Harvey Fuqua & The Spinners

Harvey & The Spinners
(1957-1969)

Bobby Smith, George Dixon, Billy Henderson, Henry Fambrough and Pervis Jackson

In the mid-fifties, Pervis Jackson, Billy Henderson and Henry Fambrough - three Detroit schoolfriends - formed a vocal group they named after their idols, the Flamingos and the Dominoes. The Domingoes performed their first professional engagement at the Idlewild Resort alongside an already-established local quartet called the Four Aims. The teenage hopefuls were impressed by the singing and dancing of the elder group and decided to add some similar routines to their own rough-and-ready act.

After recruiting another member, Bobbie Smith, the Domingoes decided their name was too derivative and opted for a change. Bobbie, a car buff provided the new handle. "Back in the fifties," he explained, "all the kids had hot rod cars.... with great big Cadillac hubcaps that they called spinners." So, the Domingoes became the Spinners, and continued to work on their act. One feature was vocal impressions, where they would imitate other artists, a skill at which they became very proficient. Their favourite was the Moonglows, whose leader Harvey Fuqua moved to Detroit in 1960. The group and the R&B veteran made contact, and soon the Spinners were signed to his newly-formed record label, Tri-Phi. At the same time, a lady called Gwen Gordy had just set up a label called Anna, while her songwriter brother Berry was running a new outfit called Tamla.

Tri-Phi 1001 by The Spinners was a mid-tempo Doo-wop ballad called That's What Girls Are Made For, and provided the group with a Top 30 hit in July of 1961. And, just to lay an oft-repeated myth to rest, the lead vocal was definitely by Bobbie Smith, not Harvey. The success of the single put their name on the books and the Spinners were able to go out on tour on the strength of the hit. Hours of rehearsing and polishing their stage performances now began to pay dividends. "When we hit the road, we pretty much had our act together," Bobbie recalled.

By 1964 Harvey Fuqua had quite literally joined the Motown family. He married Gwen Gordy, and his artists transferred to Berry's labels. The Spinners, alongside Junior Walker, Johnny Bristol and Shorty Long, now found themselves part of the Motortown Revue, along with the Supremes, the Temptations and Little Stevie Wonder. Also signed to the company were a quartet of old acquaintances, the group who had inspired the Domingoes nearly a decade earlier. These days, however, the guys were better known as the Four Tops.

While continuing to work steadily, the Spinners found the going tough at Motown. When not out on the gruelling coast-to-coast package tours, the group often hung around the Motown Artist Development Department, waiting to grab rehearsal time when other artists cancelled. In charge of the department was someone they knew well - Harvey Fuqua. I doubt he was averse to letting his boys have a few extra hours' rehearsal time! The Spinners also did shifts packing up records for despatch. If nothing else, they were dedicated, and remembered as among the company's hardest-working employees. When they were occasionally allowed into the studio, they created magic, but the record-buying public were more sold on the Temptations and Tops. Sweet Thing, the Spinners' debut Motown release in October 1964 was an excellent record, but did little business. Its B-side How Can I is an exquisite vocal performance - no throwaway flips with the Spinners! (It's no major surprise to spot the writing credit for the song - only a certain H. Fuqua!)

Six months later came the next Spinners offering, recognised today as a true Motown classic. I'll Always Love You hit the US top forty in August 1965, but only scored a number 35 position. Nevertheless, the group carried on working, and working, and working. Motown obviously saw no need for an immediate follow-up, and Ivy Hunter's gorgeous Truly Yours eventually staggered out in April of 1966, to expire quietly and unnoticed. According to Andrew Hamilton again,

Eventually, somebody must have decided the Spinners' hard work deserved a reward, and a year later, their first Motown album was finally released. (I would hazard a guess that the 'somebody' at Motown was Berry Gordy's brother-in-Law, and their erstwhile mentor - yes, Mr Fuqua again!)

On the face of it, The Original Spinners is a fairly typical mid-sixties Motown album, made up from singles and filler. All the group's previously-released Motown singles are included, along with their respective B-sides. Their previous 45, For All We Know was in there, plus B-side of course. Even the 1961 That's What Girls Are Made For was thrown in for good measure. It's fairly obvious that there was not a great deal of material to compile an album from, which in turn suggests that the Spinners were not frequent visitors to the studio. Having said all of that, it is truly a vintage album, and quite possibly one of the great Soul vocal group recordings of all time. What the Spinners lacked in quantity of output, is more than compensated for by the quality of the performances. The Tops and the Temps may have had the hits, but the Spinners had the class!

The Original Spinners was not exactly a hot seller at the time, which is why original copies are serious collectors' items today. Nevertheless, the group were considered well-known enough in the UK for the album to be released on the British Tamla Motown label in January 1968. Retitled The Detroit Spinners, the album's contents were identical to the US issue, though the sleeve design was slightly different. As in the US, the album didn't set the charts on fire, and within eighteen months EMI deleted it from the catalogue.

Meanwhile, back in the States... One of the problems that face vocal groups is line-up changes - the number of singers who have briefly shone with the Drifters would constitute a male voice choir. The Spinners have always been Bobbie Smith, Henry Fambrough, Billy Henderson and Purvis Jackson. While this four-man nucleus remained constant, they too had to survive the changes of lead vocalist. Detroit stalwart C. P. Spencer was replaced by Chico Edwards. Then came George W. Dixon, followed by G.C. Cameron, but as The Spinners were not exactly a "personality" group, they weathered the changes. Billy Henderson explains: "there were always problems with replacing a guy, but that's why we've been together for so long, 'cause we've always thought 'Spinners'."

Late 1968 saw another flop Motown single, Bad Bad Weather (Till You Come Home). It's a good performance of a fairly nondescript song, so it's no great surprise that the record buyers treated it with indifference. The next release was scheduled for September 1969, but Motown 1155 never hit the shops. However, on October 21st there was a new Spinners single - In My Diary - on Motown's V.I.P. subsidiary. The song seems to have been an odd choice of material for a single in 1969 - a vintage Doo-wop ballad, originally recorded in the mid-fifties by Harvey Fuqua's Moonglows. Despite the quality of the harmonies, the record again sank without a trace. The psychedelic Black Power anthem Message From A Black Man also failed to score, and it must have looked as if the Spinners were never to achieve another hit. The closest they had achieved in recent times was as backing vocalists on ex- Tri-Phi labelmate Junior Walker's What Does It Take. Then, someone without a shortage of hit songs decided to offer them one. Enter Stevie Wonder.

Exactly how the Spinners came to record It's A Shame in mid-1970 is not clear, but the record changed the group's fortunes. At the time, Stevie was just beginning to break away from the Motown hit-machine formula. His self-penned-and-produced Signed Sealed Delivered was just around the corner, and he probably felt like trying out his production skills on another artist. As the Spinners weren't exactly on a winning streak, Motown probably let Stevie "have a go". After all, if the record bombed, it would be no major loss. As it turned out, Stevie produced a hit! It's A Shame reached number 14 in the US chart, and 20 in Britain.

Motown hastily assembled an album to capitalise on the single's success. Second Time Around, released on V.I.P. in September 1970, and in the UK a few months later, was a rag-bag collection of failed singles plus a few unissued titles. As almost no-one in the UK had even heard those singles, it was hailed as a great new album, from a great new group. Few realised that the Spinners (re-named yet again for the UK market as "the Motown Spinners") had been together for fifteen years. Stevie's follow-up single We'll Have It Made sadly did not have It's A Shame's commercial magic, and became yet another Spinners stiff.

This could have been the end of the story, but some people thankfully refuse to give in. Instead of giving up the ghost, the Spinners appear to have sat out the rest of their Motown contract, and then departed for pastures new. After all, for them the streets of the Motor City had not been paved with gold, and seven years is a long enough time to stay in one place. The Spinners moved on, leaving Motown behind. This really could have been the end of the story. Not only were they leaving Motown, but lead tenor G.C. Cameron had elected to stay. He was, it was said, 'romantically involved' with Gwen Gordy and knew which side his bread was buttered on. It's interestiig to note that Gwen Gordy was actually the ex-Mrs Fuqua, estranged wife of Harvey, who left Motown in 1970. The story of the Spinners and Harvey Fuqua are so closely entwined as to be almost two sides of the same story.

Tri-Phi 1001 - That's What Girls Are Made For */ Heebie Jeebies - 1961 *Lead Vocal Harvey Fuqua. Tri-Phi 1004 - Love (I'm So Glad)* / Sudbuster - 1961 *Lead Vocal Harvey Fuqua. Tri-Phi 1007 - Itching For My Baby, But I Don't Know Where To Scratch / What Did She Use - 1962 *Lead Vocal Bobby Smith. Tri-Phi 1010 - She Loves Me So / Whistling About You - 1962 Harvey & The Spinners Tri-Phi 1010 - She Loves Me So / Whistling About You - 1962 The Spinners Tri-Phi 1013 - I've Been Hurt / I Got Your Water Boiling Baby - 1962 The Spinners And Bobby Smith Tri-Phi 1018 - She Don't Love Me / Too Young, Too Much, Too Soon - 1962 Loe And Joe (With The Spinners) Harvey 112 - Little Ole Boy, Little Ole Girl / That's How I Am Without You - 1962 The Spinners Motown 1067 - Sweet Thing / How Can I - 1964 Motown 1078 - I'll Always Love You / Tomorrow May Never Come - 1965 Motown 1093 - Truly Yours / Where Is That Girl - 1966 Various Artists Motown 2482 - Seasons Greetings From Motown - 1966 (Very Short "Christmas Greetings" Radio Station Spots Are Delivered By Martha & The Vandellas, The Temptations, The Miracles, Shorty Long, The Velvelettes, The Spinners, The Four Tops, The Elgins And The Supremes ---- It Was Pressed In Red Vinyl) The Spinners Motown 1109 - For All We Know / Cross My Heart - 1967 Motown 1136 - Bad Bad Weather / I Just Can't Help But Feel The Pain - 1968 Motown 1155 - (She's Gonna Love Me) At Sundown / In My Diary - 1969 Vip 25050 - (She's Gonna Love Me) At Sundown / In My Diary - 1969 Vip 25054 - (She's Gonna Love Me) At Sundown / Message From A Black Man - 1970 Monarch 25057 - It's A Shame / ? - 1970 (Test Pressing) Vip 25057 - It's A Shame / Together We Can Make Such Sweet Music - 1970 Vip 25060 - My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me) / We'll Have It Made - 1971(Promo Copies Came Out In Red Vinyl)