Michael Wycoff

Michael Wycoff refined his vocal and keyboard skills through regular performances at a local church located in Wilmington, a Los Angeles neighborhood. His brother-in-law introduced him to R&B singer D.J. Rogers, who brought Wycoff along on tour and included him in the studio work for the 1976 release On the Road Again. That same year he sang with the West Angeles Church of God Choir on Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise” from Songs in the Key of Life. Sessions with Phoebe Snow and Natalie Cole also took place during this period.

A bold funk single titled “Do the Camel Hump” marked Wycoff’s first move toward a solo career in 1978. He later joined RCA and issued three albums of polished R&B. The 1980 set Come to My World presented smooth ballads suited to late-night radio formats. Webster Lewis produced the follow-up Love Conquers All in 1982, shifting toward tighter grooves that included the underground favorite “Diamond Real” and the Leon Ware/Zane Grey song “Looking Up to You,” whose instrumental later underpinned Zhané’s 1993 hit “Hey Mr. DJ.” Lewis again handled production for On the Line in 1983; its lead track “Tell Me Love” reached number 23 on the R&B chart.

Wycoff contributed keyboards to Bobby Womack’s The Poet II and So Many Rivers, yet he had withdrawn from the music business by the second half of the 1980s. Addiction issues eventually gave way to a return to church life and the recording of gospel material. During the late 2000s and early 2010s his three RCA albums appeared again on the Funky Town Grooves (FTG) and Big Break (BBR) imprints.