Drew Schultz feat. Spyder Turner [2023] - Give It Up [Self Released]

Just over a week ago Drew Shultz reissued his first album "Back To Class" as "Back To Class Vol. 1 (Deluxe Edition)" which was pre-empting the release of "Back To Class Vol. 2"  which is due on 9 Sep. 

The first single to emerge from it is  "Give It Up" featuring Detroit soul legend Spyder Turner.

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Details

Rating:	7.9
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Date:	05/08/2023
Key/BPM:	9B/90
Price:	£1

Copyright © 2009-2023 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved

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

Don't skip this ... Mr. Entertainment!

Copyright © 2009-2023 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved

Rose Royce [2022] - Is It Love You're After (Edit) [Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group]

I've no idea why now, but Rose Royce's 1979 hit "Is It Love You're After" has been reissued digitally today (10 Jun 2022). It is subtitled (Edit) which is the 7" 3:50 version rather than the full 5:00 LP/12" mix. I also noticed that there was a "Car Wash" remix released in Feb but it's rather 'clubby'.

As Peter Sellers' catch phrase relating to Michael Caine once said 'there's not many people know that', but the song, written by Miles Gregory, was first recorded by Spyder Turner in Jun 1978. It was on his "Music Web" album and also released as the B side of his single "Get Down" on Whitfield. In fact it isn't even listed by SecondHandSongs which inaccurately states that Rose Royce's version was the first release in Aug 1979.

It fared better in the UK than US reaching #13 on UK pop chart in Jan 1980 on it's ninth (and tenth) week of a thirteen week run on the chart, missing out on Billboard's Hot 100 reaching only #105.

S'Express sampled it for their 1988 UK#1 pop hit "Theme Form S'Express" and by many others before and since.

Rose Royce's lead singer Gwen Dickey is appearing in the UK in Sep/Oct this year as part of the Giants Of Soul tour.

UPDATE. purely by chance a few days after posting this I have just come across a 12 minute, presumably 'bootleg', mix of it on YouTube (posted below). A YT comment suggests that it was done by DJ EXPAT .. anyone know?

12 Minute 'bootleg' mix

Details

Rating:	8.8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Modern Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Warner Music / X5 Music
Cat No:	None
Date:	10/06/2022
Key/BPM:	10B/118
Price:	£1

Copyright © 2009-2022 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved

Spyder Turner [2021] - Rocket To The Moon [Self Released]

Veteran artist Spyder Turner (Dwight D. Turner now 74) has just released new music (14 Jun 2021) in the form a single "Rocket To The Moon".

Spyder Turner should need no introduction to Northern Soul followers as several of his records have filled dancefloors for decades, including, probably one of my all time favourites, his version of "I Can't Make It Anymore" written by Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot and sung at Woodstock music festival in 1969 by Ritchie Havens who recorded it first in 1966. I've just noticed that Turner's version (recorded in 1967) was released digitally in May 2018, it sounds like the original and not a re-recorded version.

His new single (which I'm not crazy about to be honest) is a great 'excuse' to present a few of his popular tunes to anyone not already familiar with them. There's also some footage of him performing the song at the Northern Soul Survivors Weekender, Skegness in Sep 2018.

His debut album from 1967 ("Stand By Me") included ICMIA as well as a decent cover of "I Can't Wait Until I See My Baby's Face" originally recorded by Justine 'Baby' Washington in 1963 along with a host of others (I did a 'version excursion' on it a little while back) as well as "I'm Alive With The Loving Feeling" (also released on 45 in 1971 on MGM with a reissue of ICMIA on the flip). 

His most successful single (and only R&B chart hit and #12 Hot 100) was the title track of the album "Stand By Me", which of course is a cover of Ben E. King's smash, but he mimics various famous artists in the recording (such as Jackie Wilson, James Brown, Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin (Temptations), David Ruffin, Billy Stewart, Sam Cooke, Smokey Robinson, Chuck Jackson). He was only 20 when this was recorded. I've included a great live performance from Soul Trip 2011 below which includes a few additional imitations e.g. Al Green, Jerry Butler, Levi Stubbs, Diana Ross!!!!, Joe Tex, Otis Redding .. very entertaining!  The flip side of "Stand By Me" is another driving Northern Soul tune "You're Good Enough For Me".

His release before "Stand By Me" was in 1966 on Good Time "Got To Get Myself Together (Before I Lose My Mind)", a now highly sought after item with only one listed on Discogs priced at £1,400, which fetches even higher prices on the rarer Sounds Of Soul label! He released around another three singles prior to that in 1964-65. "You're Alone" as Dwight (Spider) Turner & The Stereophonics on Cha-Tok (a popcorn/R&B tune), "Ride In My 225" on Fortune (an R&B stomper) in 1964 and "Calling Girls" on Master in 1965.

In 1978 he joined Norman Whitfield's Whitfield label and released two albums, "Music Web" in 1978 and "One Love" in 1980 along with a few singles, a cover of Rose Royce's "Is It Love You're After" which was the flip to "Get Down", which is a good modern dancer (both sides written by Myles Grayson who wrote several hits for Rose Royce) and a modern soul favourite "I've Been Waitin". He released a fairly average single "One Love" on Whitfield in 1980 before his recording career waned.

Apart from a single "Spyderman" in 1983, his next released was a four track self-titled EP in 1998 which included a re-recording of "Stand By Me" along with three new original modern soul ballads.

Since around 2007 he's released a number of singles. The best are "Tell Me (Crying Over You)". from 2009 and "Glory Fleeting" in 2012 which has that 60s Detroit sound (even more evident on the instrumental version).

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Details

Rating:	7.1
Genre/Style:	Soul Blues
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Year:	14/06/2021
Key/BPM:	4B/75
Value:	£1