Biography
Singer Rufus Wonder, whose signature recording remains the Northern soul staple “Under the Moon,” entered the world as Matthew Breckenridge in Bossier City, Louisiana. His aunt and uncle raised him, and during his teenage years in California he performed regularly in church services, community theater productions, and the choir at his Fresno high school. Following graduation he spent a short time in Los Angeles, then enlisted in the U.S. Navy. While stationed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Badoeng Strait he organized a vocal ensemble called the Blenders and simultaneously took the stage name Rufus Wonder, drawing the first name from his father and the surname from a ski shop he had noticed in Shreveport. Once discharged he headed back to Los Angeles and became a member of the Ripps. When that ensemble disbanded he launched a solo career, playing clubs throughout the San Francisco area before moving first to Chicago and then, in 1965, to Detroit. There he recorded for the small Lando imprint owned by Frank I. Robinson and Clifford Dickerson; in 1966 he cut “Under the Moon” with the Additions. Although the single later acquired cult status among rare-soul enthusiasts, it attracted scant notice at the time, prompting Wonder to return to the West Coast. Subsequent jobs included work as a television cameraman, a hotel bellhop, and a florist’s delivery driver whose weekly route sent him to Marilyn Monroe’s grave with orchids ordered by Joe DiMaggio. In 1972 he received a glaucoma diagnosis, though the disease did not fully impair his vision until nearly twenty years later. By then he operated a printing business in Oakland; when blindness set in during 1999 he resumed writing songs. An internet search revealed his standing among Britain’s Northern soul devotees, leading to regular overseas performances. He also established his own imprint, Oh! O'Star Records, which issued the albums Tell Me So and The Radiant One.
Albums
