Al Wilson › Similar Artists

R. Dean Taylor - 65% match to Al Wilson

Toronto, Canada. Taylor remains the most successful white artist to emerge from the Motown Records stable. The protégé of writer/producer Brian Holland, he worked on many of the mid-60s hits produced by the Holland / Dozier / Holland partnership, and later claimed to have helped to compose several songs credited to them. He began his recording career in 1965 wi Read more

Dobie Gray - 64% match to Al Wilson

26 July 1940, Simonton, Texas, USA. Gray moved from Texas to California in the early 60s, where he began recording for local labels. His seventh single ‘Look At Me’ was a minor hit for the Cordak label in January 1963. The compulsive, if boastful, single ‘The ‘In’ Crowd’ (written by Billy Page) was his major breakthrough in 1965, spending severa Read more

Major Lance - 58% match to Al Wilson

4 April 1939 (1941 is also cited), Winterville, Mississippi, USA, d. 3 September 1994, Decatur, Georgia, USA. A former amateur boxer and a dancer on the Jim Lounsbury record-hop television show, Lance also sang with the Five Gospel Harmonaires and for a brief period with Otis Leavill and Barbara Tyson in the Floats. His 1959 Mercury Records release, ‘I Got A Girl’, Read more

Edwin Starr - 51% match to Al Wilson

Charles Edwin Hatcher, 21 January 1942, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, d. 2 April 2003, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. The brother of soul singers Roger and Willie Hatcher, Starr was raised in Cleveland, where he formed the Future Tones vocal group in 1957. They recorded one single for Tress, before Starr was drafted into the US Army for three years. After completing his Read more

The Elgins - 48% match to Al Wilson

US-born Johnny Dawson, Cleo Miller and Robert Fleming, later replaced by Norbert McClean, sang together in three Detroit vocal groups in the late 50s, the Sensations, the Five Emeralds and the Downbeats. Under the last of these names, they recorded two singles for Motown Records in 1959 and 1962. Also in 1962, Saundra Mallett (later Saundra Mallett Edwards) issued ‘Camel W Read more

Billy Butler - 44% match to Al Wilson

David Ruffin - 44% match to Al Wilson

18 January 1941, Meridian, Mississippi, USA, d. 1 June 1991. The younger brother of Jimmy Ruffin and the cousin of Melvin Franklin of the Temptations, David Ruffin was the son of a minister, and began his singing career with the gospel group the Dixie Nightingales. He combined the roles of vocalist and drummer in the doo-wop combo the Voice Masters from 1958, before signing Read more

Robert Knight - 44% match to Al Wilson

24 April 1945, Franklin, Tennessee, USA. Knight made his professional vocal debut with the Paramounts, a harmony quintet comprising school friends. Signed to Dot Records, they recorded ‘Free Me’ in 1961, a US R&B hit, outselling the cover version by Johnny Preston. After this initial success their subsequent releases flopped and resulted in the group breaking u Read more

The Spinners - 44% match to Al Wilson

The Flirtations - 43% match to Al Wilson

A British-based R&B female group, who originally came from New York City, New York, USA. The Supremes were extremely popular during the late 60s, and record companies were keen to record any female groups who sounded like them. The Flirtations were the beneficiaries of this phenomenon. The members were sisters Shirley and Earnestine Pearce and Viola Billups. The Pearce sist Read more

The Originals - 43% match to Al Wilson

Freddie Gorman (11 April 1939, Detroit, Michigan, USA, d. 13 June 2006, California, USA), Walter Gaines, C.P. Spencer (b. Crathman Plato Spencer, 13 January 1938, Detroit, Michigan, USA, d. 20 October 2004, Oak Park, Michigan, USA), Henry ‘Hank’ Dixon and Joe Stubbs first recorded as the Originals in 1966. Several members were already an integral part of Detroit
Read more

The Velvelettes - 42% match to Al Wilson

Two pairs of sisters, Millie and Cal Gill, and Bertha and Norma Barbee, formed the original Velvelettes line-up in 1961 at Western Michigan State University. After recording a one-off single, ‘There He Goes’, for IPG Records in 1963, they were signed to Motown Records, where they were placed in the hands of fledgling producer Norman Whitfield. This partnership spawned Read more

Darrell Banks - 40% match to Al Wilson

Darrell Eubanks, 1938, Mansfield, Ohio, USA, d. March 1970, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Banks sprang to fame in 1966 with his magnificent debut single, ‘Open The Door To Your Heart’, one of the finest non- Motown Records releases to emerge from Detroit. A second hit, ‘Somebody (Somewhere) Needs You’, followed that same year, but the singer’s progress was Read more

Freda Payne - 40% match to Al Wilson

Freda Charcilia Payne, 19 September 1945, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Schooled in jazz and classical music, this urbane singer attended the Institute Of Musical Arts and worked with Pearl Bailey prior to recording her debut album in 1963 for MGM Records. Payne signed to Holland/Dozier/Holland’s label Invictus Records and her first recording, ‘The Unhooked Generation
Read more

The Contours - 40% match to Al Wilson

The Contours formed as an R&B vocal group in Detroit in 1959, featuring lead vocalist Billy Gordon, Billy Hoggs, Joe Billingslea and Sylvester Potts. Hubert Johnson (14 January 1941, d. 11 July 1981) joined the line-up in 1960, and it was his cousin Jackie Wilson who secured the group an audition and then a contract with Motown Records in 1961. Initial singles proved uns Read more