Duke of...???

All this speculation about the Duke of Earl has made me think of the song "Duke of Prunes" from Frank Zappa's 1967 Absolutely Free album. This song cracks me up every time. (The direct reference to "Duke of Earl" comes just after the 3 minute mark on the video below: "You'll be my doo-chess, my doo-chess of prunes.") Absolutely Free—a send-up of 1960s music and culture—is one of the most hilarious, satirical, and weird concept albums every made. I think Zappa was one of the few musicians to carry the doo-wop torch into the psychedelic era. His 1968 album Ruben and the Jets is an amazing resurrection of the genre that spawned "Duke of Earl," "Who Put the Bomp," and other vocally-based hits about innocent teenage love from the 50s and early 60s.