Frankie Miller's Double Take
In 1994 Frankie Miller suffered a stroke. It stole Frankie's speech and mobility and robbed the world of hearing again his unique voice and the inspiring songs of a true great....
When Rod Stewart asked my dear friend David Mackay if there where any Frankie Miller songs that he may not have heard. David, who had produced many of Frankie's biggest hits, said he would find out.....
Rod Stewart
David MacKay
Richard Allen, our engineer, visited Frankie and was given a carrier bag full of assorted tapes and cassettes. He brought them up to Somewhere in Yorkshire studios and took the first steps on an incredible journey...
There were maybe 40 assorted tapes in the carrier bag. cassettes, ADAT tapes, reel to reel and Porta Studio tapes, all of which needed a specific machine to play them; and all of which were obsolete and skipped years ago by the digital revolution....
Richard searched second hand shops, cash converters and eBay until he found all the machines he needed to play the tapes. That's when the magic began.
Though in the main it was a collection of demoes of varying quality, the one thing that stood out was Frankie's incredible voice and a bunch of terrific songs. With some delicate editing Richard was able to retrieve Frankie's raw vocals which he then delivered to David.....
With the help of mastering engineer and all round boffin, Jerry Stevenson, David now had pristine recordings of Frankie's voice. In the normal recording process the vocal is the last track to be cut on a record but in this case it was going to be the reverse and David, who over his illustrious career has worked with many iconic artists from Eric Clapton, Barrie Gibb, Dusty Springfield to Harry Neilson, would now have to draw upon all his experience to build a band around Frankie's voice....
Musicians from around the world Joined forces to lend their talent, each of them inspired by Frankie and his incredible unheard songs
The final step was to find artistes who were prepared to sing alongside Frankie's vocal to create authentic duets. It began with old friend Bonnie Tyler, then Kiki Dee came aboard, I added my vocal which was poignantly recorded at Somewhere in Yorkshire and then things just exploded....
Elton John, cut a track then Rod Stewart, Willie Nelson, Kid Rock, Joe Walsh, Paul Carrack and an avalanche of some of the worlds greatest singers joined forces for the love of singing with Frankie on this timeless album.
Joe Walsh and Billy Connolly host the Ian Stuart Lynn film that tells Frankie's. story and follows the historic journey of the making of this record. The album is entitled ,"Double Take" though "buried treasure " may be more apt. I'm just proud to be a small part of it all and that that Somewhere in Yorkshire was where it all began.
Sincerely,
All revenue from this Album will help Frankie and his rehabilitation centre charity.
