ABBA

Vocalist from Detroit, Michigan, who grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and started out as a gospel singer before joining The Pacesetters in 1968. In 1969, he band-hopped to The JB’s, named after the initials of their ringleader, James Brown. Other groups he worked with included The Afro Kings, a Liberian group that performed in Germany, and Catfish.

In the early ‘70s, he began sharing lead-vocalist duties with Bobbie Smith of The Spinners, and factored into many of their biggest hits on the Atlantic label, such as “Could it Be I’m Falling in Love”, “I’ll Be Around”, “One of a Kind (Love Affair)”, “The Rubberband Man”, and the #1 hit, “Then Came You”, with Dionne Warwick.

In 1977, he decided to strike out on his own and released a solo album entitled Starting All Over on the Cotillion label. Then he hooked up with George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic in 1979. They had a hit with “(Not Just) Knee Deep”. In 1980, he released his second solo effort, Wynne Jammin’, and followed this up with the singles, “Whip It” and “You Ain’t Going Anywhere But Gone”.

On 13^th July 1984, whilst appearing onstage at Ivey’s in Oakland, California, he had a massive heart attack and died in the a.m. at a nearby hospital. His funeral was at an L.A. funeral home, although he was flown back and buried at Detroit Memorial Park East in Macomb County, Michigan. Ten years after his death, Wynne Jammin’ was re-released on the Sony label in Japan.

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