Latest Release
- SEP 20, 2024
- 92 Songs
- Spinners · 1972
- Spinners · 1972
- The Best of Spinners · 1976
- 2nd Time Around (Expanded Edition) · 1970
- The Very Best of the Spinners · 1979
- Pick of the Litter · 1975
- Mighty Love · 1974
- The Very Best of the Spinners · 1976
- The Very Best of the Spinners · 1974
- The Very Best of the Spinners · 1975
Essential Albums
- 1974
- The Spinners’ partnership with arranger Thom Bell reached its zenith on 1974’s New and Improved. These recordings have so much scope and complexity that they reveal new details on each listen. At the same time, they can simply be enjoyed as pop music. The album is only eight songs long, and it can be listened to front to back without pause; it was designed this way, in an era when the album experience was at its peak value. Listening to the Dionne Warwick collaboration "Then Came You," it’s hard to understand why it isn’t as well known as “I’ll Be Around.” It's one of those soul songs that doesn’t just seduce you; it gets completely into your veins and stays there long after the music has stopped. The songs here are ambitious, even by the superlative standards of '70s soul music. It's not uncommon for a track to wander from deep despair to triumph and then back to introspection, all within the guise of a hummable tune. One could argue that the pinnacle of sophistication in R&B lies about halfway through “Sitting on Top of the World.”
- The Spinners’ 1973 LP was self-titled because it represented a new start for the group. They had a new label (Atlantic), a new lead singer (Phillipe Wynne), and a new studio team (Sigma Sound Studios, in Philadelphia). This confluence of fresh ideas helped create one of the great soul masterpieces of the early '70s, one that boasted a trifecta of hits in “I’ll Be Around,” “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love," and “How Could I Let You Get Away.” The first song is one of the most seductive arrangements of all time, courtesy of Thom Bell. A sequence of guitar and bells chime as a heartbeat-like drum pattern builds from behind, drawing in listeners. The rest of the album followed the lead of its brilliant hit singles, creating a sound that was at once mature and perfectly sweet. Of the lesser-known tracks, the best are “Just You and Me Baby” and “One of a Kind (Love Affair),” in which the group’s cascading harmonies fall around a set of cyclical rhythms.
- 2012
- 2012
- 2012
- 2012
- 2012
Artist Playlists
- You missed the '70s if you didn't slow dance to the Spinners.
- The decades-spanning evolution of a soulful sound.
- 2002
More To Hear
- Even Philly Soul legends need help sometimes.
- DJ Kool Herc, The Spinners, and Link Wray built new scenes.
About The Spinners
R&B vocal group The Spinners kicked around Tri-Phi Records, and then Motown, for a decade starting in 1961 before finding success in the ’70s on Atlantic. • The group began in 1954 when five friends from a housing project in suburban Detroit began singing together. By the early ’60s, the lineup had solidified into Henry Fambrough, Billy Henderson, Pervis Jackson, Bobby Smith, and George Dixon, and The Spinners began releasing songs on Tri-Phi. • The Spinners’ debut single, 1961’s “That’s What Girls Are Made For,” reached No. 5 on the R&B chart and peaked at No. 27 on the Hot 100 pop ranking. They wouldn’t have another Top 40 song until 1965’s “I’ll Always Love You.” • Dixon left The Spinners in 1963 and was replaced by Edgar “Chico” Edwards, whose brother, James Edwards, was one of the founding members. Edwards left in 1967, and was replaced by G.C. Cameron. • After their first two albums, in 1967 and 1970, made little impression on the charts, The Spinners jumped to Atlantic Records for a self-titled album in 1973. The LP topped the R&B chart and peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard 200 albums chart—the first in a string of six consecutive Top 40 pop albums, three of which went to No. 1 on the R&B chart. • Cameron left in 1972, to be replaced by Phillipé Wynne, just as The Spinners were reaching their pop peak. The group sent 11 songs into the Top 20 between 1972 and 1980, starting with “I’ll Be Around” and “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love,” which went to No. 3 and No. 4, respectively. • The Spinners had their sole No. 1 pop hit in 1974 on “Then Came You,” a collaboration with Dionne Warwick. The song, also Warwick’s first to top the pop charts, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. • The group’s last Top 10 hits came with 1979’s “Working My Way Back to You” (No. 2) and the 1980 medley “Cupid/I’ve Been Loving You a Long Time” (No. 4). • Though The Spinners haven’t released an album of new material since 1989’s Down to Business, the band has continued to tour, with Fambrough remaining as the lone original member.
- ORIGIN
- Detroit, MI, United States
- FORMED
- 1954
- GENRE
- R&B/Soul