Pittsburgh, PA- It was Valentine’s Day, 1982 and I was invited to a party at a house in the Hill District section of Pittsburgh. The Hill District was just another inner city casualty until it was made famous by writer Steven Bocho, when he created the multi-Emmy winning television series, “Hill Street Blues.” At that point, ghetto and poverty were never so cool.
Anyway, at the party, the hostess played all “Spinners” music for about 90 minutes. I was just about a month short of my twenty ninth birthday. I was young, handsome, built like a young Mandingo warrior and feeling kinda, groovy.
The hostess put the Spinners, “Could it be I’m falling in love” on the turntable and that was my opening line to a young lady that I had been checking out all night and all I have to say about that night is game, set, match.
Music biographer Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote this about the Spinners for www.allmusic.com “The Spinners were the greatest soul group of the early ’70s, creating a body of work that defined the lush, seductive sound of Philly soul.
Ironically, the band’s roots lay in Detroit, where they formed as a doo wop group during the late ’50s. By the mid-’60s, they had signed with Motown Records, but the label never gave the group much consideration. “It’s a Shame” became a hit in 1970, but the label continued to ignore the group, and dropped the band two years later.
Unsigned and featuring new lead singer Phillipe Wynne, the Spinners seemed destined to never break into the big leagues, but they managed to sign with Atlantic Records, where they began working with producer Thom Bell. With his assistance, the Spinners developed a distinctive sound, one that relied on Wynne‘s breathtaking falsetto and the group’s intricate vocal harmonies.
Bell provided the group with an appropriately detailed production, creating a detailed web of horns, strings, backing vocals, and lightly funky rhythms. Between 1972 and 1977, the Spinners and Bell recorded a number of soul classics, including “I’ll Be Around,” “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love,” “Mighty Love,” “Ghetto Child,” “Then Came You,” “Games People Play,” and “The Rubberband Man.”
Wynne left in 1977 and the Spinners had hits for a few years after his departure, but the group will always be remembered for its classic mid-’70s work. I had great flashbacks on that greatest day for Cupid in 1982. Years later I was hanging out with a friend at Nat’s Bar (now Art’s named after Nat’s brother) in the Strip District, lending him some backbone in the middle of breakup when, “When Love Don’t Love Nobody,” came on the jukebox. Queen Cookie, Nat’s daughter looked at my friend and said, “pour the corn another one bites the dust.”
The Spinners could make you happy or sad, depending on the occasion, but they would always touch those inner emotions, whether you wanted them to or not.
The Spinners are still thriving and turning heads till this day because love never goes out of style.
According to a Meadows press release; “The Spinners will be appearing at the Meadows Race Track and Casino on August 13. Today, original member Henry Fambrough is joined onstage by lead singer Charlton Washington, high tenor Marvin Taylor, tenor Ronnie Moss, and bass singer Jessie Peck and a soul-infused 5-piece band, led by Keith Ferguson backs them up.”
Aubrey Bruce can be reached at: abruce@newpittsburghcourier.com or 412.583.6741
Follow him on Twitter@ultrascribe
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