My Vinyl Collection 160
The Spinners, Spitballs, Spooky Tooth. Philly soul, psychedelic earworms and the Walrus. 33 rpm. Alphabetically listed. Vinyl.
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1120. The Spinners, The Best of Spinners 1973-77 (1978)
The voice of Bobby Smith is totally mainline. His is the voice of the original Spinners, the voice of soul, of Philly, south Philly, a sound with a splash of Dee-troit in it, from Bobby’s Motown days.
His is the vamp that inspired a generation of soul singers. His is the voice that defined The Spinners’ hit machine style. Here is an often overlooked outfit, lasting from doo-wop to the eighties, from Motown to hip-hop.
Bobby Smith was 18 when the band started in 1954, formed by friends from the Herman Gardens housing project in Detroit. Ferndale High, inner suburbs. The group’s first record was 1961. There was some immediate charting success, in ‘65 "I'll Always Love You” and in ‘66 "Truly Yours" but not like what was to come. The big hits were in ’73-’76 with a sound like pillows rustling late at night. Infectious. Soothing. Sexy.
The Spinners’ endured a 12-year apprenticeship before the run of hits, starting in ’73. The change was named Thom Bell. Bell, born 1943 in Kingston, Jamaica, was brought to the ghetto in Philly by his family when he was four, one of 10 brothers and sisters. His mother played piano and held down a stenographer job. His father owned a fish restaurant where he sometimes played the accordion or the Hawaiian slide.
Bell put the Island sound on to the USA charts. Philly requires finger popping. It requires snappy dressing. A lushness of warm another necessity. The act is American R&B, truly, truly, it is; Smith’s that notable voice as lead singer on "I'll Be Around,” "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love?”, “They Just Can't Stop It the (Games People Play).”
From 1961 to 1980, The Spinners had 16 Top 40 hits, six in the Top 10. "I'll Be Around" hit No. 3 in the year of Bell’s arrival. Bobby Smith was pleased.
“Thom had a whole staff of writers who created music specifically for the way we sang and for how the whole group works together. When they did that, our style finally came to light.” Sly sophistication, love-struck.
Their biggest hit, however, had a different voice. It was that of the stylistic giant, the phenomenal Dionne Warwick singing "Then Came You" you in 1974. No. 1 Pop, No. 3 R&B. Soul’s rise was quick. A generation of young Blacks, especially movement activists and organizers, picked up on the powerful rhythms, the passionate vocalizing and the honest lyrics. Playing my Best of LP is to hear the lushness of the soul soundtrack, from its gospel ground, into an intensity of horns, into strings lofty. Inside and outside. Always sexy.
Bobby Smith died in 2013 at age 76. The last surviving original Spinner, Henry Fambrough, passed just this February 2024, age 85.
1121. The Spitballs, Spitballs (1978)
A one-time Large Band from Berserkely Records. Powerpop with a wink. Labelmates from Earthquake, The Greg Kihn Band, Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, The Rubinoos and The Tyla Gang.
Mostly songs that were already oldies when this group sang them, moldy oldies, long gone, wormed down into our ears, 15 familiar covers twisted into our collective minds, that is, those of us who were lucky enough to be around for the 15 sixties songs the Spitballs cover on this LP. From “Telstar” (written by Joe Meek, 1962) to “Knock on Wood” (Eddie Floyd, 1966); “Bad Moon Rising” (John Fogerty, 1969) to “The Batman Theme” (Neil Hefti, 1966); and we were very much around for “Chapel of Love” (Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, 1964) to “Boris the Spider” (John Entwistle, 1966). This record from my shelves dies nit cobbler the Duixie Cups or The Who, this is all Spitballs, a rare appearance by a rare collective of musicians.
This is the LP that the midnight platter spinner uses to jolt the party back to life. The shifting cast of musicians on this record can all play and play they do, unleashed to cover at will. In addition to Kihn and Richman the studio was occupied by Sean Tyla, Steve Wright, Robbie and Tommy Dunbar, Leroy Radcliffe. And perhaps the most valuable member, So On, an always welcome addition.
Pictured on the back of the record are 21 members of the Spitballs Orchestra. Several actually play on the record. Many look ready for a football match. Whoever they be, they crush the songs, all 15 songs from the ground of collective psyche; they work the songs, ripping them for all the rock that can be had. It matters little who’s playing or singing what, as the Spitballs are playing only the Favorites.
1122. Spooky Tooth, The Last Puff (1970)
Mike Harrison, a UK rock singer who was in Ramrod, the Hamburg Blues Band and the V.I.P.s, also led this louder than average pychedelic Brit band, Spooky Tooth. He presents here an extreme and memorable version of “I Am the Walrus.” I find it rather sensational, digging into the depth of the underground into a hole unlike any Beatles’ cover you’ve ever heard.
Joe Cocker makes appearance doing yeoman shouting on “Something to Say.” The record is midway in the Spooky Tooth band arc, called a “smashing comeback” by Rolling Stone. After the record, the guys broke up and Harrison went off to a solo career.
He soon found it difficult to live on a weekly stipend from his three albums. Band members received no further benefits, including royalties. Debts to the record company added up. Harrison worked as a barman and drove meat and milk delivery trucks.
However, after 1999, Harrison began performing again in small venues, making money with his music until his death in obscurity in the UK March 2018. He was 75.