Day 397: The Spinners – Dancin’ and Lovin’
It’s once again the best day of the week, it’s Disco Friday! Sadly there will be very little disco for me tonight, I’m tired and hanging out at home, unless listening to The Spinners somehow magically coaxes me out – it’d have to be exceptional to do that tonight, but you never know.
Album cover courtesy of Atlantic
The Spinners are an R&B vocal group that was formed in 1954 in Detroit by a group of high school friends as a doo-wop group called the Domingoes. They then changed their name and pivoted to making Philadelphia soul, releasing their first single in 1961. They were signed to Motown but apparently they were so commercially unsuccessful that the label used them as road managers, chaperones, and chauffeurs for other groups. They didn’t have their breakthrough moment until 1971, when Stevie Wonder co-wrote an produced the song “It's a Shame” for them, which charted at number 14 on the Billboard 100.
By 1979, their commercial success had waned again, so they decided to try a new sound – instead of their usual Philadelphia soul, they decided to try their hand at disco. It was also the first album that they produced themselves. It was their most successful album in many years, peaking at number 32 on the Billboard 200 and scoring them two hits with "Forgive Me Girl" and “Working My Way Back to You”.
I’ll be honest, this one was a bit of a snoozer. It didn’t make me want to head somewhere out for a Friday night, it frankly didn’t even get me off the sofa. It’s not bad per se, but to me there’s just nothing there that stands out. The strongest suit is probably the vocals, but even that isn’t enough to create much interest to it, as the vocals aren’t particularly in a starring role in the songs. To some extent they mainly fade into everything else that’s going on, and what else is going on isn’t really too remarkable.
Their version of “Working My Way Back to You” is good, and that’s about all I have for you today – it’s not a bad album by any means, but it’s just not memorable in any way either. I’m giving Dancin’ and Lovin’ a very reasonable 6/10, it’s not going into rotation but it was perfectly fine to listen to.