THE SPINNERS are rightly considered one of soul’s Premier League vocal groups, so it’s always good to have something new from the veteran outfit (whose last original member, Henry Fambrough died in February).
The last “new” music we had from the Spinners was the 2021 album ‘Round The Block Again’ – a collaboration with veteran producer Preston Glass. The previous year an earlier (1991) collaboration with Glass was issued. It was a three track EP that featured the almost classic line up of Bobby Smith, Henry Fambrough, Billy Henderson, Pervis Jackson and John Edwards. Being 2020, the EP was billed as ‘Leap Year Extra’.
Now you may have noticed that 2024 is another Leap Year, so Preston Glass has released another Spinners EP under the title, ‘Another Leap Year Extra’. The songs all come from the same sessions that produced that first EP. Glass: “These 3 songs were part of a six song session I did in Detroit (United Sound) back in 1991. Some songs they found, some songs I wrote just for them (the other 3 songs were already released back 4 years ago in 2020 – the last leap year we had). John, Billy, Bobby, Henry and Pervis were great to work with and very professional; since we both had with the great Thom Bell, we traded Thom Bell stories together. They were looking for a new label at the time, but that never materialized.”
The three tracks on the new EP are – the sweet ballad ‘Lady You Are’ (complete with a Manhattans’ style spoken intro), the electro dancer ‘Does He Thrill You’ and ‘We Stayed Together’ . Now we’re not saying that these three tunes are up there with the Spinners very best… the backing tracks, for example, are a tad too synthesized/electro but the vocals and the harmonies are impeccable and John Edwards’ vocals are as strong as ever.
THE SPINNERS: ‘Another Leap Year Extra’ is out now on Platinum Garage/Soul Music Records
