Last week, my father’s 80th birthday lined up with a post about Willie Nelson, allowing me to celebrate two legends at once. Today, it’s my mom’s turn.

I’m glad she wasn’t born on the 17th, or she would have had to share the spotlight with the aggressive, off-putting rap metal of Rage Against the Machine. Instead, I get to recognize her birthday to the smooth soul of The Spinners.

The Spinners have been eligible for Rock Hall inclusion from the beginning, but didn’t receive their first nomination until 2012. They were nominated three more times before making the cut.

The band got their start in a small Michigan town outside Detroit and featured a number of different lineups even through their early years. From their inception in 1954 through the present day, 18 men have been members of The Spinners.

The performers being inducted into the Hall are Henry Fambrough, Billy Henderson, Pervis Jackson, Bobbie Smith, John Edwards, and Philippe Wynne. All but Wynne were with the band at its inception, with Wynne joining nine years later, in time for the band’s biggest commercial success.

That success includes 18 Top 40 singles in the U.S., including a #1 hit in 1970 with ‘Then Came You’ (a collaboration with Dionne Warwick). They released five straight Gold albums during a four-year span in the 70s.

I can’t speak to The Spinners’ influence or innovation, but I’m always glad to learn more about the doo-wop and soul bands of this era. These guys seem to have spanned both of those sounds with great results.

This concludes my look at the performers set for induction into the Rock Hall as the Class of 2023. Now I’ll turn my attention to those who joined the Hall in 2022.