Spencer Wiggins Jr. (January 8, 1942 – February 13, 2023) was an American soul and gospel singer. He was an exponent of so-called "deep soul".
Wiggins was born in Memphis, Tennessee. His parents had a strong interest in music, and while in high school Spencer formed a gospel vocal group, the New Rival Gospel Singers, which also featured his brother Percy Wiggins and sister Maxine Wiggins. At the same time, Spencer and Percy were members of the glee club at Memphis' Booker T. Washington High School when the student body included Booker T. Jones, Maurice White, and William Bell and the faculty included noted disc jockey and talent scout Nat D. Williams. In this fertile environment, Spencer and Percy first turned professional, forming an R&B vocal group called the Four Stars that featured David Porter, later to become a noted songwriter.
In 1961, Spencer graduated from high school and began making a name for himself on the Memphis club scene. After several years of gigging, he caught the attention of Quinton Claunch, a songwriter and producer who ran the soul-dominated Goldwax Records label. Claunch signed Spencer to a record deal in 1964, when he recorded his first single, "Lover's Crime", produced by Claunch, for the label, though his early recordings were licensed for release through the sub-label Bandstand USA. The recording was followed by eight further singles, but none became hits. His recordings for Goldwax included "Uptight Good Woman", written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, and "I Never Loved A Woman (The Way I Love You)", recorded at the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals with guitar by Duane Allman.
Despite cutting strong material with Claunch at the controls and some of the city's best session players backing him up, Spencer never scored the major breakthrough hit he needed, and after Goldwax went under in 1969, he went on to Fame Records, where he recorded two more singles, including "Double Lovin'", which reached no.44 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1970. However, other singles for Fame, and for the Pama and Vivid Sound labels, were unsuccessful.
In 1973, Wiggins left Memphis, married, and moved to Miami, Florida, where he became active in the Baptist church and in gospel music. By this time he had turned his back on secular music in favor of gospel. He became a deacon and choir director at the New Birth Baptist Church in Miami, and was named director of two of the church's choral groups. While a 1977 gospel album cut with the help of Al Green was never released, in 1999 Spencer issued a cassette-only EP, Jump for Jesus, which received significant airplay in the Miami area. A full-length gospel album, Key to the Kingdom, was released in 2003 and merged Spencer's full-bodied vocals and spiritual message with tracks produced and arranged in contemporary R&B and hip-hop styles.
Despite a relatively small official discography (eight singles for Goldwax, another two for FAME, and a handful for Sounds of Memphis/XL) beginning in the late 1980s, labels in Japan and the U.K. would collect his early material and unreleased tracks, releasing them to great acclaim and setting the stage for his return to secular music. Things began to change when his brother Percy began singing with the Bo-Kays, including at the 2008 Ponderosa Stomp, and miraculously Spencer agreed to go to Porretta with his brother and sing his old material. He went down a storm.The brothers returned there two years later and Spencer was equally effective,thrilling audiences with versions of his once forgotten, but now beloved songs.
Spencer and his brother Percy recorded and released a cover of Carr's "Dark End of the Street" on Bomar's Electraphonic label in 2013. That same year they appeared at the Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans and returned to Porretta in 2018 where Spencer looked decidedly frail.In between they made what must have been one of the most unexpected trips of their career - the UK, where they appeared at the 100 Club together, as well as the Hole in Wall in Manchester and at least one other location. It was a great show but by then Spencer was already showing his age, but he proved that you could hold an audience just with the brilliance of vocals.
Spencer Wiggins died in Memphis on February 13, 2023, at the age of 81.
(Edited
from Wikipedia, AllMusic, Soul Express, The Vinyl Word & Commercial Appeal
newsletter)
Here’s a clip of Spencer Wiggins live at Band on the Wall, Manchester, U.K. Sunday 26th November 2017.