Dobie Gray › Similar Artists

Major Lance - 61% match to Dobie Gray

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

Al Wilson - 57% match to Dobie Gray

Allen LaMar Wilson, 19 June 1939, Meridian, Mississippi, USA, d. 21 April 2008, Fontana, California, USA. Wilson was a former member of the Jewels, and also the Rollers, a San Bernardino, California-based quartet who scored a hit in 1961 with ‘The Continental Walk’. He was later signed as a solo act to Soul City, a short-lived label owned by singer Johnny Rivers. & Read more

R. Dean Taylor - 51% match to Dobie Gray

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

Edwin Starr - 44% match to Dobie Gray

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

Robert Knight - 41% match to Dobie Gray

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

Darrell Banks - 40% match to Dobie Gray

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

Billy Butler - 39% match to Dobie Gray

The Elgins - 39% match to Dobie Gray

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

The Velvelettes - 37% match to Dobie Gray

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

The Tams - 36% match to Dobie Gray

This US group was formed in 1952 as the Four Dots in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Their line-up featured Joseph Pope (6 November 1933, d. 16 March 1996), Charles Pope (b. 7 August 1936), Robert Lee Smith (b. 18 March 1936) and Horace Kay (b. 13 April 1934). Although such an early origin suggests longevity, it was not until 1960 that the group emerged with a single on Swan. Now dub Read more

The Contours - 35% match to Dobie Gray

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

Willie Mitchell - 34% match to Dobie Gray

3 January 1928, Ashland, Mississippi, USA. A veteran of several Memphis-based bands, Mitchell rose to prominence in the late 50s with an outfit that formed the basis for his production work and early solo recordings. The line-up included Lewis Steinberg and Al Jackson, both of whom would later appear in Booker T. And The MGs. By the 60s, Mitchell was leading the Hi Records h Read more

Brenda Holloway - 33% match to Dobie Gray

21 June 1946, Atascadero, California, USA. Holloway began her recording career with three small Los Angeles labels, Donna, Catch and Minasa, in the early 60s, recording under the aegis of producer Hal Davis. In 1964, Holloway made an impromptu performance at a disc jockeys’ convention in California, where she was spotted by a Motown Records talent scout. She signed to Read more

Len Barry - 32% match to Dobie Gray

Leonard Borisoff, 6 December 1942, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Barry began his career as the anonymous vocalist on the Bosstones’ 1958 single ‘Mope-Itty Mope’ before joining the Dovells between 1961 and 1963. As a solo artist, his white soul vocals were best exemplified on the scintillating chart-topper ‘1-2-3’ and the similarly paced ‘Like Read more

Little Anthony & The Imperials - 32% match to Dobie Gray

Formed in Brooklyn, New York, USA, in 1957, and originally called the Chesters, the group comprised ‘Little’ Anthony Gourdine (8 January 1940, Brooklyn, New York, USA), Ernest Wright Jnr. (b. 24 August 1941, Brooklyn, New York, USA), Clarence Collins (b. 17 March 1941, Brooklyn, New York, USA), Tracy Lord and Glouster Rogers (b. 1940). A vital link between doo-wop Read more