Song of the Day 12/31: The Spinners, “The Rubberband Man”

In his Dec. 25 Open Thread, El Somnambulo noted the death of composer/producer/arranger Thom Bell, who with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff comprised the Mighty Three of Philly Soul. The long list of hit records he wrote, usually with Linda Creed, and/or produced contains more than a few syrupy ballads, but he could funk it up with the best of them, as this No. 2 hit for the Spinners from 1976 demonstrates. Though rarely mentioned among his many talents, the classically trained Bell could play — that’s him on the keyboards.

“The Rubberband Man” never reached No. 1 because of Rod Stewart’s “Tonight’s the Night,” which was creepy even in that benighted era. It was the Spinners’ last big hit, as well as the last to feature Phillippé Wynne on lead vocals. Wynne left the band in 1977, but his solo career, managed by Alan Thicke, never took off. He died in 1984 at just 43 years old of a mid-performance heart attack.

Might Three Music sold out to Warners in 1990 for a reported $15 million and Bell retired from the music business to the Pacific Northwest, where according to one obituary he pursued a passion for cuisine, amassing a library of 1,500 cookbooks. He died in Bellingham, Wash., on Dec. 22 at age 79.