Spyder Turner (born Dwight David Turner, February 4, 1947, Beckley, West Virginia) is an American

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

singer. Turner was raised in Detroit, and sang in

doo wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a subgenre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, ...

groups and high school

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

s while young. He first began

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

after winning a contest at the

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater (formerly the Hurtig & Seamon's New Theatre; also Apollo Theatre or 125th Street Apollo Theatre) is a multi-use Theater (structure), theater at 253 125th Street (Manhattan), West 125th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of U ...

in New York City, recording some solo sides and singing

backup In information technology, a backup, or data backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form, referring to the process of doing so, is "wikt:back ...

for several groups including The Stereophonics and The Fabulous Counts.

Stand By Me

In 1966, record producer Clay McMurray had Turner's group do a recording session, and soon after Turner was signed to

MGM Records MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...

. The label released his

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the soul hit " Stand by Me." In the song, Turner not only imitated the voices of Ben E. King,

Smokey Robinson William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. He was the founder and frontman of the pioneering Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he ...

, Chuck Jackson and

Billy Stewart William Larry Stewart II (March 24, 1937 – January 17, 1970) was an American R&B singer and pianist popular during the 1960s. Biography Stewart was 12 years old when he began singing with his younger brothers Johnny, James, and Frank as the ...

, among others, but named them as he sang verses of the song in their style. The tune climbed to No. 3 on the U.S.

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

R&B Singles chart and No.12 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

early in 1967. Billboard Singles AllMusic Soon after, a full-length album was released, peaking at No.14 on the R&B Albums chart and No.158 on the ''Billboard'' 200.

AllMusic A second single from the album, "I Can't Make it Anymore", peaked at No.95 on the Hot 100 pop chart. Turner left his management after dissatisfaction with MGM's soul division which consisted only of Howard Tate and himself. He played regionally in the South in the early 1970s.

Other work

Later that decade, Turner began working with

Norman Whitfield Norman Jesse Whitfield (May 12, 1940 – September 16, 2008) was an American songwriter, composer, and producer, who worked with Berry Gordy's Motown labels during the 1960s. allmusic Biography/ref> He has been credited as one of the creators ...

, and wrote the tune "Do Your Dance" for

Rose Royce Rose Royce is an American soul and R&B group. They are best known for several hit singles during the 1970s including " Car Wash", " I Wanna Get Next to You", " I'm Going Down", " Wishing on a Star", and " Love Don't Live Here Anymore". Career ...

, which was a top ten R&B hit. He continued recording in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including a song for the movie '' The Last Dragon'' (billed on the soundtrack as Dwight David). He did some acting as well. He continues to perform in Michigan, and released his most recent album in 2006 through

CD Baby CD Baby, Inc. is a Portland, Oregon based online distributor of independent music. The company was described as an "anti-label" by its parent company's Chief Operating Officer Tracy Maddux. It was established in 1998 and offered distribution fo ...

. In March 2008 Turner appeared on Englishman Carl Dixon's BandTraxs session at Studio A/Detroit, where he provided vocals and writing skills to complete the songs, along with singers Pree, Gayle Butts and other Detroit musicians including Dennis Coffey (co producer) and Uriel Jones. Turner performed lead and backing on "Tell me (crying over you)","Glory fleeting" and in addition backing vocals on "Suddenly there's you", and as group personnel of 'BandTraxs' singing on the funk/rap styled "Detroit (city by the river)". The session was arranged by ex-Motown arranger David J. Van De -Pitte. 15% of the cover price of Spyder's single "I'm Gonna Miss You", penned by Frances Nero and released on February 1, 2010, is being donated to the Haiti Recovery Fund.

Discography

*''Stand By Me'' (

, 1967; reissued on CD, 1996) *''Music Web'' ( Whitfield Records/

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

, 1978) *''Only Love'' (Whitfield) *''Spyder Turner'' EP (Self-released, 2006) *''Tell me (crying over you)'' (BandTraxs Records) 2009

References

An interview with Spyder Turner in 2010 at Soul Express
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Spyder 1947 births Living people American soul musicians Musicians from Michigan Musicians from Beckley, West Virginia