Bobby Smith (April 10, 1936 – March 16, 2013) – Once You Fall In Love (1979)

The longtime Spinners lead singer was featured on this masterpiece closing cut off From Here To Eternally, the final album Thom Bell produced for them.

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Bobby Smith was a founding member of the Spinners and the group’s original lead singer. He remained the group’s co-lead tenor for nearly six decades, and sang lead on several of their all-time biggest hits in the early 1970s.

Born in Detroit, Robert Steel Smith met three of the other original Spinners while growing up in Ferndale, a suburb just outside the city limits. In a 1976 interview with the Ann Arbor Sun, Smith recalled those days:

“It was Pervis (Jackson), Henry (Fambrough), myself and Billy (Henderson). We all went to Lincoln High.”

His three classmates formed a vocal group in 1954 called the Domingoes along with two other friends who lived with them in the Herman Gardens public housing project, C. P. Spencer and James Edwards. A few weeks later Edwards quit and was replaced by Smith, who became their lead vocalist. Spencer left shortly afterwards and eventually joined The Originals. The group changed their name to the Spinners in 1961 and released their first single on Harvey Fuqua’s Tri-Phi Records, which before long was bought out by Motown.

See our earlier posts on other Spinners lead singers G.C. Cameron and Philippé Wynne plus songwriter/producers Bruce Hawes, Linda Creed and Thom Bell for more on the group’s history.

After spending the sixties releasing a dozen singles and two full albums on Motown, The Original Spinners (1967) and 2nd Time Around (1970), with few hits to show for it, they jumped ship to Atlantic in 1972. As Smith explained in 1976:

“We went to Atlantic. We did one session and they were supposed to get the record out, but it was a little wishy-washy. They said ‘this one sounds like a hit,’ but they was a little leery, I think. And then they called us and said, ‘Hey, Thom Bell wants to do a session on you guys. Do you want us to go with what you have or do you want to wait and do a session with Thom?’ We'd rather have a session with Thom!!”

When superstar Philly songwriter/producer Bell entered the picture, he initially cut several songs with the group. The first single released from those sessions was “How Could I Let You Get Away,” written by Yvette Davis with lead vocals by Philippé Wynne who had recently joined the Spinners. It came out in July, 1972 and reached #14 R&B.

Then radio DJ’s started playing the B-side, and Atlantic re-pressed it with the sides flipped. “I’ll Be Around” was the reissued single’s A-side, written by Bell and Phil Hurtt. MFSB core original members Norman Harris and Ronnie Baker were featured prominently on guitar and bass, respectively, with Smith on lead vocals. It shot up the charts that fall and went to #1 R&B and #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming their first breakthrough hit and million-selling record.

Their follow up single was also produced by Bell during his first session with the group at Sigma Sound Studios. “Could It Be I'm Falling in Love” was co-written by Melvin and Mervin Steals aka Mystro and Lyric, and again featured Smith on lead vocals. Like “I’ll Be Around,” it also had additional background vocals by Bell’s songwriting partner Linda Creed and the Sweethearts of Sigma (Barbara Ingram, Carla Benson, and Evette Benton). Released in November, 1972, it again topped the R&B charts and hit #4 on the Hot 100 while earning them their second gold record.

The last of eight albums Thom Bell produced for the Spinners was From Here To Eternally (1979). Its epic cover art was illustrated by Stephen Marchesi, and the LP’s masterpiece was its closing cut “Once You Fall In Love,” co-written by former Nat Turner Rebellion leader Joseph B. Jefferson and Charles Simmons, two-thirds of the Jefferson-Simmons-Hawes writing team. Like the rest of the album, its lineup included Philly soul veterans Charles Collins on drums, Larry Washington on congas, and Bobby Eli on guitar.

From Here To Eternally featured the Spinners’ first attempt to recalibrate their late 70s sound in a disco direction, the funky seven-minute “If You Wanna Do a Dance (All Night).” It was co-written by Bell, his nephew LeRoy Bell, and Casey James (aka Bell & James), with Philippé Wynne’s replacement John Edwards on lead vocals.

It also included the Spinners’ version of “Are You Ready For Love,” originally co-written by Bell, James, and Bell for Elton John during sessions at Sigma Sound Studios for a never-completed album, and first recorded in 1977 with the Spinners on backing vocals. Their 1979 version featured Smith on lead, and they performed it live later that year on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert.

Rest in Power, Bobby Smith.

Further info:

“Interview With The Spinners: Breakin' The Barriers,” interview by Frank Bach, Ann Arbor Sun, October 8, 1976.

“Bobbie Smith, Voice of the Spinners, Dies at 76,” obituary, The New York Times, March 20, 2013.

“Bobby Smith, lead singer of The Spinners,” Obituary, The Philadelphia Tribune, March 22, 2013.

“The Story Behind 'I'll Be Around',” Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2017.

#soul #funk #disco #Motown #Atlantic #ThomBell #Spinners #BobbySmith