Spencer Wiggins had no success even at the height of his career in the ’60s, but this song has since become a Northern Soul classic.
First things first: this is a great Northern Soul tune – even though it’s technically a slice of Southern Soul. But the real reason I’m posting it is for the spectacular dancing in the video, which captures the dancefloor appeal of the genre at its very best.
The dancer is a woman from El Salvador called Aranivah who lives in New York and teaches online courses in all kinds of dance, ranging from Northern Soul to more traditional (for her) cumbia and ska.
As for the singer, Spencer Wiggins was a gifted and emotionally powerful vocalist who cut a handful of superb Southern soul singles during the mid-’60s but never achieved the hits he genuinely deserved.
He would instead have to be content to be lionised years later as one of the lost masters of the form by British and Japanese enthusiasts of deep soul and Northern Soul.
Wiggins was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1942 and formed a gospel vocal group, the New Rival Gospel Singers, while still at school alongside fellow pupils including Booker T. Jones, Maurice White and William Bell.
Discovered by Quentin Claunch, head of Goldwax Records, he recorded his first single, the soul tearjerker Lover’s Crime, in 1964, but neither his debut nor the eight singles that followed became hits.
The most notable is probably I Never Loved A Woman (The Way I Love You) – a wonderful example of Southern Soul recorded at Muscle Shoals, with Duane Allman playing guitar – but it still flopped.
After Goldwax collapsed in 1969 Wiggins recorded singles for several more labels, of which one – Double Lovin’ – grazed the outer reaches of the R&B chart.
In 1973 he married and moved to Miami, turning to gospel music when he became a deacon of the New Birth Baptist Church in Miami.
His earlier music began to reach a new audience when a Japanese label re-released his old Goldwax singles, followed by a UK compilation released by the Kent label in 2006. He died in 2023.