The Spinners: ‘Our voices chose for us’

When the baritone singer Henry Fambrough thinks back to the mid-’50s, to those salad days when his legendary Spinners came together at a Michigan high school, his language takes on an air of divine intervention. “Our voices chose for us,” he said. “When we sang together, we just knew it was right.”

Even so, nearly two decades had to pass before the group would find their signature sound — a graceful and fleet brand of soul that would go on to make them one of the most popular, and enduring, groups to rise from the 1970s. In order to achieve that feat, they first had to meet the producer, arranger and writer Thom Bell, whom the group didn’t work with until 1972. “Before Thom, we didn’t have anyone to produce and write songs with us in mind,” Fambrough said by phone from his home in Virginia, where he recently moved from his native Detroit to avoid the harsh winters. “Thom had a whole staff of writers who created music specifically for the way we sing and how the whole group works together. When they did that, our style finally came to light.”

It did so at an opportune time. The early ’70s saw the rapid ascent of “Philly soul,” a whirl of emotion and sound birthed in the City of Brotherly Love by producers Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff (for groups like the O’Jays, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes and MFSB), and Thom Bell (for the Delfonics, the Stylistics and the Spinners). The sound formed by Gamble and Huff was distinct from the one created by Bell, though they shared many of the same musicians on their productions, and Bell worked as an arranger on some key Gamble and Huff recordings. 

Together, the producers created records known for their lush arrangements, sweeping melodies and loving sentiments. These songs achieved so much chart success, and influenced so many musicians, that Philly soul became the rightful heir to the historic Motown sound of the ’60s. The Spinners contributed some of Philly soul’s most melodic and beautifully wistful hits, including “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love,” “One of a Kind (Love Affair),” “Mighty Love” and “Games People Play.” In November, they will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, after three previous nominations. 

Sadly, Fambrough, 85, is the only original member who will be able to attend the induction ceremony. All of the other original singers have died, most of them more than a decade ago. One of their vocal leads, Philippé Wynne, passed back in 1984 and, just this past December, producer Bell also died. Earlier this year, Fambrough retired from his performing duties with the Spinners, though the other members of the latest version of the group continue to tour. “Of all of the original guys, I’m the last man standing,” Fambrough said.

In that role, he feels a spiritual obligation to keep the group’s name alive, and to talk about how it all began. Their story dates back to 1954, when the initial five members, all of them still in high school, found the magic that connected their voices. They grew up together in the Herman Gardens housing project in Detroit. “Back then, it was a good neighborhood,” Fambrough said. “You had your little gangs, but nobody was shooting nobody or killing nobody. You might get your butt beat up, but that’s as far as it went.” 

They first performed under the name the Domingoes, inspired by doo-wop groups like the Flamingos and Billy Ward and His Dominoes. Pervis Jackson, the group’s resounding bass singer, idolized Jimmy Ricks of the Ravens, while tenor Bobbie Smith favored Clyde McPhatter and Fambrough obsessed over gospel groups like the Dixie Hummingbirds and the Sensational Nightingales. “My mom had me sing in the church choir,” he said.

“But later we sneaked off and started doing what people called ‘the devil’s music,’” he added with a laugh. 

In the early days, the group performed at what they called “night hops,” where DJs from various areas would come to Detroit to broadcast their music. “A lot of people thought we were making a lot of money. We weren’t making nothing,” Fambrough said.

At the same time, they still hadn’t settled on a sound. When Berry bought the label a couple of years later, the Spinners also went to Motown. Four long years passed before they enjoyed any further chart action. Then, in 1965, their Motown single “I’ll Always Love You” became a Top 40 hit. Another half-decade elapsed without a big song, but then “It’s a Shame,” co-written and produced by Stevie Wonder, rose to No. 14 on the Hot 100. That track was grittier than the ones the group would later be known for. The rarity of their successes while on Motown reflected Gordy’s lack of interest in them. “He had all those other [male] groups back then, like the Four Tops and the Temptations,” Fambrough said. “Berry got behind what he wanted to get behind.”

Frustrated, the group waited out their contract, then bolted. For a new direction, they turned to an old friend from Detroit, Aretha Franklin. She recommended them to the executives at her record label, Atlantic, who gave the group a shot. The next step was fate. Atlantic had wanted to work with Thom Bell, who had recently produced hits by the Delfonics (“Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)”) and the Stylistics (“You Are Everything”). Looking down Atlantic’s roster, Bell picked out the Spinners, whom he’d actually met at Philadelphia’s Uptown Theater 10 years earlier. “Thom was the keyboard man for the house band,” Fambrough recalled. “Every time we went on stage, we walked by him, so you had to notice him. Later he told us, ‘I remembered your voices. That’s what made me want to produce you.’”

By the summer of ’72, the match resulted in the Spinners’ first big hit on Atlantic, “I’ll Be Around,” which soared to No. 3 on Billboard’s pop chart. Everything about the track clicked, from the breezy rhythm guitar to the Latin percussion to Bobbie Smith’s warm tenor lead. The sensitivity of his voice idealized the lyric, whose rejected narrator promises his ex he’ll be there for her should she ever change her mind. It set up a pattern of vulnerability in the lyrics of the group’s hits. 

In the same vein, the smoothness of their music countered the rougher soul coming from Stax, or even Motown. The Spinners’ songs also stood out through Bell’s symphonic arrangements, and through the use of multiple lead singers, as opposed to their closest competition, the Stylistics, who usually had just one. Spinners hits often featured leads from both of their tenors, Smith and Wynne, while their album tracks might push Fambrough, or even bass singer Jackson, to the fore. “It gave us variety,” Fambrough said.

One example of their multiple leads spawned a strange rumor. The hit “Games People Play” featured three prominent voices — Smith, Jackson and Evette Benton. Some said that the Benton vocal was actually Fambrough’s voice sped up. “I don’t know where that came from,” the baritone singer said with a laugh. “I can’t sound that much like a woman no matter what you do.”

Their biggest hit, “Then Came You,” paired them with Dionne Warwick, an alchemy that led to a No. 1 smash in 1974 — a first for both acts. A version of another track they cut with a major star sat unreleased for over a decade. In 1977, Elton John recorded several great songs produced by Thom Bell, but they weren’t released until two years later. When they finally came out, “Are You Ready for Love,” co-written by Bell, was missing prominent vocals from the Spinners. “They tried to make it work, but it didn’t,” Fambrough said. The original version was released in 1989.

By 1977, tensions within the group had risen, and they focused on Wynne. The liner notes to a new CD box set assert that Wynne wanted top billing over the rest of the group, angering them, but Fambrough said the singer simply wanted to go solo. “We tried to talk him out of it, but he figured he could make it on his own,” he said.

Instead, his solo album floundered. “He came back to us one day and said, ‘I found out one thing, guys. The name Philippé Wynne ain’t shit.’” Soon after, Wynne started working with P-Funk. 

The Spinners had their own dry spell for a while and, by 1979, Bell would move on. “He told us, ‘Sometimes you come to the end of the road,’” Fambrough said. “Thom was writing for different artists then.”

Remarkably, the group rebounded that same year, aided by John Edwards, the dexterous tenor singer who had replaced Wynne. By incorporating a then-mandatory disco beat, and covering proven hits from the past like the Four Seasons’ “Working My Way Back to You” and Sam Cooke’s “Cupid,” the Edwards-led group scored two more exhilarating Top 5 pop hits around this time.

The loss of his original vocal partners over the years has been hard for Fambrough. “It’s especially rough because we were friends before we started singing,” he said. “It’s losing members of your family.”

For that reason, the Hall of Fame ceremony will be bittersweet. “This is something that all of the other guys were dreaming about, too,” he said. “We all wanted to be up there.”