international hit and was later translated into Italian for a recording by La Pina e Soul Kingdom.

A Philadelphia native, Drake spent his childhood on his great grandmother’s farm in rural Virginia. The late-’50s doo wop vocalists shaped his ambitions of stardom. At age fifteen he returned to Philadelphia and began an apprenticeship as valet for doo wop group the Cruisers. Seeking autonomy, he moved to New York and signed with manager Bunny Jones, who promoted him as a “Tom Jones type” pop singer. The strategy collapsed when a scheduled $10,000-a-week Las Vegas engagement was withdrawn after the agent learned Drake was African-American.

Chicago-based doo-wop group the Flamingos exerted a strong influence; Drake briefly performed under the name Tony Hunt as the younger brother of Flamingos vocalist Tommy Hunt. Although the group rejected him at audition, vocalist Terry Johnson guided him and “taught” him to sing. Drake successfully auditioned in 1963 and appeared poised for success. Billboard awarded his debut single “Let’s Play House” a “special merit spotlight,” yet Musicor provided no promotion and the record vanished from the charts.

Encouraged by R&B vocalist Jackie Wilson, Drake cut a second single, “Suddenly” b/w “It Hurts Me More,” for the Chicago-based Brunswick label, with the Chi-Lites supplying background harmonies. Brunswick extended equally scant promotion, and the release drew little notice. During leftover session time, Brunswick promotion director Gus Redman’s “favorite” new act, the Lost Generation, recorded “The Sly, the Slick and the Wicked,” which became a major hit.

Drake took employment as a salesman for a clothing manufacturer and did not return to the studio until 1982. The single “Human” b/w “Think About It,” issued on the short-lived Rissa-Chrissa label, met the same fate when the company dissolved shortly after release. Tapes documenting his work with influential Hammond B-3 organ player Jimmy Smith remain unreleased.