The Spinners

The Spinners have been at it since 1954, a rhythm and blues vocal group out of Michigan, and by 1973 they had the self-titled Spinners album and "I'll Be Around" to show for all those years: a sly, loping groove with voices that glide in and out of each other like they were born doing it. Their strongest run of singles and albums came across the '60s and '70s, much of it alongside producer Thom Bell, who gave that polish a sweep without letting it go soft.

Motown and Atlantic both had them on the books. Billy Henderson, Henry Fambrough and Bobbie Smith anchored the group for decades, with Philippé Wynne in the ranks, John Edwards arriving in 1977 and Barbara Ingram singing background through the middle of the decade. "Rubberband Man" bounces exactly as elastically as its title promises.

In Britain they had to be billed as the Motown Spinners and later the Detroit Spinners, so nobody would mix them up with a British folk act of the same name. They got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1976 and went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023, the year Henry Fambrough retired; the group still tours today with none of its founders on stage.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.