Music
Philippé Wynne
1941–1984 · singer
Cincinnati-born lead voice of the Spinners' 1970s hits "How Could I Let You Get Away" and "The Rubberband Man", who began singing gospel in Detroit.
- Born
Cincinnati, Ohio- Died
Oakland, California
aged 43- Birth name
- Philippe Walker
- Also known as
- Philippe Wynn
- Detroit years
- c. 1956–1970s
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Wynne grew up in a Cincinnati orphanage, and around 1956 he and his brother Michael ran away to Detroit to find their mother. There the brothers formed a gospel group, the Walker Singers, and Philippe later took his mother's surname, Wynn. He moved into R&B, sang with Bootsy Collins's Pacemakers in 1968 and fronted a band in Germany before joining the Spinners in the early 1970s, just as the Detroit group moved to Atlantic Records. His improvising tenor made him one of their three lead singers, alongside Bobby Smith and Henry Fambrough, on "How Could I Let You Get Away", "One of a Kind (Love Affair)" and "The Rubberband Man". He left in 1977 after the group refused to rename itself around him, recorded solo and with Parliament-Funkadelic's circle, and died after collapsing onstage in Oakland in 1984. He is buried at Detroit Memorial Park East.
Highlights
- Lead singer of the Spinners 1972–1977
- Lead on "The Rubberband Man" (1976) and "How Could I Let You Get Away"
- Started as a gospel singer in Detroit with the Walker Singers
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2023 (posthumously)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Buried here · 1984
Detroit Memorial Park East
Status being checked
His grave (per Wikidata).