Soul Strutter: Spyder Turner

Saturday, 4 February 2023

Spyder Turner - A Profile

Spyder Turner was born born Dwight David Turner in Beckley, West Virginia on 4 Feb 1947 and is 76 today.

The family moved to Detroit when he was five and he sang in high school choirs and doo wop groups until he won a show at the Apollo amateur hour aged 16 singing Chuck Jackson's "I Don't Want To Cry". His pianist for the show was Michael Stokes who was with a group called The Sterophonics who he sang with and released his first single "You're Alone" / "Happy Story" as Dwight (Spider) Turner & The Sterophonics in 1964. The flip "Happy Story", although credited to Charles Stokes, was written by Eddie Kendricks, who Turner was living with at the time, but couldn't put his name to it as he was signed to Motown.

The only other release on the Cha-Tok label was by The Sterophonics the same year. The label was owned by Charles Stokes who was a member of the group with other family members. They released another two singles as Ster-Phonics on another label Mas-Tok owned by Stokes. Michael Stokes went on to work with Bill Withers and Creative Source and other artists at Sussex. When it folded he moved to Roadshow and wrote and produced the first three albums for Enchantment as well as other groups such as Brass Construction, BT Express. He became A&R man for A&M and signed Janet Jackson.

Turner released another few singles, one for Master Records (sister label to Cha-Tok) (1965) and one of his in-demanders "I've Got To Get Myself Together (Before I Lose My Mind)" on Good Time (1966) (both as Spider Turner). Around the same time the A side of the Good Time release was released with "My Troubles Are Over" on Sounds Of Soul by Miki Stokes (Charles and Michael Stokes sister) And Spyder Turner. It is the only release on the label but was published by Cha-Tok. The song was co-written by Nate Edmonds and Kenny Carter who recorded it for RCA Victor in May 1966 credited to only Fred Skau which is a pseudonym for Carter. The Sounds Of Soul single is pretty scarce and sells for four figures (around the £2k mark).

Spyder used to perform with The Fabulous Counts and sang Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" in his live shows and in attendance at one show at the 20 Grand was producer Clay McMurray who suggested that he should record it and connected him with MGM and it was released in Nov 1966 produced by McMurray who also wrote the B side "You're Good Enough For Me". On the recording he did vocal impressions of Jackie Wilson, David Ruffin, Billy Stewart, Smokey Robinson and Chuck Jackson. It would be his first, and only, R&B chart hit in Dec 1966 reaching #3 R&B and #12 Hot 100. The success of the single resulted in MGM releasing an album of the same name in 1967. The album contained mostly covers and all his A and B sides recorded for the label except the flip to "Stand By Me" ("You're Good Enough For Me").

Another single was released for Fortune which Spyder says was recorded a couple of years before "Stand By Me" but not released. He wasn't signed to the label and only recorded on song, the flip side is an instrumental by the house band. They did nothing with it. Discogs, lists it as 1964 and 45Cat as 1967 (which is more in line with Cat. No) so I would guess that Fortune released it to try and cash in after the success of the MGM single.

He released another single for MGM in Feb/Mar 1967, one of his best, "I Can't Make It Anymore", written by Gordon Lightfoot and originally recorded by Richie Havens in Aug 1966 who sang it at Woodstock in 1969. It was released again in 1971 as the flip to "I'm Alive With A Lovin' Feeling". His next single appeared on the short-lived Kwanza label set up by former Warner Bros. president Joe Smith which only ran between 1973-74 and released a dozen singles. Smith became chairman of Elektra/Asylum (1975-83) and then CEO/vice chairman of Capitol (1987-93).

In 1977 he drove a friend to stay in California and visited Whitfield's offices to see McMurray who was working for Whitfield but he wasn't there but whilst waiting he met Whitfield. He had worked with Whitfield at Motown where he recorded a demo of "He Who Picks A Rose" for The Temptations and they fell out as Turner refused to sing it the way Whitfield wanted. However, he joined Whitfield for three years. They wrote "Do Your Dance" for Rose Royce which was a #4 R&B and #39 Hot 100 hit. Whilst at Whitfield he released two albums "Music Web" (1978) and "Only Love" (1980). The second album he recorded and produced without Whitfield and Gene Page was brought in to add strings and horns. It was released when Whitfield and Warner Bros. were about to part company so it lacked promotion but is Turner's favourite album. Three singles were also released.

His recording career declined after leaving Whitfield with only one more original song "Spyderman" in 1983 on Shatter Records.

A four track EP was released by Web Brothers Productions in 1998 which I would guess is his own label and a single appeared in 2008 on Carl Dixon's Bandtrax. It was recorded at Motown's Studio A co-produced by Dennis Coffey

Both his Whitfield albums were reissued on CD together as "Is It Love You're After" by Big Break Records in 2017.

His last single "Rocket To The Moon" was released in 2021