| Spinners | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | The Spinners |
| Cover: | Spinners cover.jpg |
| Released: | March 1973 |
| Recorded: | 1972–1973 |
| Studio: | Sigma Sound, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Length: | 40:14 |
| Label: | Atlantic |
| Producer: | Thom Bell |
| Prev Title: | 2nd Time Around |
| Prev Year: | 1970 |
| Next Title: | The Best of the Spinners |
| Next Year: | 1973 |
Spinners is the third studio album recorded by American R&B group The Spinners, produced by Thom Bell and released in March 1973 on the Atlantic label. The album was the group's first for Atlantic after leaving Motown.
Spinners includes their first American top-ten and R&B number-one hit "I'll Be Around", along with the successful songs "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love", "One of a Kind (Love Affair)", "Ghetto Child", and "How Could I Let You Get Away". The album was also the second of fourteen straight studio albums to make the Billboard 200, and their first in the Top-twenty, as it reached #14 on the charts. Additionally, it was their first of three consecutive R&B albums chart-toppers – and the second to hit those charts overall.
Thom Bell created a sound for the group that was "lush" yet gritty. Bell's insistently soulful orchestral arrangements played perfectly to their harmonic strengths. "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love" (later a hit for David Grant and Jaki Graham) is the keynote; sung by Smith, it is beautiful, optimistic and upbeat. Often cited as the birth of the Philadelphia Sound, Spinners yielded five American top 100 hits, and two UK chart successes."[1]
| Chart (1973) | Peak [2] |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Top LPs | 14 |
| U.S. Billboard Top Soul LPs | 1 |
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US R&B | US A/C | UK [3] | ||
| 1972 | "How Could I Let You Get Away" | 77 | 14 | — | — |
| "I'll Be Around" | 3 | 1 | 31 | — | |
| "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love" | 4 | 1 | 14 | 11 | |
| 1973 | "One of a Kind (Love Affair)" | 11 | 1 | 19 | — |
| "Ghetto Child" | 29 | 4 | 20 | 7 | |